Cautions - SimulConsult

Sometimes assessing a finding is non-trivial, and it is appropriate to have cautions about interpreting a result.

Example to work through

A good example occurs with assessing calcium levels in the presence of low serum albumin. Here is a 50 year old woman with oliguria and low serum albumin:

Oliguria and low albumin (Click the image to jump into the software.)

The top test recommended is the bundle of a comprehensive metabolic panel. Clicking the word Bundle reveals the findings in the bundle, including checking for low serum calcium:

Calcium testing is recommended (Click the image to jump into the software.)

Clicking on the red asterisk near “Calcium low in blood” pops up the following caution:

Caution about calcium (Click the image to jump into the software.)

The error in not knowing about cautions about findings is the “garbage in – garbage out” phenomenon.