We received some fantastic news last week. DMF Systems was named 2021 Laboratory Supplier of the Year at the Irish Laboratory Awards. This prestigious accolade is a testament to our dedicated team and all their hard work, especially with the increased demand for the communication of laboratory tests since the outset of the pandemic.

 

A big thank you to the organisers for putting on a great virtual event and to the judging panel for their time and expertise. A special thanks to our customers who are at the heart of everything we do at DMF Systems and to whom we are enormously grateful for their continued support. It has been an incredibly challenging year for many and we have watched in awe at the commitment and tenacity our customers across the healthcare industry have shown since the pandemic hit.

 

Our winning submission was based on our Lis2Lis integration work (a component of the MediBRIDGE suite), implemented between the National Virus Reference Laboratory and hospital laboratories across Ireland in the period from February 2020 to May 2020. Due to a ten-fold increase in respiratory samples tested daily by the NVRL following on from the outbreak of COVID-19, DMF Systems was requested to implement a further seven additional Lis2Lis interfaces over this period, on top of the twenty-two Lis2Lis interfaces that were already live across Ireland.

 

1) MediBRIDGE – Laboratory Communication Solutions 

 

A key area of focus for our organisation is centred on the delivery of MediBRIDGE– a suite of Laboratory Communications solutions that are used by hospital laboratories across Ireland. MediBRIDGE is a safe and secure electronic transport service for communicating laboratory results.

 

All laboratory data transmitted through MediBRIDGE is encrypted in transit. Through the MediBRIDGE infrastructure, DMF Systems is the single largest carrier of inter-Laboratory Diagnostic information in Ireland.

 

Lis2Lis – Laboratory to Laboratory Integration

 

Lis2Lis is the Laboratory-to-Laboratory integration module of MediBRIDGE. Lis2Lis provides a bi-directional interface that facilitates two-way communication between two laboratory information systems.  When implemented, Lis2Lis permits a referring laboratory to send laboratory requests automatically and securely from their Laboratory Information System (LIS) to a referral laboratory’s LIS. When results are available, they are sent back to the referring laboratory and automatically incorporated into their LIS.

 

Let’s take Galway University Hospital (GUH) as an example to follow through. Laboratory test requests are input into the Galway University Hospital LIS, an ASTM message containing unique identifiers for the Patient ID, the Sample ID, and the details of the test requests will be sent from the LIS system to the DMF Lis2Lis integration Service.  The message structure is verified and then translated into the format required by the National Virology Reference Laboratory (NVRL). The encrypted message is then transmitted to NVRL using the Secure File Interchange Service MediBRIDGE software.

 

Once the message has been received and processed by the NVRL, a results message containing the unique identifiers and the test results will be transmitted via MediBRIDGE back to the DMF Lis2Lis integration system for translation, and then back to the Galway University Hospital system to be viewed.

 

 

Key Projects and Initiatives

 

DMF Systems works with the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL) which is the largest medical virology laboratory in Ireland. We have implemented several Lis2Lis integrations between the NVRL and hospital laboratories throughout Ireland.

 

While the NVRL typically processes in the region of 2500- 3000 respiratory samples per month during the average influenza season, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic this capacity had to be rapidly increased to process up to 1000 samples per day. To help deal with the huge increase in testing, we implemented a further seven additional Lis2Lis interfaces in the period from February 2020 to May 2020 on top of the twenty-two Lis2Lis interfaces that were already live across Ireland.

 

The additional Lis2Lis interfaces that were implemented in response to Covid-19 were between the:

• NVRL and Mercy University Hospital Cork
• NVRL and Cork University Hospital
• NVRL and University Hospital Kerry
• NVRL and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Navan
• NVRL and Mayo University Hospital
• NVRL and Portiuncula University Hospital
• NVRL and Naas General Hospital

 

Our experienced integration team have integration experience with all of the main Laboratory Information Systems in use in Ireland, e.g., iLab, Telepath, and Apex. This coupled with their dedication and commitment meant that we were able to meet this challenge head-on and successfully deliver the Lis2Lis interfaces ahead of schedule.

 

The key benefit for the NVRL is that a greater throughput of tests can be handled as the need for manual data entry is eliminated with Lis2Lis. For the referring hospital, the Lis2Lis implementation ensures the efficient, safe capture of laboratory results while also massively speeding up the delivery of the results.

 

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MediBRIDGE is the Safe and Secure Electronic Transport Service for Laboratory and other types of Healthcare Information!

Are you looking to integrate your hospital’s laboratory with another laboratory and automate the sending and receiving of your laboratory test requests and results?

Contact us today to discuss your project!

Arrange a Consultation>>

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Innovation 

 

A lack of integration between laboratory information systems is a huge issue across Ireland when it comes to the efficient transmission of laboratory test requests and the subsequent transmission of test results. One of the issues is that laboratories run a variety of Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) that do not easily integrate with one another.

 

That’s where DMF Systems Lis2Lis solution comes in! Lis2Lis provides a secure channel for integrating and communicating information between disparate laboratory systems.

 

Here’s how Lis2Lis works:

 

When laboratory requests are created in a referring Laboratory’s LIS, a HL7 or ASTM message containing unique identifiers for the Patient ID, the Sample ID, and the details of the test requests, is sent from the LIS system to the DMF Systems Lis2Lis integration Service.

 

The message structure is then verified, and the message is translated into the format required by the receiving laboratory’s LIS e.g. The NVRL. The message is then encrypted and securely transmitted to the referral Laboratory via MediBRIDGE.

 

Once the message has been received and processed by the NVRL, a results message containing the unique identifiers and the laboratory test results will be transmitted via MediBRIDGE back to DMF Systems’ Lis2Lis system for translation to the required format.

 

Then the results are securely transmitted back to the referring Laboratory’s LIS.

 

The referring lab outputs messages through a TCP/IP socket into the DMF Systems Interface software. The frequency of transmission is fully configurable but may vary from implementation to implementation on the volumes of messages.

 

DMF System’s databases are used to store message details for use by the Importer and Exporter for translation purposes.

 

The MediBRIDGE technology facilitates the translation of the HL7 or ASTM request messages into NVRL format and likewise facilitates the translation of NVRL result messages into the HL7 or ASTM format. Below is a representative schema of a sample Lis2Lis integration.

 

 

Our Commitment to Customer Service

 

We are passionate about providing great customer service to our clients. We understand that our ongoing reputation as a leading healthcare ICT provider rests on our client’s satisfaction.

 

We utilise a MediBRIDGE monitoring tool which automatically notifies the DMF Systems Support team in the event of an issue occurring. Our dedicated Support team provide support from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

 

We are an ISO 9001:2015 certified company for our Quality Management System. We have successfully held an ISO certification for our quality management systems since 2005. This standard is based on several principles including a strong customer focus and commitment to continual improvement.

 

 

Outcomes and Results

 

The Lis2Lis integration removes the need for manual data entry for the laboratory staff in referring laboratories and the referring hospital. This frees up valuable staff resources which would otherwise be required to chase up paper results and doublecheck manually entered results. This was of particular importance to many Laboratories running at capacity throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Thanks to Lis2Lis We Have Been Able to Deliver the Following Outcomes

• All laboratory results are secure and fully traceable.
• The turnaround time from the collection of the patient sample to the laboratory result being available in the hospital’s LIS is significantly reduced which also has a positive impact on patient safety.
• Lis2Lis safeguards patient results from tampering or loss.
• The Lis2Lis workflow offers securely restricted access to patient results by avoiding mail and fax.
• The system is full auditable. MediBRIDGE keeps track of all messages sent and received. All sent messages are stored in MediBRIDGE in the original encrypted format.

 

If you would like to know more about Lis2Lis or any of our other MediBRIDGE laboratory communications solutions, get in touch today!