Laboratories worldwide are battling with astronomical amounts of data and constantly looking for efficient ways to manage it. Old-fashioned laboratories no longer work because of the advancement in technology.
Over time, regulatory requirements have changed, forcing laboratories to store large amounts of data, automate workflows, and adhere to ever-evolving data storage standards.
Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIS) are one example of the sophisticated data management and quality assurance tools now widely used by laboratories.
The Importance of LIS in Today’s Health Care Sector
Research Gate states that the healthcare industry generates over 19 terabytes of clinical data annually.
To manage this huge amount of data, an information system called an LIS was developed to store and organize medically-related data in laboratories.
An efficient LIS (Laboratory Information System) is an addition to your team, managing all sample data and streamlining processes, enhancing the result’s quality produced daily.
Laboratory information systems are essential to sectors like healthcare in the modern data management landscape. And with the market size of LIS software exceeding $500 million in 2022, its use within laboratories is growing exponentially.
LIS is a cloud-based lab information system, a subscription-based platform that can be accessed online. Additional hardware or software installation is not required as the vendor meets all maintenance requirements.
Subscribers frequently have the option to choose the features they want in their LIS, allowing them to create a product according to the laboratory’s requirements.
NovoPath’s laboratory information system is an excellent cloud-based solution that offers several benefits to healthcare organizations. It is designed to improve data management, assure quality, and streamline laboratory operations.
Laboratories can efficiently and effectively comply with regulatory requirements using NovoPath’s LIS, streamlining sample tracking, and automating result reporting.
Now that you know how crucial LIS is to the healthcare sector, it is time to discuss its benefits to the health industry.
1- Lab Automation for Effective Sample Management:
While running a lab, sample management is perhaps the most difficult process. These samples should be carefully managed during collection, identification, and segregation.
An LIS offers sample access and a machine interface to simplify and expedite sample management tasks. When samples are accessed using an LIS, their unique barcodes are used to identify them. The samples are identified, and these codes are further scanned by the interface.
Utilizing real-time lab automation, instruments automatically transmit results into reports. It is the most effective method for guaranteeing a nearly error-free operation, even when processing large sample volumes.
2- Streamlining Data Management:
One crucial advantage of using a Laboratory Information System (LIS) in healthcare is simplifying data management. Laboratories have relied heavily on paper records and manual data entry in the past, which presented difficulties and raised the possibility of errors.
However, LIS creates a paradigm shift by centralizing and digitizing data, which optimizes and streamlines patient data and test results.
An LIS replaces the need for time-consuming paper-based systems with an efficient electronic one by switching to a digital platform. Healthcare professionals can easily access and retrieve information because an LIS stores patient-related data, including medical history, test orders, and results.
In addition to saving time, this lowers the possibility of data entry errors.
3- Enhancing Patient Safety:
Health information systems allow you to easily access patient data, enabling you to store all the information and share it across multiple databases to increase patient safety. You can store your data securely in the LIS cloud while streamlining workflows for end-to-end communication.
The system can also notify you when there are any problems regarding a patient’s health. For instance, program security checking can send alerts to healthcare providers about the adverse effects patients may have on a specific medication if they take it against the advice of a doctor.
Making decisions without all the necessary knowledge will put you at risk for significant mistakes. Utilizing LIS will help you avoid any such errors.
4- Eliminating Human Errors for Enhanced Precision:
When taking manual measurements, gathering samples, or transcribing data, even the most focused and meticulous laboratory employee is prone to mistakes. There is a high chance of errors, which could lead to inaccuracies, whenever there is a lot of data to be collected.
You can integrate your laboratory information systems with your instruments for accurate and automated data collection. You can share the results across departments even if you have manually recorded observations in the LIS.
5- Maximizing Efficiency in Healthcare:
Through automation and streamlined procedures, Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) improve workflow efficiency in healthcare organizations. By automating routine tasks like sample tracking and result reporting, an LIS saves staff time by requiring less manual labor and allowing them to concentrate on more significant duties.
Healthcare teams can collaborate and communicate more effectively, which also increases productivity. While data analysis and reporting offer insights for decision-making based on evidence, quality control mechanisms maintain accuracy and dependability.
An LIS significantly improves workflow effectiveness, resulting in better patient care and more efficient business processes.
6- Seamless Coordination for Enhanced Treatment Processes:
An LIS is a technologically driven system that streamlines the exchange of protected health information (PHI) between businesses and service providers.
The system also enables patients to receive seamless and coordinated care from healthcare professionals. Patients with diagnoses that require extensive medical information management and cross-specialty treatment coordination benefit the most from LIS. Above all else, it enhances patient outcomes and care delivery.
7- Ensuring Quality and Compliance:
Quality control and compliance in healthcare are crucially dependent on LIS systems. High-quality control procedures are incorporated, automating error detection and highlighting unusual results.
An LIS decreases the risk of errors brought on by manual interventions, ensuring testing consistency and accuracy.
LIS automation streamlines validation procedures for new tools. It guarantees calibration and verification before production and facilitates ongoing validation to maintain accuracy.
Moreover, laboratory compliance with regulatory standards, such as CLIA and CAP accreditation requirements, is facilitated by LIS systems. An LIS creates reports for regulatory audits and enables corrective actions for non-conformities by tracking compliance with quality control and assurance standards.
Final Thoughts:
Modern LIS can revolutionize lab operations and give lab workers more freedom and work control. A lab can increase operational effectiveness by putting a laboratory information system in place.
If you want to eliminate the need for manual data logging and maintenance, using an LIS would be the ideal solution.
With more precise data, decision-making is improved, along with a reduction in human error; it covers a range of compliance standards that help laboratories meet their security, legal, and privacy needs.
