Medical device instruments need reliable, automated connectivity to the systems around them: electronic medical record (EMR) systems, medication management systems, patient administration systems, and laboratory information systems (LIS). Without this connectivity, a company’s medical device or instrument cannot reliably exchange patient results, orders, and other data with the hospital IT environment it operates in.
Whether the need is downloading patient data from a hospital information system, integrating software written in different programming languages, or exchanging data with other devices or wearables, these systems need a dependable way to communicate.
Why Interoperability Became Urgent
Healthcare professionals have faced periods of unprecedented strain, including the demand surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed EMR systems to adapt quickly to changing requirements for patient care.
“We have never had an international crisis of this proportion in the lifetime of the current EHR,” said Dana Bensinger, MSN, RN-BC, informatics nurse specialist and client solution executive at consulting firm CTG. “Once things settle down, there will be a lot of analysis of how well our systems performed, what our areas of vulnerability are, and how we fix them for the future.”
With unpredictable demand for hospital capacity, hospital IT departments were forced to deploy EMR systems to alternative care facilities quickly.
EMRs were initially designed to make medical information about patients readily available to doctors and health care workers across various practices, wherever a patient needed treatment. Because of the rules and regulations in place when EMRs were designed, interoperability between systems has been a significant concern, and it has hindered the flow of critical medical information.
How the LIS Connector Reduces Integration Risk
The RND Group’s LIS Connector reduces human error during manual entry, improves the quality of the data workflow, and helps ensure results are reliable. The RND Group offers LIS integration services for both released medical device software products and those still in development, with an off-the-shelf product as well as the ability to customize it to fit a customer’s needs, which can help get a solution to market faster.
HL7, POCT1-A, and ASTM 1394/ASTM 1381 are the predominant communication protocols for lab and diagnostic devices, and they are supported by an easy-to-use interface in the LIS Connector.
Does Your Device Need LIS Integration?
Not every medical device or instrument needs LIS connectivity, but most lab and other medical teams want to work with devices that can connect to their IT environment and EHR. Being able to remotely download or send individual test results and orders is a crucial component of patient care.
LIS integration is often included as part of a client’s medical device software project from the start, while other clients come to The RND Group solely for LIS integration.
The RND Group’s LIS Connector product has been deployed across a range of FDA-regulated instrument software projects, and it has never been the reason a submission stalled. It is a proven, verified product for integrating medical device software with LIS systems.