Arizona residents might want to increase their knowledge about the prevalence and dangers associated with medical overdiagnosis. Under the circumstances of overdiagnosis, the disease is diagnosed with the correct treatment, but it’s often administered too early, at a point where it could actually be detrimental to the patient. In contrast, false positives can be described as a diagnostic test which incorrectly indicates that a patient has a disease when they do not.
In order to avoid overdiagnosing patients with mild traumatic brain injuries, physicians are advised to monitor clinical symptoms along with changes in imaging to create thresholds for obtaining a more accurate assessment. Where a potential mTBI is concerned, physicians typically benefit from erring on the side of caution with an underdiagnosis, rather than acting on an overdiagnosis. The mTBI condition is especially problematic because the symptoms are often convoluted with those that may be caused by an underlying psychiatric condition. Treating symptoms believed to be a manifestation of posttraumatic mTBI, when they are actually caused by another disease, could prove to be catastrophic.
In the heat of the moment, athletes are often faced with the decision to mask the injury and continue to play on the field, or submit to a medical examination that could potentially remove them from the competition. Adopting a threshold that is too low may subject patients to overtreatment for ailments they don’t necessarily have, while too high of a threshold could result in conditions like mTBI going undetected.
People who have suffered injuries due to medical error or misdiagnosis may benefit from confiding in a lawyer. Legal counsel might be able to investigate the allegations and help discern whether or not the physician, staff or hospital can be held liable for medical malpractice. If lawyers can prove the medical treatment was beneath the level of standard care for the industry, the plaintiff may be entitled to receive restitution for the resulting injuries.