How much should doctors trust parental intuition?

Study finds parents' concern can be better at spotting critical illness than vital signs

Doctors and parents and patient
Parents should be treated as part of their child's medical care team, say researchers
(Image credit: Camerique / Getty Images)

A "smart mother" often makes a "better diagnosis than a poor doctor": medical students are often given this century-old advice from pioneering German surgeon Dr August Bier – and a new study has confirmed just how seriously they should take it.

Parental intuition is better than medical tests at predicting the deterioration of an unwell child, researchers have found – strengthening the case for parents' concerns to be taken more seriously in hospital settings, including giving parents the right to ask for a second opinion.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.