Exploring SQL MIN and MAX for Clinical Metrics

In clinical work, I often need to know “the first” or “the highest.” SQL’s MIN and MAX functions handle that without sifting through endless rows.

Example: Find the highest potassium level recorded for a patient:

SELECT MAX(LabValue) AS HighestK
FROM LabResults
WHERE TestName = 'Potassium'
AND PatientID = 1234;

Practical idea:

• Use MIN to find a patient’s earliest admission date.
• Use MAX to identify the most recent therapeutic drug level result.

These functions turn large datasets into quick, targeted insights.