Diagnosed With an MPN? Why You Should Consider a Second Opinion.
Diagnosed With an MPN? Why You Should Consider a Second Opinion. from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
Physician assistant Lindsey Lyle explains the importance of seeking a second opinion when diagnosed with an MPN.
Lindsey Lyle is a physician assistant at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, specializing in hematological malignancies with a subspecialty in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). More about this expert here.
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Transcript:
Lindsey:
When a patient is initially diagnosed with an MPN, seeking a second opinion is generally a very good idea, especially if patients are perhaps in an area where they do not have access to academic medical center.
The reason is that MPNs are such a small percentage of blood cancers – and, blood cancers in and of themselves are very rare, so MPNs are very rare, and especially in rural places, physicians do not have access or experience so much with MPNs. So, especially in those scenarios, I always advise a second opinion.
However, even within the academic medicine world, for example, if a patient is referred to me by their primary care physician or our institution, we always offer patients to seek a second opinion. Really, this is to gather information and either encourage the patient because the recommendation is the same or also to perhaps have a different idea for treatment that may fit the goals of the patient better, and so, I’m always telling patients to seek second opinions.
