When a clinician gets a piece of data, a series of questions are asked prior to accepting the data for clinical use. The need for these questions has increased as interoperability has expanded.
Situation: receipt of clinical data
Questions
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Action
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Is the data of interest available?
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If no, then order a test to get the data.
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Is the data reliable?
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If no, then order a test get reliable data.
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Is the data relevant to the patient's current situation (too old, not fasting, etc)?
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If no, then order a test to get relevant data.
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Is the data unexpected for the patient's clinical situation?
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If no, then troubleshoot.
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Does the data need to be transformed or normalized?
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If yes, then appropriately process the data.
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If the data successfully navigates this gauntlet, then it can be used for clinical decision making.
Troubleshooting may include:
(1) repeating the test with the same specimen
(2) performing the test with a new specimen
(3) testing by another method
(4) check for interference due to drug or specimen feature (hemolysis, lipemia, etc)
Transformation of data may involve:
(1) unit conversion
(2) dividing by body weight or body surface area
(3) creating a Z-score
(4) interpret based on age