Background: There are nonestablished protocols in use for first-line allergy screening based on IgE testing. These protocols attempt to address an unmet need for sustainability of clinical laboratories, at a time when demand is increasing.
Objective: To present a novel protocol for first-line allergy screening and to evaluate the implementation benefits for patients, the health care system, and payers.
Methods: We carried out an observational retrospective study analyzing 4359 interventions on primary care testing requests. Interventions included overriding redundant serum IgE (sIgE) testing for allergen mixes, extracts included in mixes, low-prevalence extracts, and milk and egg molecular components without previous positive results when exposed to extracts. We also added prevalent allergen testing.
Results: The strategy saved 683 tests from being performed unnecessarily. Test volume decline was primarily driven by the cancelation of 2186 egg and milk components tests; 561 tests were added for mixes, together with 942 allergen extracts tests.
Discussion: The results of this study show how the allergy laboratory plays a key role in actively managing demand for sIgE testing, leading to optimized diagnosis.
Keywords: allergy testing; cost reduction; laboratory interventions; patient outcome improvement; primary care; screening.
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of American Society for Clinical Pathology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].