Interpretive reporting of laboratory data: proposed criteria to qualify as a high-quality, limited clinical pathology consultation.
OBJECTIVE
To present recommended criteria designed to improve the computer-based interpretation of laboratory test results.


METHODS
Guidelines for providing high-quality test interpretations and an outline for incorporating such criteria into a program for interpretive reporting are presented.


RESULTS
Traditionally, when a laboratory reports a test result, the clinician interprets it within the clinical context. More recently, even in the absence of clinical information about the patient, laboratories that report test results, including biochemical thyroid function tests, have begun to insert "informative" statements about the test. These statements fail to provide an adequate limited pathology consultation that merits the CPT code 80500. Such interpretations can be improved by making them optional, specific for the test result, considerations rather than recommendations, and accompanied, on request, by an expanded list of differential diagnoses and an itemization of drugs known to affect the test result.


CONCLUSIONS
High-quality interpretations of laboratory tests should improve patient care, avoid unnecessary costs, and prompt appropriate referrals to specialists.
Dons
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Wilford Hall Medical Center, Department of Executive Medicine/Endocrinology, Lackland AFB, TX 78236-5300, USA.