Doctors read this!
Doctors when you are faced with a patient who has cancer by all means give them a diagnosis but please, please, do not give them a prognosis.
I appreciate it is not easy for you to make a diagnosis when patients present with an array of symptoms and you only have 10 minutes to decide what to do. However, you will be pleased to know that Dr Ben Noble, a GP at our local Woodbrook surgery in Loughborough, has joined forces with his dad to invent a new online mind-mapping tool that helps doctors speed up cancer diagnosis. This is very important because as you know the earlier cancer is detected the easier it is to treat. The innovative ‘Cancer Maps ‘were developed to help make it easier for GPs to navigate the cancer recognition and referral guidelines published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in 2015. This mind-mapping tool has so impressed the medical community that it has been endorsed by NICE and the Royal College of GPs and will soon be rolled out across the UK. It will also help train GPs and other health professionals through Gateway C**, an online cancer education for primary care.
The Cancer Maps consist of three different, brightly coloured maps covering different organs of the body. The interactive tool is intended largely for use by GPs as an aid during consultations. If the doctor suspects cancer, the patients age, sex and symptoms are keyed in and areas of the maps will light up, flagging potential routes for action. Results can be clearly seen by both doctor and patient alike, reassuring patients that the right steps are being taken.
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