European views on patients directly obtaining their laboratory test results

Abstract

Background: Medicine is a highly professionalized endeavour, by tradition centred on the authority of physicians. Better education and the advent of the information age cater for increased demands on society in general and on health care in particular to enable people to make informed decisions regarding themselves. Participation in medical decisions requires informed knowledge which is hard to obtain without substantial and time consuming professional help. Methods: We performed a survey amongst the member organizations of European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) in order to investigate the recognition and preparedness of providing help to patients in interpreting their laboratory results. Results: Out of 40 EFLM Member Societies, 27 sent their responses to the survey. In most cases the first line delivery of laboratory results to physicians is by computer link (63%). Patients receive their laboratory results on demand

A survey of patients’ views from eight European countries of interpretive support from Specialists in Laboratory Medicine

“…From our work demonstrating a willingness by SpLM professionals to engage in such practice [2], there is an opportunity to progress such an initiative. Patients may want direct information from their clinician [16], but a filtering mechanism, such as through an SpLM, to ensure efficient use of physician time may have value [17], so this must be done in a collaborative approach with the patients' physicians to ensure no confusion or mixed messages ensue, such an approach has been advocated for radiology [18,19] access to the patient's medical record would enable a better contextual input.…”

“…We have previously established that there is support within member societies of EFLM for the concept that Specialists in Laboratory Medicine (SpLM) could provide support for patients in understanding what their test results mean [2]. There have been other calls for such support [3] and experience where patients can access their medical record, which has been positive [4], and the need for appropriate communication of test results to patients has been highlighted using vignettes [5].…”

Opinion: redefining the role of the physician in laboratory medicine in the context of emerging technologies, personalised medicine and patient autonomy (‘4P medicine’)

“…In the interests of empowerment, it has been proposed that patients should be able to obtain laboratory test results directly without the involvement of physicians, with efforts to allow non-medical laboratory specialists direct access to patients in the outpatient setting 30. However, offering patients bald numerical values without appropriate individualised clinical interpretation of results is counterproductive and could be considered to be unethical 28 38.…”

Development of Stages of the Implementation of the Environmental Monitoring Program

“…Interpretation -forms a description of objects or situations according to the observed data. At the same time, they are explained by describing the monitoring situation [6]. Regular relationships between the properties of the objects are detected and these laws are used to reveal new information.…”