Chapter 9: Medical Testing Secrets
What You Need To Know And Do When Your Doctor Orders Tests
Testing error has harmed too many lives and much of it is preventable. It was the cause of famous stories of misdiagnosed cancers like Patrick Sheridan (he died of cancer because the test result was misplaced) and Lisa Monk (she endured 15 months of chemotherapy for a non-existing cancer). It was the cause of two of my son’s misdiagnoses –– one lasting for over 8 years –– and of my unnecessary breast cancer surgery.
As I wrote in Chapter 1, testing error is the number one cause of misdiagnosis, contributing to 70% of diagnostic mistakes. Errors can happen at every step, from ordering, collecting, processing, obtaining results, or communicating results. It can affect every kind of medical test: blood, urine, imaging and more.
So, how can patients protect themselves from testing errors? There’s actually a lot we can do with minimal effort. Let’s start with understanding how things go wrong in the first place.
