The Medical Consultant

An expert should be making your diagnosis

There is a misconception in the media and healthcare as to the radiologist’s role in a patient’s health care. I have seen countless medical television episodes that portray a surgeon or ER doctor sitting behind a computer directing an imaging exam and making a diagnosis based on these images as they come across the screen. This has led to patients and often other doctors not recognizing the value in the contribution that the radiologist is making towards patient care.

Like all medical doctors, a radiologist must complete 4 years of undergraduate school, then 4 years of medical school, then 1 year of internship, then 4 years of dedicated radiology residency, and finally a 1 to 2-year optional fellowship in a radiology specialty. The radiology training must be completed at an accredited hospital for the radiologist to become board certified meaning that very strict and challenging requirements must be met specific to radiology. A typical radiologist will review more than 150,000 patient exams in that amount of time so that they can become experts in the field of radiology.

Relying solely on the opinion of a midlevel provider or non-radiologist physician to make your diagnosis based on the imaging you had performed is at best a scary thought but at worst reckless. Sitting in on a weekend conference or having a radiologist review exams with a clinician does not even come close to replacing the years of training and hundreds of thousands of exams that a radiologist has experienced in their careers. You would not go to a radiologist to have your appendix removed so why would you have a non-radiologist make your diagnosis on your brain MRI or abdomen pelvis CT?

Get a second opinion from the expert radiologists at The Medical Consultant and you will know that you are getting the right diagnosis from a specialist doctor in radiology.

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80% of patient diagnoses can be made with history alone.

As a doctor, we know that history is the most important thing that a patient can provide to their doctors to help make the diagnosis. It is well known amongst doctors that 80% of patient diagnoses can be made by history alone without any lab tests or imaging exams. There is a role for screening imaging exams in radiology although when a patient is symptomatic that is not the time to perform a screening examination. When a patient is symptomatic then the history should be obtained and then the imaging test ordered can be chosen based on the patient’s history and symptoms.

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80% of patient diagnoses can be made with history alone. – The Medical Consultant 0SharesAs a doctor, we know that history is the most important thing that a patient can provide to their doctors to help make the diagnosis. It is well known amongst doctors that 80% of patient diagnoses can be made by history alone without any lab tests or imaging exams. There is a role for screeni...

Unbiased second opinions- the best opinion.

It is very common for physicians to review their own films, whether in the emergency room or in their own offices seeing patients. However, as we all experience at times, a clinician’s confirmation bias can heavily weigh on their opinion as is often founded on the type of doctor they are. This type of bias is common amongst physicians and is part of the reason that doctors tend to find what they are looking for when it comes to looking at a patient’s images.

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Unbiased second opinions- the best opinion. – The Medical Consultant 0SharesIt is very common for physicians to review their own films, whether in the emergency room or in their own offices seeing patients. However, as we all experience at times, a clinician’s confirmation bias can heavily weigh on their opinion as is often founded on the type of doctor they are. T...

Choosing the right doctor.

If you’re like many people, you never ask important questions of your doctor before following treatments they prescribe. Many patients tend to look for health care providers who are friendly, spend the most time with them, or who smile and listen to their story intently. These are qualities perceived by many patients to make for a good doctor and although they are important, they are not the most important to consider. .medicalconsultant

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Bone marrow changes on MRI with degenerative spine disease.

Marrow changes of the spine follow a pattern that assists the radiologist in determining the degenerative status of the lumbar spine. These marrow changes abutting the vertebral cortex are frequently seen with disk disease and are rare in asymptomatic patients. The early marrow changes are thought to be most symptomatic in up to 70% of patients and associated with mild instability.

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Bone marrow changes on MRI with degenerative spine disease. – The Medical Consultant 0SharesMarrow changes of the spine follow a pattern that assists the radiologist in determining the degenerative status of the lumbar spine. These marrow changes abutting the vertebral cortex are frequently seen with disk disease and are rare in asymptomatic patients. The early marrow changes are th...