Exciting times in the era of the electronic medical record

The mission and goals of hospital laboratories are changing rapidly with greater emphasis on activities such as point-of-care testing and outreach testing, working in tandem with other automated systems in the hospital.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the European laboratory information systems (LIS) market earned revenues of $153.7 million in 2005 and estimates this will reach $218.1 million in 2012.

"For many hospitals, the changes in LIS are related to a drive to connect together various hospital departments and departmental software," said Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Konstantinos Nikolopoulos.

"Clinicians want to be able to enter data into electronic records and they want to both import and export data from electronic medical records (EMR) and hospital information systems (HIS) to LIS and vice-versa."

The need for connectivity and increased data sharing is one of the most significant factors encouraging laboratories to examine their LIS policy. Some hospitals are in possession of legacy systems and other obsolete LIS that do not provide much flexibility and interconnectivity and therefore require complete replacement.

However, the classic LIS, designed as a multi-functional system to support hospital laboratory activities with emphasis on work and specimen flow for hospital inpatients and outpatients, has been dominant in the clinical laboratories for more than three decades.

This has led to 90 to 95% market penetration levels for LIS software. The early technology vendors that implemented legacy LIS still have a strong hold on laboratories that have no money to make expensive outright LIS replacements.

"Old relationships are thus valued and new entrants find it extremely difficult to penetrate the market," according to Nikolopoulos.