Mutual recognition of medical tests to be widened

Mutual recognition of medical test results will be widened across the country to further improve medical services and patient experience, according to China's top health authority.

In a guideline issued in November, the National Health Commission said measures should be taken to further incentivize and provide oversight for the sharing and recognition of examinations among various medical institutions with particular attention paid to safety, quality care and the actual needs of the patient.

A goal was set to ensure that by 2027, results from more than 300 clinical tests such as X-rays, ultrasounds and blood tests should be recognized by medical institutions within the same provincial-level region. By 2030, the standards of clinical tests will be further aligned, and common clinical test results will be shared and accepted by medical institutions across regions, the guideline said.

"Clinical tests are a crucial part of medical services. Promoting the sharing and mutual recognition of test results among medical institutions will boost the efficiency of medical resources, control costs and upgrade medical services," said Jiao Yahui, director of the medical administration at the National Health Commission.

At present, 24 provincial-level regions recognize and share from around 100 to around 450 clinical tests that are conducted within the provincial-level region. The leading region is Beijing, with mutual recognition for 481 clinical tests. In Jiangsu province, 478 clinical tests are mutually recognized among medical institutions, and in Zhejiang province the number is 443.

Clinical test results are also being shared across provinces, said Jiao, citing a program that enables 60 medical examination results to be shared and recognized by over 1,100 medical institutions in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei and Shandong provinces.

The quality and standardization of clinical tests are key to enhancing the mutual recognition of test results among hospitals. As the nation's capital, Beijing has been at the forefront of quality control and standards alignment for clinical tests.

Li Ang, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, said the city has established a quality control network covering city-level and district-level hospitals, issued a series of quality control standards, and strengthened online monitoring and offline guidance to ensure homogenous quality standards of clinical tests by different institutions.

Building an online platform for sharing clinical test results is another pivotal step and a difficult point in the process, Li said. Many places have been working consistently to digitalize medical services and improve how patients' clinical test results are shared among institutions.

For example, all of the 1,966 public medical institutions in Jiangsu have been connected to an online medical imaging sharing platform. In Zhejiang, all major public hospitals, community healthcare centers and township hospitals are connected to an online mutual recognition system.

In Beijing, most tertiary hospitals, the most advanced level in China's three-tiered hospital system, can access patients' clinical test results online. The system can automatically remind doctors of mutually recognized items when they order tests. The same doctors can retrieve patients' recent examination results and image data from other medical institutions, without requiring them to carry printed ones, Li added.

Jiao from the National Health Commission cautioned, however, that there are situations where test results cannot be recognized by different hospitals, which might be due to a patient's physiological metabolism, the progression of a disease and discrepancies in testing equipment and testing reagents.

Under such circumstances, medical workers should strengthen their communication with patients by explaining the reasons clearly and seeking their understanding, she added.