Keeping blood work and functional tests in one client record
By Alina Radu, founder of Sera · November 10, 2026
Keep functional test reports in the same client record as the blood work, filed by collection date, so a stool test from April and a blood draw from March can be read as one picture of the client at that time. With each report, record the lab and test, the collection date, collection details such as cycle day, the medications and supplements at the time, and why you ordered it. Blood markers can be read against published ranges. Functional test reports usually come with the issuing lab's own ranges and interpretation, so keep those with the report instead of rescoring them somewhere else.
I build Sera, a lab-review workspace for practitioners, so read the last section with that in mind. The rest is about record-keeping and works with folders and a spreadsheet as well as with software.
This article says nothing about what DUTCH, stool, breath or any other functional test shows. That depends on the test and the lab, and it's for you and the report to judge. The question here is only where the reports live and what goes with them.
Why keep them together
When results live in two places, every case review starts by rebuilding the timeline. You open the blood work folder, then the folder of other reports, then your notes, and work out which came first and what the client was taking at the time.
Keeping them together helps in a few concrete ways:
- The order is visible. You can see that the breath test came two weeks after a new supplement started and a month before the blood draw, without piecing it together.
- Context is written once. Medications, supplements and life events apply to every test taken around the same time. Recorded once, on one timeline, they explain all of it.
- Nothing gets left out of a review. A report in a separate portal is the one that gets forgotten when you prepare a follow-up or write to the client's doctor.
- Leaving is easier. If everything for a client is in one record, exporting it or handing it over is one job, not three.
What to record with each test
Most of what you'll need later isn't on the report itself, or is buried on page six. Write it down when the report arrives.
| Field | Example | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Test and lab | DUTCH, Precision Analytical | Two labs' versions of a similar test may not be comparable |
| Sample type | Urine, stool, saliva, breath | So you can filter and line up like with like |
| Collection date | 2026-04-02 | The day the sample was taken, not the report date |
| Collection details | Cycle day 21, or the breath test substrate | The details the lab asked for on the requisition |
| Prep and instructions | Followed the lab's diet instructions, except one day | A missed instruction is often what explains an odd report |
| Medications and supplements | With doses, and any paused for the test | So the report can be read against what the client was taking |
| Why it was ordered | Ongoing bloating since spring | In a year you'll want to know what question it was meant to answer |
| Source file | 2026-04-02_stool.pdf | So the original is always one click away |
Two habits make the table useful:
- Use the collection date everywhere. Reports can arrive weeks after the sample. If one test is filed by collection date and another by report date, the timeline is wrong before you start.
- Write the "why" before the result comes back. Afterwards it's easy to remember the question as whatever the report happened to answer.
Lining them up in time with blood draws
A functional test and a blood draw describe the same client only if nothing important changed between them. When you read them together, check the gap.
- Put both on one timeline, in collection-date order, with interventions marked where they started and stopped.
- Note the days between a functional test and the nearest blood draw. If a supplement started or a medication changed in that gap, the two results describe two different situations.
- Plan the order when you can. If you mean to read two tests together, collecting them close together, before anything changes, makes that reading easier.
- Keep repeat tests in sequence. A second stool test or a retested hormone panel is easiest to read next to the first, with what changed in between written on the timeline.
If you keep a spreadsheet, a single index sheet with one row per test, blood or not, gives you that timeline: date, sample type, lab, a short note and the file name. For the blood results themselves, the layout in Spreadsheet or software for tracking client labs? still applies.
The honest limit: scoring
This is where blood work and functional tests differ, and it's worth being clear about it.
For many blood markers there are published reference intervals and guideline thresholds, so a result can be read against a range with a source behind it. Sera's range pages show those sources for each marker.
Functional test reports are different. They usually carry the issuing lab's own reference ranges and interpretation, set for its own method. A few practical rules follow from that:
- Read each report against its own lab's ranges. Don't rescore it against another lab's ranges or a chart from elsewhere.
- Don't copy functional test values into the same columns as blood markers. A spreadsheet that puts them side by side implies they're comparable when they may not be.
- Treat a change of lab or test version as the start of a new series. It's the same rule that applies to some blood markers. TPO antibody numbers, for example, aren't comparable between laboratories.
- Keep the whole PDF. The summary page isn't enough. The ranges, methods and footnotes are part of the result.
When to refer
If a functional test report or the blood work alongside it flags something outside your scope, send it to the client's doctor with the relevant reports and the dates. Having everything in one record makes that letter easier to put together, with nothing missing.
Where Sera fits
Sera keeps DUTCH, stool, urine, saliva and breath test reports in the same client record as the blood work. Each report keeps its PDF, with the collection date, the lab, details such as the cycle day or the breath substrate, and a note on why you ordered it, which appears with your other notes for that client. These reports are stored, not scored: Sera doesn't read values out of them or judge them against ranges.
The blood work is where the review features are. Sera reads lab PDFs and shows each value next to its page in the report so you can check it before saving. Results run across years and labs against bands whose sources and evidence grades are published, and diet, supplement and medication changes are marked on the trend charts. It doesn't diagnose or recommend treatment, and your data can be exported or deleted at any time.
It's free for three clients with no card. There's a 3-minute tour if you'd rather watch first.
Alina Radu is the founder of Sera and a software engineer. The idea started with her own Hashimoto's tests, scattered across years without the big picture.