Asking for second opinions from out of state?

[BlueSky]

I know House will let you send in your information and they will give you a call back with their opinions of your situation, but what about other out of state experts? How did you approach them? Are most open for over the phone consultations or do they want you to go to the office? It's difficult knowing that this is a rare thing so the experts on the subject are spread out all over the place. 

[leapyrtwins]

House - and Dr. Chang @ Stanford - are the only two that I know who do phone consults; but there could be others.

Recently I asked my doc if he did phone consults, but he told me that the company that underwrites his malpractice insurance doesn't allow it; and he knows many docs (AN and otherwise) who follow this same practice.  Seems many a malpractice lawsuit has been based on a phone consult.

Personally, I think there's a lot to be said for a face-to-face consult.  Gives you a chance to spend more time with the doc and gives you a chance to see how he operates (no pun intended) in his office.  For example, one of the things that to this day impresses me about my doc is that he will actually come to the waiting room door and call patients into his office. 

I have two docs who do this and I think it says a lot.

Jan

[MDemisay]

Dear Bluesky,

During the summer of 2004 it was very stressful for me. Fortunately, at the time I had my wife accompany me out of State. There is no excuse not to travel out of State when considering brain surgery, after all it's your brain!

Not to say I had opinions sent to me from House and from UPMC and I considered those as well when I was looking my wife even went with me to Boston, Massachusetts I even had the Doctor there consider coming out of retirement because he thought my case was so special (unfortunately for him) his right hand man fell asleep during my interview! My last interview was with a doctor from Rhode Island who as it turned out didn't have experience with my particular kind of screening test (I felt strongly about surgery) the last doctor offered Gamma Knife. It was back to surgery after that.


When in the research stage a face-to-face is best, as a rule of thumb.

Mike

[BlueSky]

Thank you guys for your help. I was just wondering how most people go about this, I've never really had to go out of my way to find an expert before. I live in the middle part of the country so going out of state means flying somewhere for me! I agree that it is best to consult face to face and definitely plan to do this but if a phone consult was an option at least I could see if he/she was a brat or rude over the phone before buying a plane ticket.

Guess i am going to be seeing more of the country than I was planning to this year. 

[leapyrtwins]

BlueSky,

I might have missed this in one of your previous posts, but where do you live?

Jan

[BlueSky]

Denver - I've checked the boards for doctors people have recommended in the area and am seeing one now, but there seem to be only a handful in the area that deal with this condition.

I'm on W & W now since I am asymptomatic and have a small AN, but I am going to choose surgery if the time comes to remove my AN, so I want to look into surgery teams while I am well in case my symptoms worsen and I don't want to travel as much. 

[arizonajack]

Denver is not too far from Phoenix where the Barrow Neurological Institute has an Accoustic Neuroma Center.

http://www.thebarrow.org/Neurological_Services/Brain_Tumor_Center/Acoustic_Neuromas/index.htm

I expect I will one day avail myself of their services and I'm thankful that I am in the same town.

Note the 2d Opinion Program on the left side of the page. i believe it would be available to your primary physician.

[leapyrtwins]

BNI is a great place.

Jan