laboratorieinformationssystemet

Laboratorieinformationssystemet, often abbreviated LIS, is a specialized information system used in medical laboratories to manage the data and workflow associated with laboratory testing. It covers the lifecycle of a specimen from receipt to result reporting and archival, including sample registration, test ordering, and result delivery to clinicians.

Core functions include sample tracking, queue and workflow management, instrument interfacing, result entry, validation, reporting, and quality control. The system coordinates with laboratory instruments and analysers, automatically importing results, flagging outliers, and documenting audit trails. It typically also handles inventory, reagent management, and billing or workload statistics.

Interoperability: LIS often exchanges data with hospital information systems such as EHR/EMR, using standards like HL7, FHIR, and terminology systems such as LOINC and SNOMED CT. This enables seamless ordering from clinicians and delivery of results to the appropriate electronic records.

Regulatory and quality context: LIS supports compliance with privacy and data protection regulations (for example GDPR in the EU and HIPAA in the US) and with laboratory quality standards such as ISO 15189. It provides audit trails, access controls, and versioned test methods.

Impact and challenges: By improving traceability, turnaround times, and error reduction, LIS is central to modern clinical laboratories. Challenges include integrating with diverse IT environments, vendor dependence, data governance, and maintaining up-to-date equipment interfaces.

In practice, laboratories choose a LIS based on scope (clinical vs research), integration needs, scalability, and support for local regulatory requirements.

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