impression on patient report hematology

What are Patient-Reported Outcomes?

Patient-reported outcomes in clinical practice Patient-reported outcome (PRO) measurement plays an increasingly important role in health care and understanding health outcomes. PROs are any report of a patient's health status that comes directly from the patient, and can measure patient symptoms, patient function, and quality-of-life.

Why is the pathology report for a biopsy different than later?

Sometimes, the pathology report for a biopsy may be different from a later report for the entire tumor. This happens because the features of a tumor can sometimes vary in different areas. Your doctor will consider all of the reports to develop a treatment plan specific to you. Questions to ask your health care team

What do you read in a pathology report?

Reading a Pathology Report. The report gives a diagnosis based on the pathologist’s examination of a sample of tissue taken from the patient’s tumor. This sample of tissue, called a specimen, is removed during a biopsy. Learn about the various types of biopsies.

What is a second opinion on a pathology report called?

This is called a second opinion. It is important to get a copy of the pathology report and any other medical records. If you choose to get a second opinion, you will want to share these with the second doctor. Some doctors work closely with their own pathologists and may want their own pathologist's opinion too.

What is quality improvement?

Quality improvement examines processes in order to improve them. It consists of systematic and continuous actions that lead to measurable improvement in health care services and the health status of targeted patient groups. The Institute of Medicine defines quality in health care as a direct correlation between the level of improved health services and the desired health outcomes of individuals and populations. 36 Using PROs to understand these desired health outcomes provides valuable measures to gauge quality of certain aspects of care. Table 2 highlights several applications of PRO data in quality improvement.

What is the use of EMR?

Use of EMRs in the United States is required for public and private healthcare providers to maintain Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement. Integration of PROs into EMR is a vital step toward improving accessibility and user-friendliness of PROs in clinical and research settings. 27 To illustrate the benefit of PRO integration into EMRs, we will highlight one large EMR, Epic. The next version of Epic will contain functionality to collect PROs and integrate PRO data into the EMRs. Patients whose healthcare providers use Epic can sign up for MyChart, an electronic portal that allows patients to view laboratory and imaging reports, schedule appointments, and communicate non-urgent issues with their providers. Certain existing PROs have been integrated with the MyChart system, with the ability to create additional disease- or clinic-specific PROs. Providers can identify which PROs they would like patients to complete and send them secure email notifications via the MyChart portal. Once complete, the PROs integrate within the Epic EMR and can be viewed alongside other clinical data by the provider. Providers have the ability to visually examine the impact of interventions on PRO scores to understand the impact of care decisions from the patient's perspective ( Figure 1 ). 28

What is a PRO in healthcare?

Patient-reported outcome (PRO) measurement plays an increasingly important role in health care and understanding health outcomes. PROs are any report of a patient's health status that comes directly from the patient, and can measure patient symptoms, patient function, and quality-of-life. PROs have been used successfully to assess impairment in a clinical setting. Use of PROs to systematically quantify the patient experience provides valuable data to assist with clinical care; however, initiating use of PROs in clinical practice can be daunting. Here we provide suggestions for implementation of PROs and examples of opportunities to use PROs to tailor individual patient therapy to improve patient outcomes, patient–physician communication, and the quality of care for hematology/oncology patients.

Why is the pathology report for a biopsy different from a later report for the entire tumor?

This happens because the features of a tumor can sometimes vary in different areas. Your doctor will consider all of the reports to develop a treatment plan specific to you.

What is a pathology report?

Reading a Pathology Report. A pathology report is a medical document written by a pathologist. A pathologist is a doctor who diagnoses disease by: The report gives a diagnosis based on the pathologist’s examination of a sample of tissue taken from the patient’s tumor. This sample of tissue, called a specimen, is removed during a biopsy.

What is a synoptic report?

Synoptic report, or summary. When the tumor was removed, the pathologist will include a summary. This lists the most important results in a table. These are the items considered most important in determining a person’s treatment options and chance of recovery.

How long does it take to get a pathology report?

It may take a few days to a few weeks to receive the full report. The timing depends on the testing needed. You are allowed by law to receive a copy of your pathology report. But you should expect the report to contain highly technical medical terms.

What does it mean when a pathologist tests a tumor?

A cancerous tumor is malignant, meaning it can grow and spread to other parts of the body. A noncancerous, or benign tumor, means the tumor can grow but will not spread.