Category: Diagnosing – and misdiagnosing

– posts here focus on how difficult it often is to get an accurate heart disease diagnosis in women

Pre-hospital care: can paramedics influence your cardiac future?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Helen A. (pictured here) is a longtime Heart Sisters reader from North Carolina. (My other regular readers may remember Helen’s heart patient story a few years ago in The Handlebar-Gripping Cardiac Symptom). Helen asked me recently if I’d ever written about the influence of paramedics on subsequent medical care. Here’s how she started her message:

“We called 911 because I was having heart attack symptoms, but by the time we arrived at the hospital, the paramedic had decided nothing really serious was going on, and he made me get out of the ambulance and walk into the Emergency Department.” 

Unfortunately for Helen, however, something “really serious” was in fact going on. Continue reading “Pre-hospital care: can paramedics influence your cardiac future?” →

Will this $840,000 grant make a dent in women’s cardiac care?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥  @HeartSisters

In an article published this week in the Ottawa Citizen, we learned some encouraging predictions about the future of women’s cardiac care here in Canada – and beyond.  Award-winning health/science journalist Elizabeth Payne explained the news in her August 30th article called “New Ottawa-Based Initiative Aims to Close Heart Health Gender Gap“.  In case you missed it, here’s what she wrote: (The NOTES below in italics are my own questions and comments):

Elizabeth Payne (EP):  “Years after researchers, health professionals and advocates began working to reduce it, the gender gap in women’s heart health persists. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women, but their cardiovascular symptoms are still not always recognized and women’s heart attacks continue to get missed.”   Continue reading “Will this $840,000 grant make a dent in women’s cardiac care?” →

Do Emergency physicians diagnose? Or not?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 10 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters 

Australian researcher Dr. Mary Dahm and I were emailing back and forth about her recently published study on diagnostic uncertainty in medicine (one of my favourite subjects, I might add – especially when it involves female heart patients).  I mentioned to her that the Emergency physician who had misdiagnosed my heart attack as acid reflux seemed remarkably confident at the time – despite being remarkably wrong. That misplaced confidence is what researchers who study diagnostic error call unwarranted certainty – a contributing risk factor for misdiagnosis.  But Dr. Dahm raised the issue of whether diagnosing is what Emergency physicians actually do:

“The question about whether or not Emergency Department doctors diagnose is highly contested within the specialty. Regardless, they do exclude life-and limb-threatening conditions.”          .
 Continue reading “Do Emergency physicians diagnose? Or not?” →

“I’ll give you a hint: the diagnosis is NOT heartburn or anxiety”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

This recent “What’s the diagnosis?”  ECG challenge on Twitter from Dr. Sam Ghali attracted many online guesses from his healthcare colleagues – including this from a critical care nurse practitioner who astutely wrote:

“In today’s healthcare system, she would probably be told ‘it’s all in your head’ or ‘maybe you should lose weight’.”
 Continue reading ““I’ll give you a hint: the diagnosis is NOT heartburn or anxiety”” →