All Things Medical, All Things Report With Dr. Jayanti
For some time now, the idea that a report need not necessarily be comprehensive for the customer has been floating around. This argument is often supported by the notion that a report is meant to be fully scanned by the doctor and not the patient, and so it needs to be structured accordingly.
Having spent a lot of time identifying comprehensively the effects of this from the patient’s side of things at Niroggyan, we recently decided to get a doctor’s opinion regarding the issue. In the process, we sat down with public health specialist Dr. Jayanti for a short Q&A about lab reports and their effect on the diagnostic process and people’s health.
Before we get into the Q&A, a little bit of background on Dr. Jayanti —
Dr. Jayanti is currently a Professor and the Head of Department, Community Medicine, at Bhaskar Medical College, Hyderabad. Having received her MBBS degree from Lady Hardinge, her DHE from Institute of Health Care Administration, Madras, and her MD in community medicine from BJ Medical College, Ahmedabad, Dr. Jayanti has worked as a medical practitioner for close to 33 years in an illustrious career that spans multiple institutes, clinics, and even the Indian army. She has also published more than ten papers across highly cited medical journals, and works closely with us as a medical advisor here at Niroggyan.
Q1: Before we get into the main questions, I wanted to start off with something simple: how important is it, according to you, to have the right kind of report with the right kind of information in it?
A: See, “right” is subjective and ambiguous. There’s no single answer to this question, but lab reports can indeed be judged on the basis of how comprehensive they are. I would say that a lab report which can’t communicate is definitely not the right one.
For a doctor, the lab report that the patient brings to them is an important educational tool that enables them to have the patient understand their problem properly. If this tool is missing, the patient is now dependent on a third party to understand the report/their problems.
Q2: You mentioned that the report here is an important tool in trying to explain to the patient the nature of their diagnosis. Could you elaborate on how this process would change if the patient — all patients — were more medically literate and aware of their bodily deficiencies?
A: Oh, that would totally change everything. I’m not going to get into, you know, Google Doctors, that’s a separate problem… But if a patient has a general sense of awareness about medicine, they can grasp and remember their own treatment much better—this is crucial.
If a patient has a general sense of awareness about medicine, they can grasp and remember their own treatment much better — this is crucial
As a doctor, when I attempt to explain to one of my patients the contributing factors behind their health issues, I cannot afford to go into meticulous detail about each and every thing. We don’t have that kind of time, and neither can we put so much detail on top of a patient at once. In these situations, if there is a tool that can help the patient get more clarity about medical awareness in general, that is of great value addition to the whole process of diagnosis and treatment. This is why a lot of effort is put by doctors into generating the perfect report — from their end, at least.
Q3: Right. So have there been cases where lab reports and the presence of these tools have significantly impacted the way these treatments go?
A: Yes, definitely. Right now, without perfect tools, people always go about the symptomatic route when making a diagnosis because lab report data is not perfect or comprehensive.
Over 70% of diagnosis need lab test results
One cannot overstate the importance of these reports; if a physician sees a lab report which doesn’t have comprehensive information, they then have to take chances with their diagnosis, which is extremely dangerous. In general, I think this subjectivity needs to be removed and the tools play a very important role in doing so.
Q4: Would you, as a doctor, say that the current state of medical report-making needs a change?
A: I wouldn’t want to make a blanket statement on the entirety of the report-making industry. It largely depends on the labs and how posh they are — a fancy lab is much more likely to make a comprehensive report than, say, a government hospital, where reports are often makeshift to the point of them sometimes being a piece of paper with data scribbled on it.
A good report can seriously alter the course of a patient’s diagnosis and recovery
That being said, even though the quality of reports varies too much for me to make a comment on that, I would still emphasise that this quality is essential. By and large, a good report can seriously alter the course of a patient’s diagnosis and recovery, meaning it’s a very important target for organisations and people to strive towards nonetheless.
Lab test reports are essential. We are sure you knew that before, and if not, COVID-19 must have done that by now.
At NIROGGYAN, we know how important your health is. Our products in the form of user-friendly lab test reports are meant to improve health awareness & better living. All so you can live a better life.
Visit us at niroggyan.com to know more.
