CAP TODAY Pathology/Laboratory Medicine/Laboratory Management
View interactive Laboratory Information Systems Product Guide
November 2016—When CAP TODAY magazine ran its first laboratory information systems product guide in the 1980s, an LIS was an LIS—nothing more and nothing less. Today, however, it’s a lot more, and the black and white of it have swirled to gray.
The addition of niche functionality, such as voice recognition, scheduling, imaging, billing, and even anatomic pathology and molecular diagnostics capabilities, have muddled the original definition of a clinical lab information system. Adding to the stew is the classification of LISs that meet meaningful use criteria as EHR modules, as well as a blurring of the distinction between an LIS and a LIMS.
On the flipside, vendors of anatomic pathology systems, such as AP Easy Software Solutions, are adding clinical functionality to their software at the behest of customers. We assume a growing number of vendors are facing similar requests and challenges.
In addition to its LIS guide, CAP TODAY will continue to provide software listings for blood banking, billing, AP, laboratory-provider links, and, in the future, for molecular diagnostics testing and other niche markets. Our goal continues to be to list products in the guides that are most applicable based on the functionality provided in a particular system.
While we expect an increasing number of vendors will expand their product offerings with crossover functionality, particularly between AP and LIS, we’ll do our best to put the square peg in the square hole in the interest of simplifying our readers’ search for the right IT system for them.
On the following pages, CAP TODAY profiles 31 laboratory information systems from 30 companies. The data presented for each company are based on vendors’ responses to a questionnaire. We encourage anyone interested in purchasing an LIS to verify the validity of the information presented, particularly a company’s claims of offering innovative features, and to speak to the users of any system in which they are interested. —Kim Carey, managing editor [hr]