Since Fall 2004 when I learned I had been misdiagnosed with cancer, I have worked diligently to make patients aware of the pitfalls of American Healthcare -- and what they can do to help themselves find their best medical outcomes.

So you can imagine, I was thrilled to share my story -- and ideas about misdiagnosis -- with CNN's Elizabeth Cohen, for her Empowered Patient column.  She did a wonderful job of helping patients understand the possibility of misdiagnosis and the red flags that indicate they need to look further.

In addition to the thoughts shared in Ms. Cohen's column, I offer some additional food for thought:

There are three types of misdiagnosis, any of which could apply to you: 

1. Patients are diagnosed with the wrong disease or condition.  (most frequent)
2. Patients are diagnosed with a disease or condition, and there is nothing really wrong with him.   (least frequent)
3. Patients are told nothing is wrong with them, when, in fact, a medical problem truly does exist.

Additional red flags that could indicate you've been misdiagnosed:

1. Trust your intuition.  If you even suspect you may have been misdiagnosed, it's a good idea to research further.  It can't hurt to know much more, so trusting your intuition -- even if you find out later that you were not misdiagnosed -- can help you regardless.
    
2. If your doctor gives you a name of a diagnosis, and you can't find reference to that name on the internet, there are two possibilities.  First, you may have misunderstood the name, so you'll need to ask your doctor for clarification.  Second, your doctor may be making up a name, just to give you something to hang your hat on.  Dr. Jerome Groopman, in his book How Doctors Think, does a great job of describing this phenomenon.
    
3. If you get a hold of your medical test results, and you find discrepancies between what the report says, and what the internet says the results should be for your diagnosis, then you'll want to check further to find out why there is a discrepancy.
    
4. If you haven't been honest with your doctor to begin with, then you may be misdiagnosed based on your own bad information.

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