Anyone found an easy way to get a second opinion on pathology?

Cleveland Clinic offers an online virtual second opinion. You meet with them online and give them approval to request your records. They optain and review them and get back with you in a few days. It isn't usually covered by insurance and isn't cheap. About $1800. You can find the info on their website.

@hohnpca
I would definetly get second opinion. Your provider who took biopsies should be sending the slides information to the second opinion facility. Many providers like Mayo, Cleveland Clinc, will set up and do this for you. Getting the information from your original provider.

I assume you had these done because of prostrate cancer. Have you discussed with your provider doing Decipher, PSMA, bone scans? Biopsies results for prostrate cancer are subjective and one medical provider can see something different and give you a different Gleason score. With Decipher it is a genetic test that comes back more objectively and thus more precise of your risk level.

Reach out to top providers like Mayo and Cleveland Clinic about asking for second opinions on your pathology and will they handle the process of obtaining the slide inforamation and your medical records. I did this at UPTI even though I had my biopsies done a Mayo Clinic. Wanted second opinion. By the way my Decipher test results changed my pronosis, treatment, and risk level for original pathology. I went from medium risk to low risk per the Decipher test.

Thanks for the confirmation on Cleveland Clinic. CC and Stanford seem to be the most proactive about online second opinions, but when I tried UCLA they had an in-state rule that knocked them off the list so not sure if that's a UCLA thing or a CA regulation issue that's going to catch me at Stanford too. So CC is my leading contender so far.

Always get copies of any tests, discs, etc. immediately after you have it done. Then you don't have to pay for them later or sign releases and wait weeks. Most doctors now have portals where you can read results and print them out to take to our 2nd opinion doctors. Good luck!

I used Johns Hopkins to get a second opinion - https://pathology.jhu.edu/patient-care/second-opinions/send. It looks like the process has changed since I submitted mine 3 years ago. It was not Johns Hopkins that required me to send the slides myself, it was the urologist who did my biopsy that required me to send the slides, as they didn't want to be involved in handling them.

I used John's Hopkins and it was super easy. Had Pathology coordinator at hospital path lab send to JH path dept. Univ of Fla does also as does MD Anderson I am told.

First off, thank you @paulmsp61 for sharing that link. I found it early in my research journey on MCC and used it for finding my second consult with JHU.

I wanted to share my excellent experience with JHU's pathology. I followed the instructions on the website, filled out the form, contacted the hospital that did my biopsy to send my slides, and got the results back within a week.

Dr. Ezra Baraban was the one who did my second consult. His pathology report was 10x more detailed than my original pathology report. It unfortunately showed that I had some Gleason 7 (3+4) and moved me up into grade group 2 and that there was some perineural invasion. It honestly threw me back into the doom spiral that happened when I first received my diagnosis, BUT I reached out to Dr. Baraban via email with my questions. He followed up my email with an actual phone call less than an hour later. His intelligence and tactfulness in describing where I was at with the upgraded diagnosis eased a ton of my anxiety and helped me understand the best route forward given my age (38), Gleason score (a lot of 6 and a small amount of 7), and other factors like MRI (negative at the start of this) and PSA (4.2 - 4.7).

I highly recommend JHU pathology and Dr. Baraban if anyone feels like they want a second consult.

I wanted to throw a bone to the other side of JHU, the negative side. First I am a graduate of JHU graduate programs, and JHU is quality in many areas, so I can say not all things are bad at all about JHU. However, what happened at the pathology department and in my case too says no don't bother with JHU. They had one of the best clinical prostate pathologists in the world in Epstein, then some others in his department pulled a kind of classic "power grab". These university can get political, upstart docs who may not be very good clinically get more pay by having job titles and so on, they want power and do nasty things to get that. In my opinion JHU pathology is loaded with classic power play doctors, and you don't want that as a patient. You want people good at pathology and not politics. JHU showed the pathology is too political and loaded with power grabbers, don't send anything there in my opinion and as a Hopkins graduate too. Pick a less political medical center.

I have received excellent care from Johns Hopkins from second opinions to treatment.
I'm sure there are political issues at all institutions and entities.

Not like the one that played out at JHU, a very public power grab played out in newspapers for a department most people don't interact with. I personally had great experience with JHU when Epstein was there, the second time they messed up my paperwork and actually did the opposite of what I wanted for them to do and it was me paying and filling out the forms and they didn't even read the forms. They were messed up because they were focused on people grabbing power and not on pathology. Sure maybe they are past the power grabbing time or phase, but you want people like that doing your pathology report and not the most highly regarded clinicians? Not me, I want people who got ahead by clinical skills.