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Carl E. Speicher, MD; Jack W. Smith, Jr, MD

JAMA. 1980;243(15):1556-1560.

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A GOOD clinical history and physical examination have always been the basis for sound medical diagnosis and management. Modern medicine has extended this data base through a wide variety of techniques, of which clinical laboratory studies play a major role. These studies have grown explosively, and the accompanying paperwork can overwhelm the laboratory and the clinician. Thick patient charts bulging with laboratory reports threaten the ability of busy clinicians to find the information For editorial comment see p 1554. they require. Computer-generated reports have not yet solved the problem. Attempts by the laboratory to assist the clinician in managing these data have included marking abnormal results with asterisks, printing reference values adjacent to test results, grouping of data by system or organ,¹ displaying data in more informative ways,² suggesting diagnostic possibilities,³ making interpretive comments,⁴ and suggesting additional studies or performing additional studies automatically.⁵

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Author Affiliations
From the Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, 410 W Tenth Ave, Columbus, OH 43210 (Dr Speicher).

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