Second opinions are believed to give both patients and physicians better insight into medical diagnoses and help them make better decisions about care and treatment.

But a recent study has revealed that sharing information about a patient’s initial diagnosis with the physician conducting the second opinion– a practice most pathologists prefer – can influence the outcome of the second opinion. In some instances, sharing the first opinion can make the second opinion less accurate.

"Too often, lack of clarity in how genetics research is communicated can lead to a misunderstanding of its relationship to race. Attributing racial categories to genetic conditions is the opposite of precision medicine, leads to real harms for patients, and obscures the true causes of racial disparities in health." — Stephanie Gogarten, co-first author and research scientist with the Genetics Analysis Center