Method
How the score is built
Packages are never compared directly. Every lab's naming resolves to a canonical test first, so a comparison is between the same underlying measurements rather than between two marketing documents.
The five weights
30
Domain coverage
A package claiming to be a full-body check should reach all seven essential domains: heart, kidney, liver, thyroid, metabolic, blood and nutrition. We score the fraction it actually reaches.
30
Core test ratio
The share of distinct tests that sit in the core tier — the ones defensible in routine adult screening. A large package built from conditional markers scores below a small one built from core ones.
20
Low-yield penalty
Markers that rarely change what a doctor does for an asymptomatic adult. A high proportion of these is the clearest signal a package was assembled for its test count.
10
Redundancy
The same value reported twice under different names, or a ratio derived from two figures already listed. Blood urea and BUN are one measurement, not two.
10
Count honesty
The advertised figure against the count that survives resolution. Undercounting is not rewarded; only inflation is penalised.
Test tiers
Tier assignment is the most contestable thing in the product, and the place where we are most likely to be wrong. It is derived from common preventive-screening practice and is reviewed rather than fixed.
Core
Defensible in routine adult preventive screening.
Conditional
Justified by a specific risk factor, symptom or demographic — not by default.
Low yield
Rarely changes management in an asymptomatic adult.
What this does not measure
- Laboratory quality. A high score says a package is well composed, not that the lab running it is accurate.
- Your particular situation. A package scoring 8.5 may still be the wrong one for you, and a 5.0 may be exactly right given a specific concern.
- Value for money. Price sits beside the score, never inside it.
Scores are informational and are not medical advice. Speak to a doctor about which tests are appropriate for you.