A system for graphical display of clinical laboratory data.

Although in referral medical centers, laboratory tests related to patient management decisions may be more numerous than tests used for diagnostic decisions, little emphasis has been placed on the development of decision support systems that focus on laboratory tests in management decisions. Many of these decisions hinge on time-related series of laboratory test results. Graphical presentation of such data might be a more effective means of facilitating patient management decision making than is the conventional tabular report. The authors developed an easily used system for the graphical display of time-related laboratory results. The system presents the physician a convenient and rapid means of selecting the patient, test, and time period of interest, and provides a number of different graphical display formats. Physician acceptance of the display system has been enthusiastic. Careful attention to human factors considerations may promote physician acceptance of computer-based aids of this form.