Second opinion program

If you’ve received a diagnosis for a medical condition or disease, you may want to get a second opinion. Second opinions are very common and can provide several benefits, such as helping you find the best treatment.

Why you should get a medical second opinion

When you get a medical diagnosis for heart disease or a heart condition, you might feel confused or have questions. You’ll probably have many decisions to make about the best options for treatment and care moving forward. You may even have questions about whether your diagnosis is correct.

Seeing a doctor for a second opinion can help you feel more comfortable with your diagnosis and your treatment. It can also help you feel empowered as a patient and in control of your treatment plan.

A medical second opinion can also:

• Confirm or change a diagnosis: When you get a second opinion, our heart specialist looks at your medical history, performs an exam and reviews your test results. They may confirm the diagnosis or identify something meaningful that changes your original diagnosis.
• Provide additional testing or information: A second opinion doctor may recommend more tests or more advanced tests than you received originally. These tests can help doctors decide on the best treatment.
• Educate you about your condition: Learning more about your condition and treatment options helps you make better decisions for your care. A second opinion may lead to more information and better advice.
• Understand all your treatment options: Some heart conditions have several treatment options. A second opinion can help you compare each one before you decide. You can also learn about the most up-to-date recommendations for treating the condition when you see an experienced specialist at Advocate.

The Second Opinion Program at Advocate Heart Institute

After receiving an initial diagnosis, you can contact our heart specialists to schedule a second opinion appointment. You’ll come in for an exam and review your test results, lab results and any doctor’s notes or information from your initial diagnosis.

We might recommend additional testing to learn more about your condition. In some cases, we may redo a test if we cannot confirm the original findings.

Once we have all the information and test results, we’ll offer our diagnosis and proposed treatment strategy. It may be the same as your original diagnosis, or it might be different based on what we learn. At that point you can choose to:

• Go back to the original doctor for treatment
• Receive ongoing care from heart specialists at Advocate Heart Institute