Some words mean one thing in a doctor's office and carry extra weight in an asbestos claim. A diagnosis, a prognosis or a line in your medical chart can affect what evidence a claim needs and how quickly it should move. This category explains those terms in both senses.
Your occupational history is a good example. Doctors use it to find likely asbestos exposure, and the same record of jobs, tasks and materials helps show whose products you were around. Occupational disease, misdiagnosis and idiopathic all bear on how an illness gets linked to its cause, and a second opinion from a mesothelioma specialist can confirm a diagnosis that was missed or mislabeled.
Prognosis, life expectancy, quality of life and unresectable describe where an illness is headed. They guide treatment, and they also matter to the timing of a claim.
Every term below links to a full plain-language definition.
Terms in this category
- IdiopathicIdiopathic means a disease or condition that arises spontaneously or from an unknown cause. When doctors labe…
- Life ExpectancyLife expectancy is an estimate of how much longer a person is likely to live, based on their age, health, and…
- MisdiagnosisMisdiagnosis occurs when a doctor identifies the wrong condition, or misses a condition a patient actually ha…
- Occupational DiseaseAn occupational disease is an illness caused by conditions or exposures at work rather than by an accident or…
- Occupational HistoryAn occupational history is a detailed record of the jobs a person has held, the tasks they performed, and the…
- PrognosisPrognosis is a doctor's informed estimate of how a disease is likely to progress, including expected survival…
- Quality of LifeQuality of life describes a person's overall well-being: their physical comfort, ability to do daily activiti…
- Second OpinionA second opinion is a review of your diagnosis or treatment plan by another qualified doctor, independent of …
- UnresectableUnresectable means a tumor cannot be completely removed with surgery. This may be because the cancer has spre…
Terms in this category
Browse the full Lexicon, or talk it through with a member of our litigation team, not a screener, at 833-4-ASBESTOS.