Coag Test Utilization

While visiting the University of Texas Medical Branch campus in Galveston, George had the opportunity to become acquainted with Mayukh Sarkar, PhD, Medical Laboratory Scientist in the Division of Hematopathology, Laboratory Services. Dr. Sarkar recently published Sarkar MK, Botz CM, Laposata M. An assessment of overutilization and underutilization of laboratory tests by expert physicians in the evaluation of patients for bleeding and thrombotic disorders in clinical context and in real time. Diagnosis (Berl). 2017;4:21–6. The article examines the number of inadequate or excessive coagulation orders in a variety of diagnoses. In this study, a startling 77% of orders contain errors. The article is copyright-protected, so I recommend you order a PDF from your local medical library, whose significance is underscored by Dr. Sarkar’s nomination as a Choosing Wisely Champion by the American Society for Clinical Pathology for his work on this matter.