Working with Electronic Lab and Imaging Results

SigmaMD simplifies managing lab and imaging results received from electronic lab and imaging integrations. For a walk through on creating and submitting orders, see How to Create and Submit a Lab Order or How to Create and Submit an Imaging Order. Once results are available, the ordering provider on the order automatically receives an email and push notification.

Who Reviews a Result

Each result goes to one clinician's Lab results to review or Imaging results to review list, and that clinician receives the notification:

• A result linked to an order goes to its Ordering provider
• A result with no ordering provider goes to the patient's assigned clinician
• Linking a result to another order or patient updates who reviews it
• Changing the assigned clinician moves only results with no ordering provider
• A clinician picked in the Reviewer field of a faxed or filed result reviews it instead, even after the assigned clinician changes; see Working with Fax Lab Results

The Assigned clinicians filter in the review list follows the same rule, so each clinician sees the results they ordered. See How to Change a Patient's Assigned Clinician for how reassignment affects pending results.

Reviewing Lab and Imaging Results

You can review lab and imaging results from either the Home Screen or directly from the Patient Chart.

1. Access Pending Results

• From the Home Screen:
  • Navigate to the Home Screen in SigmaMD.
  • Locate the Lab results to review or Imaging results to review card.
  • Click the expand icon (Review) on the card. A side panel opens with the list of pending results.
  • Hover over a result and click View result to open it with its PDF.

• From the Patient Chart:
  • Open the patient's chart.
  • Click on the Labs or Imaging tab.
  • Look for the Pending Review card and click its expand icon (Review order).

2. Open and Review the Diagnostic Result

• Review the result PDF as well as the parsed data displayed to the right of the PDF.
  • Prior to marking as reviewed, it is important to review the parsed data, as this data is shown in the Labs or Imaging results table.
  • In addition, make sure to click on any hyperlinks for the tests (and, for labs, test components) to review additional notes if present.
• Review the Note to Patient. When Sigma AI is on for your practice, it drafts this note for electronic results with a Final, Corrected or N/A status that include values. Whatever the note says when you click Mark as reviewed is sent to the patient, so edit or clear the draft first. For other results, adding a note is optional.
  • The draft says in plain language what the report found. It doesn't interpret the results or suggest next steps, so add what they mean for the patient and what happens next.
  • To change or clear the note (up to 2,000 characters): in a result opened from the Home Screen, edit it in the box, and it's saved when you mark the result as reviewed. In a result opened from the patient chart, click the pencil icon (Edit note), then click Save.
  • If a newer version of the result arrives before you review it, Sigma AI replaces its draft with one for the new version, or removes it if the new version doesn't qualify. A note you edited or wrote is never replaced.
  • Partial results, results without values, and results that arrive without a matched patient get no draft, even after you match them.
• The patient doesn't see the note until you mark the result as reviewed. It then appears with the result in the SigmaMD Patient App under the ordering provider's name, and the patient is notified about it by email and push notification, or by text message if they have no email address on file. The notification names the clinician who marked the result as reviewed, and the text asks the patient to contact your practice for details.
• If the result is unmatched and shows “Unknown Patient”, please follow the steps outlined in Managing Unmatched Lab and Imaging Results to assign the result before completing the review.
• If a result that isn't linked to an order was matched to the wrong patient, click Edit patient (pencil icon) next to the patient's name to choose the correct patient, or remove the patient to send the result back to the unassigned results.
• Click Mark as reviewed to complete the review.

Multiple Result Files per Order

A single lab or imaging order may contain multiple tests that result back at different times. Pay attention to Report sequence (for example, "1 of 2 results") and the navigation arrows (< >) above the result PDF. These indicate that multiple result PDFs have been received for the same order. Review all available result files before marking the order as reviewed.

If a Labcorp Result PDF Looks Incomplete

Some Labcorp accounts send only the specialty send-out part of a report as the PDF (for example, a Boston Heart report), without the main Labcorp results. The PDF then has fewer pages than the same report in the Labcorp portal.

• Review the parsed results to the right of the PDF. They come from the lab's structured result data, not the PDF.
• To get the full report for this result, download it from the Labcorp portal.
• To fix future results, ask your Labcorp account representative to switch your account to the C-PDF (Cumulative PDF) format. Labcorp only makes this change when the practice asks.

See Working with Diagnostic Providers: Account Setup.

Downloading or Printing Result PDFs

When viewing the result PDF, you can easily download or print the file using the buttons located directly above the PDF viewer:

• Download: Click to save a copy of the result PDF to your device.
• Print: Click to print a physical copy of the result.

All result PDFs are also stored in the patient's Files section under the Labs or Imaging folder for future reference.

Sending Labs and Imaging PDFs straight to chat

You can send Labs and Imaging results PDFs straight to chat from the Patient Files.

• Open the patient's Files.
• Hover over the file you want to send, and click Send in chat.

• On click, a modal will show where you can select a current chat you have with the patient or create a new chat.

• The PDF will be attached to the chat where you can add a message to send together.

Viewing Results in the Labs and Imaging Tables

In addition to the review workflows above, results can also be viewed in the patient chart's Labs and Imaging tables.

• The Labs table includes:
  • Test: Lists test names (expandable to view test components).
  • Status: Displays current status badge for the test and components.
  • Result: Displays values for each component.
  • Prior Results: Shows up to 3 previous results for comparison for each component.
  • Reference Range: Displays the normal reference range for each component.
• The Imaging table includes:
  • Test: Lists test names.
  • Status: Displays current status badge for the test.

Understanding Result Status

• Each lab and imaging result includes a status (e.g., Final, Corrected, Partial, etc.) indicating its current processing stage.
• Individual lab test components may also include abnormal flags to highlight results outside normal ranges (e.g., Normal, Abnormal, Critical, or microbiology susceptibility markers).

Patient Access

The patient (or their caregiver) will automatically receive a notification and can view the results in the SigmaMD Patient App right away. Any provider notes appear once the result is marked as reviewed. You do not need to manually send results to the patient.