Clinical diagnostic laboratories may have business goals that include increasing profits, reducing costs, or accelerating innovation. Continuous improvement is an organized approach to identifying opportunities to achieve these types of goals. What is a continuous improvement pipeline? In our work with clinical labs, we recommend building a continuous improvement pipeline—a repeatable mechanism (often called a “recipe”) for planning and deploying […]
Read More
In previous posts, we’ve talked about the importance of integrations for clinical diagnostic labs. Integrations can help labs improve business performance, reduce the risk of errors, and boost productivity. We’ve looked at file- and API-based integrations for liquid handlers and how to overcome the technical challenges of implementing integrations within a lab environment. In this post, we’ll take a closer […]
Read More
In my previous post in this two-part series, I talked about how software can support your analysts as they follow your laboratory’s standard operating procedures (SOPs). This time, let’s take a closer look at how software that closely matches your SOPs can help your lab reduce errors, enhance morale, and improve patient safety. Two ways to view errors made in […]
Read More
It might come as a surprise to some laboratory managers, but a lab’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) offer software consultants key insights into the workings of your lab. They also describe how your lab software should behave—assuming they are up to date. In this two-part series, we’re going to explore how SOPs relate to your lab software and how a […]
Read More
The success of any clinical diagnostic laboratory software project depends on multiple factors—including how much preparation the lab has done before calling in a consultant, whether they have a thorough understanding of their requirements, and if they have identified specific areas where they need help. In this post, we describe several common scenarios where labs have reached out to us […]
Read More
In clinical diagnostic laboratories, end-to-end testing of complex LIMS workflows is a critical part of the laboratory validation process. Performing these tests manually takes a Herculean effort. They’re hugely time-consuming and prone to error. Automated testing is an obvious solution, but these tests can also be expensive and take considerable time to create. That’s why we developed a reliable and […]
Read More
In our previous post, we talked about the importance of data provenance for clinical diagnostics laboratories—that is, tracing the origin and changes to critical data such as electronic health records, analytical results, and workflow records. But no conversation about data is complete without also considering the ontology used. Proper data management is crucial for labs If your laboratory wants to […]
Read More
In clinical diagnostics labs, there’s a pressing need for data provenance—tracing the origin and changes over time of critical data such as electronic health records, analytical results, and workflow records. Provenance is information about entities, activities, and people involved in producing a piece of data or thing, which can be used to form assessments about its quality, reliability, or trustworthiness. […]
Read More
A lab’s informatics system is critical for its effective operation. As we discussed in a previous post, in the early stages of a lab’s business development, a complex system might not be necessary—the lab could simply use word processing or spreadsheet software. But as labs develop new tests and ramp up throughput, a robust informatics system becomes increasingly necessary. In […]
Read More
For low-throughput labs, manual processing might be the simplest and best way to operate. But for high-throughput labs, automation is the key tool needed to boost speed and efficiency. Every process you currently perform manually is an opportunity for incremental improvement. So, it makes sense to automate as many processes as possible once your monthly throughput exceeds a certain threshold. […]
Read More
