New Delhi, Oct. 27 -- Most of us would have found a newspaper flyer offering a discounted 'full-body' check-up: 100 or more tests at a price too good to ignore. Many of us would have had such a package done at some point in the last few years.

The detailed report that follows these "comprehensive tests" often comes with a few values highlighted. What you may not know is that many of these flagged values have little clinical significance. Yet, they can trigger repeat tests, scans, diagnostic labels, medicines and follow-up visits. The body may have changed little; the medical identity may have changed completely.

India is in the middle of a diagnostic boom. Laboratory chains, imaging centres, hospital packages and digital aggregators hav...