Lab Tests Online Updates Survey of Screening Recommendations
Lab Tests Online ( www.labtestsonline.org ) recently completed a new survey of leading medical authorities and has used the results to update the site’s pages on screening recommendations. The website’s approach sets a new standard for understanding sometimes differing opinions on when and how frequently screening tests should be performed.
Unlike publications that offer seemingly definitive lists of “must-have” screening tests, Lab Tests Online gives users an unfiltered look at the range of current thinking in the medical community. The site identifies recommended screening tests according to different age groups and risk factors, and provides the views of two or more acknowledged authorities, clarifying the details in which they agree and disagree. For example, for adults over 50 years old, the site offers details on screening recommendations for prostate cancer, including subtle common positions and differences of opinion among the American Cancer Society, the American College of Preventive Medicine, the American Urological Society, and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.
Like all content on the site, the material is presented objectively and with the recognition that medical opinions can differ over a range of details, both large and small. Lab Tests Online seeks to make users more aware of the complexities involved in preventive screening, so that they can better discuss preventive health care with their doctors and make more informed choices.
In the case of prostate cancer screening, there are varying perspectives on how to interpret PSA test results and when radical treatment or just watchful waiting is appropriate. Uncertainties about which prostate cancers will be slow-growing and which will be life-threatening, combined with serious side effects of many treatments, have generated debate and prompted further research on PSA testing. The evolving base of evidence highlights the need for patients to be informed and to have ongoing discussions with their doctors about their risk factors to help guide their care.
Information for the screening pages on Lab Tests Online is drawn from a comprehensive survey of current literature from more than 60 government agencies, medical societies, advocacy and support groups, and a range of other organizations. The screening pages are accessible from a scroll box on the Lab Tests Online home page, and from the right-hand pop-down menu on all other pages on the site.
Lab Tests Online is the Internet’s premiere resource for patient information on medical laboratory tests. All information on the site is reviewed and approved by an editorial board composed of members of 14 professional societies representing the clinical laboratory community – the people who research and do the testing.
