The Value of Second Opinion People make mistakes every day, and doctors are not immune to this fact. What’s more, some doctors are more conservative while others tend to be more aggressive. So their findings and recommendations can vary dramatically. For this reason, more and more patients are getting second opinions after a diagnosis. Whether […]

In 2002, when Tim Copeland was just 12 years old, he started having seizures and difficulty speaking. His physician in San Diego couldn’t figure out what the problem was. When Copeland eventually went to see a neurosurgeon in Escondido, California, he was diagnosed with cerebral cavernous malformation, a disorder of the blood vessels that causes […]

Nineteen years ago, I had a laminectomy, a major spine operation that removes a portion of the vertebral bone. I didn’t have any problems until this past year when I started experiencing intense back pain that would radiate down my legs all the way to my ankles. I tried taking over-the-counter pain relievers and tried […]

“Over the years, I’ve covered a lot of territory for The Washington Post, but it’s a book project that brings me to India, a book on how other countries deliver health care,” says veteran reporter T.R. Reid, as he begins his FRONTLINE/World report on Ayurveda, a form of medicine that has been practiced in India […]

As a young girl growing up in Buffalo, New York, Devan Brady’s bedtime story selection was more a survey of American literature than preschool perennials. She remembers her father reading Moby-Dick to her when she was just 3 years old. “My dad went for the big guns,” Devan says. “The bigger the book, the better.” […]