Have you got your bloodwork done during a doctor’s visit? Have you experienced having a piece of a lump from your breast taken and sent for testing whether it is cancerous or not? Or have you got admitted to a hospital and your blood work regularly checked? You probably don’t see the laboratory report as the doctor is the one who receives them and uses these data to make medical decisions that affect your health. But do you know what processes take place in the generation of a laboratory report behind the scenes?
What is a medical laboratory report?
A medical laboratory report is a report containing data obtained by a pathologist after examining a piece of processed tissue and medical lab scientists after testing a volume of blood or other body fluids removed or extracted from your body. Samples of medical laboratory reports can be seen after clicking on the following links:
Though medical Laboratory reports may be formatted and presented differently, federal legislation mandates that they all contain required elements. Clinical laboratories that perform testing and report data contained in medical laboratory reports are highly regulated under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and all are required to obtain a CLIA certificate.
Why should you care about your medical laboratory report?
A medical laboratory report resulting from laboratory testing is a crucial aspect in medicine. RW Forsman from Mayo Clinic said laboratory testing leverages 60-70% of doctor’s decisions – whether to admit, discharge or provide medication in hospitals. Even if you are not admitted in a hospital, laboratory testing provides doctors and other healthcare practitioners with data for decisions giving rise to determining the cause of your illness, the course of therapy and determining the outlook of your condition. There are conditions where laboratory testing is irreplaceable. A Hemoglobin A1c (HA1c) test that is above a certain limit will tell a doctor that the patient is pre-diabetic even before the fasting blood sugar increases. The doctor can then intervene early before diabetes sets in.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) allows patients or their representatives direct access to their laboratory reports in a final rule without the need to submit the same to the doctor or other health care practitioners. The only requirement is for the verification of identities before release of those reports. Patients are empowered by the government to be a partner to their doctor and to play an active role in decisions involving their health.
Who are the people involved in generating a medical laboratory report?
Do you know that there are health care detectives known as the medical laboratory scientists who perform a wide array of laboratory tests to provide data contained in laboratory reports then submit them to your doctor? According to the Centers for Disease Control, 14 billion tests are performed by medical laboratory scientists annually upon which 70& of medical decisions are generated. The work is done behind the scenes, away from everyone, in the confines of the four walls of a clinical laboratory because of the potentially infectious nature of the samples, i.e. blood, tissue and other body fluids such as urine, which are being analyzed and in the case of tissues, are initially processed and mounted on slides before submitting them to a pathologist for examination. That is the reason why medical laboratory scientists are dubbed as “the hidden profession that saves lives”.
What are the processes that occur behind the scenes in the generation of the laboratory report?
There’s a work model between the doctor and the lab called the brain-to-brain loop concept introduced by George D. Lundberg forty years ago. It’s a concept of how a laboratory report is generated. It starts with the doctor, having preliminary assessments of the patient, orders lab tests. In his mind, there are a few possible causes of the patient’s ailment or disease, and lab testing generates the data that identifies the definite cause. The order for lab tests is followed by a series of steps namely:
- collection of samples (blood, tissue, other body fluids)
- identification of the sample by labeling with the patient’s name
- Transportation of sample to the laboratory
- Preparation of sample for analysis
- Analysis of sample
- Reporting
- Interpretation of data by the medical lab scientist which is transmitted to the doctor.
- The doctor proceeds to take actions with the goal of achieving a positive outcome for
the patient.
This work model was published in a paper by the American Journal of Clinical Pathology in 2011. It has helped establish a system for monitoring laboratory performance. If you are wondering whether you can trust your laboratory report, the answer is yes. The government has assigned the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to set the standards by which clinical laboratories must abide by and monitored by periodic inspections of assigned offices throughout the country. Additionally, clinical laboratories are manned by healthcare detectives, the medical laboratory scientists who are the unseen, unsung heroes but who save lives every day.
References :
3. Forsman RW. Why is the laboratory an afterthought for managed care organizations? Clin Chem. 1996;42(5):813–6.
6. Plebani M, Laposata M, Lundberg GD. The brain-to-brain loop concept for laboratory testing 40 years after its introduction. Am J Clin Pathol 2011;136:829-33.
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