Records retrieval
The Institute undertakes the part of a second opinion that patients find hardest. On a single authority signed by you, it retrieves your records from every institution involved in your care, in this country or abroad, corresponds with each on your behalf, and collates the images, reports, slides, letters and results into one record before the review begins. Nothing is left for you to chase.
Independent review
This is the element by which second opinions most often prove decisive. Your imaging is read again from the source data by a radiologist who has not seen the original conclusion, your histology is read again from the original slides, and any molecular or genomic findings are reinterpreted against current evidence. A multidisciplinary review is carried out and where a discipline is not held within the Institute, an external specialist is engaged to assist with the review.
The opinion
The opinion is delivered to you in person, by a consultant, with the reasoning behind it. You receive two written reports: one in plain language for you, and one in clinical register for your treating team. Where the opinion recommends treatment, referral to a named specialist is arranged with the report sent ahead, and where the original diagnosis is confirmed, the opinion says so and explains why that confirmation can be relied upon.
Coverage
Opinions are provided in the disciplines the Institute practises: cancer, gynaecology, women’s and men’s health, endocrine and autoimmune disease, cardiovascular risk, orthopaedics, dermatology, sexual health and genomic findings, together with independent re-reading of imaging and pathology in any of them. Where a case falls outside these, the Institute says so at the outset rather than convening a panel it cannot command.
