How to Get a Medical Second Opinion in 3 Steps

Get a second opinion without the stress spiral.

In this episode of Take Care, Melody Mulaik shares a simple 3-step process you can use to advocate for yourself or a loved one.

What You’ll Learn:

• The 3-step framework for getting a second opinion
• How to talk to your current physician openly and productively
• How to keep continuity of care so nothing falls through the cracks
• A real-world example from Take Care about seeking specialty input for a child’s condition

Timestamps:

• 00:00:13 Listener question and why second opinions matter
• 00:00:50 Step 1: Research
• 00:01:00 Step 2: Talk to your physician
• 00:01:42 Step 3: Close the loop
• 00:02:10 Personal story and what changed after the second opinion
• 00:03:24 Encouragement to advocate for yourself and submit questions

Have a question you want answered on a future episode? Submit it through Take Care’s website.

Important note:

This episode is educational and not medical advice. For medical decisions, talk with your clinician or care team.

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Transcript

Melody 0:13

Hello everybody and welcome to this episode of Take Care. Got a question from Mary and she asked, how do I go about getting a second opinion for medical condition that I'm dealing with? And that's a really good question. It's a little broad, but it's a really good question. And really there's three things that you want to think about. The first thing is if you really feel that you need to get a second opinion, either because you don't feel that your physician has gotten you the full diagnosis or information that you need, or they've given you a diagnosis, and you're a little bit uncomfortable, not totally certain in it. And so, you want to get a second opinion. The first thing you want to do is research. Where is it that you think you want to go? What is it that you want to accomplish with that? Why are you looking to get that second opinion? But do some research to think about where you would like to go. Second thing you want to do is talk to your physician. It's really important. Don't feel that second opinions are something that you need to hide from your physician. Your physician is there to take care of you. This is a normal part of the practice of medicine that sometimes second opinions come into play and whether we're talking about something as challenging as cancer or other systemic disease. I mean, there's all sorts of reasons that people might want to get second opinions, and your physicians are aware of that. Sometimes they may be the second opinion, sometimes they may be, you know, sending somebody for that second opinion, but always be upfront and honest with them so they can help and facilitate and make sure that you get the medical records that you need. And the third thing that you want to do is really close the loop, so to speak. So, whatever decision you make, if you choose to get the second opinion, let your physician know, what was the result of that. If it's just validating what they've already told you, they're going to want to know that. If there's some different information, they're going to want to know that information. And having that conversation and closing that loop becomes really important. So, do your research. Talk to your provider and close the loop. I'll tell you a quick story. So this actually happened for me when my son was much younger and he had a specific medical condition that needed to be managed. Not a very common one. We went to a local specialist. I'm here in Atlanta. His local specialist was very good. I didn't really have an issue, but there was still some things that I didn't feel that we fully had answers to. So, I wanted to take him to a top specialist. So, we went to one of the best pediatric specialists in the country for that particular condition. So, we went up to the northeast, got to see a physician, spent a whole day in this location, went through some testing, and they validated the pathway that we were on. But we also learned a lot and had some other aspects of his care that we were not aware of and things that we needed to watch for. So, we learned, and then we brought that knowledge back to our physician here, and he was understanding, he knew why we did the second opinion, and he appreciated the conversation, and he continued to manage my son's care for that condition until he became an adult. And so that was a very helpful experience for me personally going through that and I followed those steps. I did the research. I knew where I wanted to go. I talked to my physician about it, and I closed the loop with them to make sure that we had continuity of care. So, second opinions are very much important for individuals to have at different times, never feel bad about getting them. And it's something as a great way to advocate for yourself or for loved ones, you can have confidence in the care that you're receiving. If you have other questions from anybody, please go to my website. Send me a question. We'd love to hear from you. And in the meantime, take care.