SPOTLIGHT: When radiologists offer diagnoses

Nobody wants a radiologist who can't read an image and know pretty much exactly what's going on. But according to one primary care doctor, radiologists cross the line when they not only tell patients their diagnosis, but even worse, go so far as to suggest a course of treatment that may be different than that of the referring doctor. The PCP is particularly stressed out that one radiologist actually scheduled a CT scan for a patient before the referring doctor even got the primary diagnosis. Is greater radiologist involvement a new trend, and if so, is it a positive or negative one? Blog