follow-up
Meaning of follow-up: Follow-up refers to the ongoing monitoring of a person's health or a study participant's status after initial treatment or evaluation.
Definition of follow-up
Follow-up refers to the continued monitoring of a person's health condition over time after an initial treatment, procedure, or diagnosis. It typically involves scheduled visits, laboratory testing, or imaging performed at set intervals to check whether a condition has improved, remained stable, or returned, and to watch for delayed side effects of a prior treatment.
In clinical research, follow-up describes the period during which participants in a study are tracked after receiving a treatment or intervention, whether the study itself has ended or is still ongoing. The length and frequency of follow-up can vary considerably depending on the condition being monitored and the questions a study is designed to answer.
Follow-up care allows a change in a person's condition to be identified and addressed earlier than it might be if a person were evaluated only once, and the recommended schedule generally depends on the specific disease or treatment involved.
Used in a sentence
A follow-up appointment was scheduled several months after the procedure to reassess healing.
Good to know
The interval and content of follow-up care generally differ by condition, so a schedule appropriate for one diagnosis does not necessarily apply to another.