How do we connect the lab and radiology to the clinic system? — answered by Engineer Saeed Baatiah
Integration removes the commonest laboratory error: retyping patient details between two systems, and the results being attributed to the wrong patient. The order is sent electronically from the physician, the specimen carries a barcode label, and the result returns to the patient record automatically. What gets checked first: whether your analysers and lab system support programmatic integration or are closed — a check rather than an assumption.
The error integration prevents is the most serious in laboratories: a result attributed to the wrong patient. Its source is retyping patient details between the two systems, or a label applied to the wrong specimen. Integration means the order is sent electronically, the label is printed from that order with a barcode, and the result returns to the patient record automatically with no human hand in the path.
And what gets verified before any commitment: do your lab system and analysers support programmatic integration? Many medical devices support standard exchange protocols, and some are closed or require an interface module purchased from the manufacturer. That is a check on your actual devices by model rather than an assumption from device class — and its result may be that a particular unit cannot be integrated at all.
And start with one device and one test end to end before integrating the whole lab: order, label, specimen, result returning to the correct record. The real problems appear in the first path — date formats, test coding, reference ranges — and solving them once before scaling is cheaper than discovering them across ten devices.
- It prevents the most serious error: a result on the wrong patient
- Check your devices by model — some are closed or need an interface module
- Start with one device and one test, end to end