What is it about?
The display of laboratory data is not standardized, but rather every laboratory test is associated with a range of normal values, unique to that specific test. Here, I proposed standardization by having labs be displayed in terms of standard deviations from the mean. Then a clinician could instantly determine if tests were normal or not, and instantly determine how far from average each value was.
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Why is it important?
There is a problem with information overload in medicine. By simplifying simple tasks, clinicians can focus on the most important issues.
Perspectives
In the early days of lab testing, physicians would say a patient's labs were "euboxic" when normal because labs would have a box representing a range of normal values; if everything was in the box, then the labs were normal. This was a quick way to determine normal versus abnormal. Newer computer programs like EPIC have resumed the practice, making a review of labs more straightforward. When I wrote this proposal in 1991, labs were much less organized. My proposal was to display the standard deviation of every lab test, which would instantly alert the clinician not only if the test was abnormal but just how significant the abnormality was. Although computers have helped solve some of the problems with information overload, they have simultaneously created much more issues. When clinicians get cognitive overload, mistakes are more common. This is a critical issue in our pursuit of improving patient care.
Thomas F Heston MD
University of Washington
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: An Excess of Information, Southern Medical Journal, August 1991, Southern Medical Association,
DOI: 10.1097/00007611-199108000-00039.
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