Lab Interoperability | Connectivity

Why connecting to Labs is becoming difficult for EMR / EHR vendors

Interoperability between disparate components of the healthcare spectrum has largely been limited to big hospitals that had a dire necessity for systems that spoke to each other.However, a quantum shift is taking place in the health IT industry to develop interfaces that facilitate seamless connectivity, exchange and sharing of information.

Related Article : What is Interoperability?

Connecting Laboratories to Electronic Medical Record/ Health Record (EMR/EHR) systems is a critical piece of the interoperability puzzle. In order to navigate this puzzle better, let’s look at some of the challenges faced by EHR vendors in connecting with Labs:

Related Article : Did you know the challenges faced by EHR vendors?

Lack of Standardized Interface

With a variety of EMR’s / EHR’s available in the market, there are several interface standards.
Every EMR/EHR has its own standard and varies depending on the end-user requirement.
For instance, the HL7 standard does not remain the same between different EMR/EHR vendors. This results in complex connectivity issues when connecting with Labs.

Lack of Intuitive Intelligence

Most EHR software does not have intuitive intelligence to detect a lab order and send an acknowledgement to the ordering physicians.
Due to this, physicians and lab staff are forced to manually follow-up on the status of the lab order and to retrieve the lab result.

Lack of Troubleshooting Engine

When a lab order is placed from the EMR/EHR, due to a variety of reasons format mismatches can happen.
Rigid error-catch engines to troubleshoot such issues are required to validate and notify the user.

Mismatch of Codes

When the lab order is placed from the EMR/EHR, it contains the Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) codes, ICD codes that describe the patient problem.
These codes need to be mapped with the codes used by the laboratories. If the codes are different, it will result in a mismatch and create interpretation issues.
In addition, the EMR/EHR needs to be up-to-date with the latest collection of medical codes. If not, there are chances for wrong interpretation of the codes at the receiver end.

Complex Connectivity

Every EMR/EHR is designed differently to connect with third parties such as laboratories.
Vendors are required to design separate interfaces individually to connect with each laboratory.

What next?

With a huge wave of consolidation happening in the Health IT industry, a lot of interest has been generated around interoperability solutions. The need of the hour is a bi-directional Lab interface that can connect any EMR/EHR with any laboratory.