On finishing up with my patients, I noticed that one of yesterday’s patients was still in hospital when she should have gone home for the night. The file read: "client insecure about diagnosis; wants a second opinion from another doctor; keep overnight for examination in the morning."

I am so vain. This note immediately struck fear into my heart: Was I not thorough enough? I did a complete workup on this patient…and found nothing significant aside from some weight loss. Why did this client assume my efforts were insufficient? Did I say or do something wrong?

Now I am not normally this pathetically insecure. However, requests for second opinions affect all doctors, regardless of profession or specialty. It hits us where it hurts most: in our egos.

This is not to say that second opinions should not be requested by consumers of health care. In fact, I often recommend them—daily, even. However, it’s different when the request is made out of your earshot and especially when it’s done outside the confines of your explicit suggestions.

Doctors. We’re all egomaniacal control freaks.