Technology has commoditised everything in life now a days. The effect of commoditisation has led to deficit of Trust. One end we have moved into fast and quicker decision making by use of logics and technology, however at times we have our own gut feelings that challenge the decision making and make us to go for second opinion. We find many of the doctors insisting for second opinion by some other subject matter expert only when the patients family insist for an expert advice. This today has become an business model, where in there are few doctors available for consultation where you will register for an opinion, upload the case history and speak to the expert for getting his opinion. The matter is he will provide opinion – however the choice is yours. When is the second opinion required, was my thought – is it required for all the cases or few cases which costs huge?
A kid was complaining that he cannot see the black board when he is made to sit in the last bench in the class. The worried parents took the kid for an reputed eye clinic with pan India presence to check his vision tested. The doctor advised few tests and the eye testing was done. The doctor advised, to visit after 3 days to re-examine the eyes and probably come to an conclusion. However the suggested an possibility of requirements of wearing spectacles. After 3 days, the kid was taken for re-examination, the doctor checked and during the interaction, he showed his concern how the kid was managing so many days. The spectacles were for distance vision and he advised for few days, it would be difficult to manage, and we need to support. The parent of the kid ordered the spectacles.
The thought that was disturbing the parents was the doctors words, how was the kid managing. They checked all his work books for spelling mistakes, and observed there were no spelling mistakes that was corrected by the teacher. The kid was taken to an optical centre, at first the optician refused to conduct eye check-up, but after lot of persuasion, he verified the perception and observed huge variation. The variation was between the two were very high. Calibration of the machine and error due to operators were also considered in the logic, still the question remained was high variation. The optician suggested to visit another eye hospital and redo the eye testing.
Another reputed eye hospital was selected, the kid underwent the same procedure. The doctor enquired the size of the class room. The doctor said the vision is perfect and there is no need for any spectacles.
The thought that was left was – if the parents had believed in the doctor’s prescription, then he would have started wearing the spectacles even though he had good vision. This would have led to vision correction and life time spectacles. It was the presence of mind on the doctors concern that led to consult for second opinion. This was easy case – what about the emergency cases? there is no time for second opinion leading to extortion… …
