Lyme Disease? You May Want a Second Opinion (Op-Ed)

Lyme Disease? You May Want a Second Opinion (Op-Ed)

Robin Diamond, R.N., M.S.N., is senior vice president of patient safety and risk management at The Doctors Company in Napa, Calif., the nation’s largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer. She contributed this article to LiveScience’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. If you’ve been bitten by a tick and experience flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache and body aches, you must have Lyme disease. Right? Wrong. A combination of newly published research on tick-borne illnesses and a push by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to direct more resources toward the growing problem of misdiagnoses should impress upon doctors and patients just how erroneous — and even lazy — a knee-jerk diagnosis of Lyme disease, or other common tick-borne illnesses, can be. Read more.