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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Washington, June 7 — Creators of Lab Tests Online, the non-commercial website that helps consumers better understand and interpret their medical tests, announced today the site will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year by hosting the site’s 100 millionth visitor.
Launched in 2001 by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) as a joint project between the laboratory industry and the laboratory professional community, the peer-reviewed site uses a volunteer team of laboratory professionals to develop and approve content. The site provides patients with detailed test descriptions, condition descriptions cross-linked by related tests, and articles about testing and test reliability.
“Lab Tests Online was designed to help patients and caregivers make sense of the many clinical lab tests that are part of routine care,” says Dr. D. Robert Dufour, AACC’s executive editor of Lab Tests Online. “The site helps consumers take responsibility for their care by learning more about these tests that help save lives and improve the quality of life.”
The patient-centered site is acknowledging its 10 years as a standard for patient education by developing a mobile app for Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, and by increasing its social media presence. Both will debut next month at the AACC Annual Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo.
To date, the website has assisted more than 85 million visitors and currently provides two million visitors a month with information needed to discuss their tests more intelligently with their doctors. With 17 versions of the site online or in development— including translations in Chinese, Spanish and French—almost one-third of the world’s population can now learn from Lab Tests Online in their native language.
“With healthcare’s changing landscape, patients increasingly need to be partners with their providers,” says Elissa Passiment, executive vice president for the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) and a member of Lab Tests Online’s Editorial Review Board since its founding. “Lab Tests Online is the ideal resource to help patients understand why their doctors ordered certain tests so they can have intelligent conversations with them and be more active participants in their healthcare.”
A collaboration of 17 laboratory professional societies and organizations in the U.S. and Canada, the site’s content is reviewed by an editorial board composed of representatives from AACC, ASCLS, American Society for Microbiology, Clinical Laboratory Management Association, College of American Pathologists, American Society of Clinical Pathology, Association of Molecular Pathology, and 10 other member organizations.
“I am the parent of three children who have health concerns. This website has been a godsend in understanding and interpreting the tests ordered and their subsequent results,” wrote a grateful user. “It has even helped me to suggest tests that weren’t originally ordered, but which yielded additional information that otherwise would not have been discovered.”
“People from all over the world have real needs that should be addressed and it is important that we do this,” says Susan Leclair, chancellor professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and ASCLS board member who helped found ASCLS’ Consumer Information Response Service, which uses another group of volunteer laboratory professionals to answer questions from Lab Tests Online users. “Every now and then you hear back from people, something like ‘Thank you. It was the first night’s sleep I’ve had in months.’ That’s what makes it worthwhile.”
Lab Tests Online may be found at http://www.labtestsonline.org/.
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