Overview

When I started tracking my own blood tests, I couldn’t find one clear source on what all those codes meant. So I pulled my reading together into an “awesome list” and open sourced it on GitHub in late 2017: the common blood test panels, what each biomarker measures, and why a value might run high or low. It’s released under CC0, so anyone can use it.

It has about 470 stars and 30 forks on GitHub.

What I built

• The list: common panels (CBC, lipids, basic and comprehensive metabolic) and plain-language notes on each biomarker, linked to references
• Biomarker Tracker for Google Sheets: a free template for logging your lab results over time, with tabs for CBC, chemistry, lipids, and custom markers. Conditional formatting flags anything outside your target range, and you can adjust ranges to match your lab or doctor
• BiomarkerDB: a first pass at an open, community-editable database of biomarkers and reference ranges, shared as a Google Sheet in 2019
• Writing to go with it: What is a biomarker?, the complete list of biomarkers and blood tests, and a blood testing FAQ

What I learned

• The information was out there but scattered and hard to trust. Pulling it into one plain-language place was useful to a lot more people than just me.
• A spreadsheet works, but it still felt like blood tracking deserved a real app. That led to the Biomarker Tracker research project.