Labtracker+, a medical smartphone app for the interpretation of consecutive laboratory results: an external validation study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

When monitoring patients over time, clinicians may struggle to distinguish 'real changes' in consecutive blood parameters from so-called natural fluctuations. In practice, they have to do so by relying on their clinical experience and intuition. We developed Labtracker+, a medical app that calculates the probability that an increase or decrease over time in a specific blood parameter is real, given the time between measurements.

Design

We presented patient cases to 135 participants to examine whether there is a difference between medical students, residents and experienced clinicians when it comes to interpreting changes between consecutive laboratory results. Participants were asked to interpret if changes in consecutive laboratory values were likely to be

SUBMITTER: Hilderink JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5589013 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature