Value-added Services: The “Quest” Example
Are Indian Labs doing all they can in terms of offering test results to patients? I would argue not. If you look at the typical lab report for a test, the format is exactly the same for all customers – the boilerplate approach. There is the test or a panel with results, units and a reference range. Some labs indicate if the result is abnormal, while others make an effort to give an ‘Interpretative Comment’. Unfortunately, in most cases, the interpretative comments is a generic one and has enough disclaimers to be almost useless to the referring physician and / or the patient.
The other major shortcoming is that, in most cases, every visit of the patient is treated as a new visit even though the patient may have visited the lab many times in the past. So the concept of a serial report, graphic or otherwise, is virtually unknown in India. It is left to the patient in most cases to collate the results and make sure that they carry with them all their historic reports when they visit the physician.
Compare this with the value added services offered by the world’s leading diagnostics company, Quest Diagnostics to physicians and patients & consumers particularly the Reminder Program. Physicians get access to the eMaxx® Physician Portal, a patient-centric electronic health record for practitioners. Patients get access to a wealth of additional information about their tests and their interpretation and they can sign up for an email reminder for their next testing episode.
This is a great example of value added services that a lab can provide to its users. The best part is that it is not at all difficult to have the IT infrastructure to support these web-based services. It just needs an increased awareness on the part of lab managements in India. The entry of Quest Diagnostics to India could provide the impetus to change some of our time honored methods.
