Pitfalls in Diagnosis of Occupational Lung Disease for Purposes of Compensation - One Physician\u27s Perspective

Ideally, the fact that diagnosis of OLD involves the legal profession should not affect a physician\u27s objectivity or clinical approach. Physicians have an obligation to help assure that deserving patients receive compensation, and that claimants without a compensable occupational illness are not unjustly rewarded. However, the attorney\u27s need to prove a diagnosis with medical certainty, and the defendant\u27s needs to refute that diagnosis with equal certainty, often skew what would otherwise be a straightforward diagnostic process. Resulting pitfalls in diagnosis can, in the end, trap the physician advocate and the side he is trying to help