special subjects
Overview of Medical Decision Making
Standard of care and second opinions
For symptoms and disorders for which many studies have been done, there is usually astandard of care. The standard of care refers to tests and/or treatments that doctors generally agree have proven effective and thus should typically be recommended to people. However, there is not a standard of care for some disorders, particularly those that are complex and hard to diagnose and treat. There may be no standard of care because studies that have been done show different results or similar results with different treatments. Or there may be no standard of care for very rare diseases, because large clinical studies have not been done. When there is no standard of care, there is no one "correct" approach or treatment. One doctor might propose a treatment that is different from that proposed by another doctor. Either might be right, or both might be wrong. was the standard of care because studies had shown that it helped prevent a potentially fatal heart rhythm disorder called Ventricular Fibrillation . However, studies later showed that even though Getting a Second Opinion None 