Understand Your Blood (Lab) Tests

The doctor patient relationship is changing and increasingly, patients are involved in decisions concerning the management of their health. However, doctors are under growing time pressure and ensuring that patients are educated and informed is a challenge.

With increasing patient access to blood test (or lab test) results and a growing emphasis on empowerment of patients in cooperating with their doctors in making decisions about their health, having a good understanding of your own test results is vital.

Without a medical degree and years of experience, most patients can’t start to interpret their own blood tests reliably. The internet is full of web sites listing normal or reference ranges for long lists of blood tests and terrifying lists of diagnoses. But what does each test really mean? If you are outside of the reference range, does that mean there’s something wrong? Are all the tests even important? This lack of understanding can leave you or a loved one confused, anxious and lacking the knowledge to make shared decisions with your physician.

A greater understanding of your body and your own test results can empower you as a patient and ultimately get you better healthcare outcomes quicker by working with your doctor.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a single reference, written by a working UK trained physician for non-medical specialists that will teach you from the ground up how your body works, what can go wrong with it and how this is all reflected in your blood tests?

Soon you can - the new eBook Understand Your Blood Tests will shortly be available from this website.