Consultants in Laboratory Medicine
Laboratory Medicine Consultation Program Background |
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| There are over 10,000 different laboratory tests from which physicians may choose and that number continues to increase. Choosing the most appropriate tests and interpreting the results is an increasingly complex and vital part of patient care delivery. Laboratory test results are said to comprise over 60% of the data in the patient's medical record. |
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| The challenge of lab test selection and interpretation is exacerbated when a physician sees a large number of patients in a day, frequently allocating ten or fifteen minutes for each visit. During this time the physician is often required to obtain a medical history, examine the patient, order lab tests, and discuss his/her findings with the patient |
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| One of the greatest challenges in healthcare today, and a large component of medical liability, is the failure to diagnose disease. Due to the growing complexity of testing and diagnosis, along with the increasing demands on the physicians' time, failure to diagnose is the fastest growing area of medical malpractice. |
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| According to a landmark study in The New England Journal of Medicine ("The Quality of Healthcare Delivered to Adults and Children in the United States", June 26, 2003) on average, patients only receive 55% of the recommended care for any given medical condition. Proper lab test ordering and interpretation would go a long way toward ameliorating this problem. |
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