You may decide not to act on the advice and simply take it under advisement. If you are still unsure about treatment after seeking a second opinion, or if a new treatment is recommended, you may want to exercise caution. Just because a treatment is new or novel doesn't necessarily make it better. You could seek a third opinion or go back to your own doctor and have her help you weigh your options, especially if they include a new treatment. The following are excerpts from the book Doctors Talking With Patients, Patients Talking With Doctors written by Debra L. Roter, Professor of Health and Management at The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and Judith A. Hall, Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University.
Talk is the main ingredient in medical care.
It is the fundamental instrument by which the doctor-patient relationship is crafted and by which therapeutic goals are achieved. Though physicians conduct physical exams and use blood tests, X-rays, medications, and much else to achieve therapeutic goals, the value of these activities is limited without the talk that organizes the history and symptoms and puts them in a meaningful context for both patients and physicians. Diagnosis can be extremely misguided without adequate talk. Without it, patient and doctor may never even reach a common understanding of the purpose of the medical visit. Because of deficiencies in talk, the routine medical visit does not nearly reach its therapeutic potential, in which diagnosis can be more accurate, medical intervention more effective, recovery more speedy, realization of quality of life more full, and satisfaction for both doctor and patient more likely.