WHO NEEDS DOCTORS?

摘要

At least once a year, neil koun calls HealthcheckUSA in San Antonio and orders up a battery of laboratory tests. Then he drives to a lab three miles from his home in Naples, Fla., and has his blood drawn. The tests, which cost $140, are conducted by his neighborhood lab; Healthcheck collects the results and delivers them directly to him. Each of the 45 measurements is explained in detail; the numbers that raise red flags are sequestered in a column for his attention. And Koun, a 65-year-old investment banker, pays attention-especially to his prostate specific antigen (PSA) scores. The PSA results, Healthcheck tells him, can be a harbinger of prostate cancer. "I have a lot of friends who've got it," says Koun. People like Neil Koun have the $40 billion clinical-lab industry in a flutter. Weary of having to go through primary-care physicians and other medical gatekeepers to get the tests they want performed, a small but growing number of patients are ordering their own. Scores of chemical analyses are available direct to the consumer, covering everything from testosterone deficiency to HIV.