There is a clear purpose
A well-founded test or treatment answers a specific question: clarify a condition, rule out a dangerous cause, assess the effect of treatment already prescribed. The doctor can explain this purpose in plain words.
Methods
Methods and approaches
Patients don’t need to understand medicine like a doctor, but it helps to understand the logic behind prescriptions: why a particular test is done, what the choice of method is based on and how to tell a well-founded recommendation from a commercial one. This section covers general principles and simple ways to check. There are no assessments of specific medicines, procedures or clinics here.
“What will change if the result is one way or the other?” is one of the most useful questions a patient can ask about any test.
How this section works: we explain how medical prescriptions and tests work in general and where patients can check information themselves. We do not recommend or assess specific medicines, procedures, clinics or specialists.
What a well-founded prescription is
A prescription is based on an examination, the patient’s history and verified data on benefits and risks.
Benefits and risks are weighed
Every intervention has possible benefits and possible harms. The doctor weighs them against your condition, other illnesses and medicines — which is why the same prescription doesn’t suit everyone.
Based on studies, not testimonials
Confidence in a method comes from comparative studies in humans and systematic reviews of them. Someone else’s recovery story can be inspiring, but it doesn’t show that this particular method helped.
Types of tests
Roughly, tests fall into four groups, each with its own purposes and limitations.
Examination and history-taking
Every appointment starts with these. Describing your symptoms and being examined often tell the doctor more than patients think, and determine whether further tests are needed.
Laboratory tests
Tests of blood, urine and other samples. The result is compared with the ranges of the specific laboratory and assessed together with other data, not by a single line on the form.
Imaging
Methods that produce images of organs and tissues, such as ultrasound, X-ray, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The doctor decides which method is appropriate.
Functional diagnostics
Tests of how an organ or system works — for example, recording the heart’s electrical activity or assessing breathing. Check the preparation for them in advance.
How to check a method or medicine
A few steps patients can take themselves before paying.
Look the drug up in GRLS
In Russia, the State Register of Medicines (GRLS) of the Ministry of Health shows whether a product is registered as a medicine. If it is not listed, it has not been registered as a medicinal product. Other countries keep their own registers.
Tell a supplement from a medicine
A dietary supplement is not a medicine. If a supplement is sold as a treatment for a disease, be especially critical of the offer.
Beware of “cures everything”
One remedy for many unrelated diseases at once, guarantees and limited-time offers are common signs of marketing, not medicine.
When a second opinion makes sense
- Before surgery or another intervention that is hard to reverse
- When the proposed treatment is long, expensive or carries notable risks
- If the diagnosis is rare or unexpected
- If treatment isn’t producing the expected result and the plan isn’t being reviewed
- If you don’t understand the explanations and haven’t had your questions answered
- If you are offered a paid method that isn’t part of your clinic’s usual practice
Related sections
- Research
Types of studies and how to discuss a “breakthrough” news story or an ad for a “proven” method with your doctor.
- Ask your doctor
Questions worth asking your doctor before an appointment, when a test is ordered and after you get a report.
- Glossary
Words from the doctor’s office, referrals, discharge summaries and science news — brief, with no reference values.
Sources
- State Register of Medicines (GRLS), Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation
- Cochrane Library
- Federal Law No. 323-FZ “On the Fundamentals of Health Protection of Citizens in the Russian Federation”, Art. 20
Information is current as of the date of preparation. In Russia, the rules of compulsory medical insurance (OMS), the procedure for preventive check-ups and dispanserizatsiya, and the requirements for medical records and remote consultations may change — check the current documents and confirm details with your clinic or your health insurance company. Healthcare systems in other countries work differently.