Laboratory Medicine as it stands Today.
Based off technologies developed in the 1950s, most laboratory testing today is based on blood cell analysis and serum chemistries that don’t tell us much about why we are sick and why we die. The sad reality is that because lab testing is so esoteric, most of us think that lab testing does more than it actually does. Results that come from blood testing rarely give more than a hint of infection, anemia, or risk of heart disease. We can do better.
CDC Reported deaths, 2016 and 2017. Source cdc.gov.
How we die.
CDC reported causes of death in the US show that heart disease, cancer, strokes and Alzheimers disease account for over 70% of the top 10 number of deaths.
Top 25 lab tests paid by Medicare part B, 2017. Source OIG analysis, 2018.
What we test.
Yet, the Medicare list of 20 most frequent tests will not diagnose most cancers, tell you if you have or at high risk for an imminent heart attack or stroke, or diagnose Alzheimers disease. There is very little correlation between what makes us sick and what we actually test for. In fact, the 2 most common tests, the CBC and the metabolic panel (over 40% of all tests) give NO information about top causes of death.