Quality Assessment of Interpretative Commenting in Clinical Chemistry (Laboratory Management) (Report‪)‬

Interpretative commenting is an important aspect of laboratory medicine (1), and most laboratories provide some form of interpretative comments on their laboratory reports. Although this is universal in anatomical pathology, not all clinical pathology reports have interpretative comments attached to them. The practice of attaching individualized comments to clinical biochemistry reports varies among countries and even among laboratories within a country. The utility of interpretative comments on laboratory results may also be dependent on the customer served, being potentially more useful for general (family) practitioners. Many of the standard comments on laboratory reports are generated by computer, whereas others are individualized depending on the results and the availability of clinical information. The following factors favor the continuation, or even expansion, of the practice of adding comments to clinical pathology reports (2):