A second opinion that can save lives

recently, I went to a talk by the charity Brainstrust about brain tumours and the difficulties patients face in getting accurate diagnoses.

I was astonished and horrified to hear that in 80 per cent of cases, the diagnosis changes after a second opinion is sought. this means that either the type of tumour was wrong, or how advanced it is was incorrect.

Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40. More than 11,000 people are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour every year in the UK.

A change in diagnosis like this can have a profound and fundamental impact on the type of treatment that should be offered for the best chance of survival.

the reason such a large number of diagnoses were initially incorrect is that diagnosing, staging and grading brain tumours is incredibly complex.

thanks to advances in scanning and biopsy techniques, we now understand that there are more than 120 different types of brain tumour and have developed specific treatments for many of them.

But because of the vast number of types of tumour, doctors may have seen a particular type only a handful of times.

It is, therefore, essential that those with a diagnosis of brain tumour have their scans and medical notes reviewed by more than one team, and preferably by people who are experts in that particular type of tumour.

But how do you do this if you’re somewhere rural? Or elderly, or infirm and can’t readily travel to a large teaching hospital?

While I’m often sceptical of claims that technology is the answer to medicine’s problems — think of the complete waste of money that labour’s abandoned £12 billion nHS It programme turned out to be — a new social enterprise backed by Brainstrust called trustedoctor is trying to address the problem. I think they may be on to something.

Patients are able to upload their medical records and scans. expert neurosurgeons, neurologists and pathologists whom the patient can choose are then able to review the notes and talk to the patient over the internet and provide a second opinion, meaning the patient doesn’t even have to leave their front room.

clinicians are free to charge for their time if they wish, but so far about half are working pro bono. trustedoctor hope to expand the service to other types of cancer in the next year.

What a brilliant idea, that will have a real impact on patients’ lives.