Editor’s Introduction: Although the movement to shift lab test results reporting to the Web is still in its earliest stages, a growing number of laboratories are actively preparing to offer this service to their physician-clients.
In response to the demand for solutions to permit lab test results reporting via the Internet, new vendors have joined the existing group of LIS companies. To help sort vaporware from reality, THE DARK REPORT called laboratories around the country and developed the following vendor/lab client status list.
Companies included on the list, to the best of our knowledge, have a product ready to sell and install which supports Web-accessed test results reporting between the laboratory and the physicians’ office.
Further, these companies have at least one clinical laboratory which is actively using the product. It is important to distinguish whether a laboratory using a specific company’s product was a development site or a paying customer. A laboratory which paid to acquire and implement the service makes a much better reference than one which acted as a development site.
It should also be noted that this list reveals how few laboratories have actually implemented a solution that allows physicians’ offices to use the Web to access laboratory test results. The list is by no means complete, but it is representative of the major lab users for each company’s products.
Acquiring this information was a time-consuming chore. Many vendors, particularly the large, traditional HIS/LIS companies, do not respond rapidly (nor with honest, accurate information) to inquiries about the actual status of these products and which labs are paying customers with live installations. As THE DARK REPORT gets additional (and accurate) information from such companies, it will update this list.
The difficulty of getting objective and accurate information is a major reason why this year’s Executive War College will again offer a special one-day program on May 10, 2001 devoted exclusively to “Web-based Lab Test Ordering and Results Reporting Information Solutions.” (See details on back cover.) Nine leading companies will share the podium and a vendors’ fair will provide attendees with access to additional companies offering these products.
Results Reporting via Web
ATLAS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Woodland Hills, CA www.atlasdev.com
Atlas Development Corporation has a product called “LabWorks” to support lab test ordering and results reporting. LabWorks is “configurable to handle any combination of workstations running local databases or operating as thin clients, with Windows or browser-based user interfaces.”
Currently two large companies use LabWorks. One is Dynacare, Inc. The other is a national healthcare corporation which has yet to issue a public announcement about its contract relationship with Atlas Development Corporation.
Dynacare’s labs in Seattle and Mississippi are the first installations of WeblabWorks, which uses a browser. Mississippi went live with Web-accessed lab test results reporting in November 2000. Web-accessed lab test ordering will be implemented by second quarter 2001.
CAREEVOLVE.COM
Elmwood Park, NJ www.careevolve.com
Unlike other vendors listed here, Careevolve.com has a product for lab test results reporting which generates income for its laboratory customers. Careevolve.com is a division of Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc., also located in Elmwood Park, New Jersey.
In simplest terms, Careevolve.com is a physician’s Web portal. The physician
pays a monthly fee to access this portal, which provides a variety of services useful and relevant to physicians. Among the services is Web-accessed lab test results reporting, now operational, and lab test ordering, expected to be operational in mid-2001.
Careevolve.com has been operational since august 2000 and approximately 500 physicians in the New York metropolitan area subscribe to this service. Bio-Reference laboratories is marketing Careevolve to both independent labs and hospital labs that want to link to their physician clients using the Web. It believes its revenue sharing model—which generates monthly income to the participating labs—sets it apart from other Web-accessed test ordering and results reporting products.
CERNER CORPORATION
Kansas City, MO www.cerner.com
At Cerner Corporation, “ePathLink” is the system for Web-accessed laboratory test ordering and results reporting between the laboratory and physicians’ office. It’s compatible with Cerner’s existing LIS products. ePathLink provides “order entry and results inquiry with secured, anytime, anyplace access to the LIS. It also includes medical necessity checking.”
ePathLink has been converted at Continuum Health Partners, New York, New York (an integrated health system which includes Beth Israel Hospital). It is also used for Web-accessed lab test results reporting at North Shore Health System Laboratories in Lake Success, New York.
DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Lake Mary, FL www.dht.com
Pathology results reporting can be accomplished through the Internet by using the “CoMed for results” system of Dynamic Healthcare Technologies (DHT). Dynamic offers products in several clinical areas, including the “rad plus” system for radiology, “ePremier” system for clinical laboratory and the “CoPathPlus” system for anatomic pathology.
Several pathology groups are using the “CoMed for results” system for Web-accessed pathology results reporting. Knoxville Pathology Group in Knoxville, Tennessee maintains its own host for this ASP product. ProPath Laboratories in Dallas, Texas uses Dynamic’s Florida center to host its results.
iMcKESSON.COM
San Francisco, CA www.imckesson.com
iMcKesson’s laboratory product is called “PracticePointLab.” It was developed by Abaton.com before McKesson/HBOCpurchased the company in the fall of 1999.
“PracticePointLab” is a browser-based laboratory order entry and automated results management system. It lets physicians electronically order tests, track those tests, and receive test results. The system also has embedded display capabilities that allow cumulative reporting and charting of test results.
For several years, Allina Health System in Minneapolis has used “PracticePointLab.” Centrex Clinical Laboratories of New Hartford, New York uses “PracticePointLab” to link its hospital labs with the core lab. Centrex also uses it in its outreach sales program, installing the system in the offices of physician-clients so they can use a Web browser to order lab tests and access the results. In recent months, the laboratory at Weill Cornell Medical Center of New York Presbyterian Hospital began installing the iMcKesson’s product in physicians’ offices to allow Web-accessed lab test ordering and results reporting.
ISYS/BIOVATION, INC.
Orlando, FL www.isysbiov.com
Isys/Biovation, Inc. designed its “Messenger” product as a comprehensive open laboratory information system. Built upon the newest information technology, it’s a thin client, ASP system that’s adaptable to most clinical laboratory environments.
“Messenger” is capable of linking labs with physicians through LANs, intranets, and the Internet. In recent months, several laboratory clients of “Messenger,” using it within their health system’s LAN, have begun to add physicians’ office users outside the LAN who access test results over the Internet using the system’s browser.
LABDAT.COM
Burbank, CA www.labdat.com
Another California-based entrant in lab test ordering and results reporting is LabDat.com. It includes a feature which allows HIPAA-compliant reporting to patients and has a set-up wizard that allows each physicians’ office to customize the way it uses LabDat.com. The patient-reporting functions are designed to save physician time when interacting with the patient.
The development site for LabDat.com is Healthline Clinical Laboratories, Inc., also in Burbank. The system has also been deployed at Millennium Clinical Laboratories in Los Angeles, California.
LABPORTAL.COM
Chantilly, VA www.labportal.com
Another new player in the lab informatics space is LabPortal.com, based in Chantilly, Virginia. the company describes its system as “a private and secure ‘web wrapper’ to the lab’s existing laboratory information system (LIS), linking laboratories with their physician and other clinical clients via the Internet—giving them online access to test ordering, reporting, and medical necessity screening. It includes customized features to help the lab better its customer service and improve revenues.”
LabPortal.com was funded by Golder, Thoma, Cressy, and Rauner, the private equity firm which also provided capital to Dynacare, American Medical Laboratories, and Park City Solutions (which purchased Chi Laboratory Systems, Inc. in late 1999).
LabPortal.com is close to finishing its alpha and beta site development work (done at American Medical Laboratories in Chantilly, Virginia and Geisinger Health System Laboratories in Danville, Pennsylvania). It expects its first true laboratory customers to be up and running in March 2000.
LABTEST.COM
Midland Park, NJ www.labtest.com
With headquarters in midland park, New Jersey, Labtest.com offers a product “that allows labs to deliver test results in real-time via the World Wide Web.” The lab test.com system is up and operating at several laboratory companies.
In January 2000, Diagnostic Laboratory Services, Inc. (DLS) of Honolulu, Hawaii began using Labtest.com’s system for Web-accessed results reporting. DLS maintains the remote host within its central laboratory. The Labtest.com system is also in use at PathLabs, Inc. in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It become operational late in 2000.
METRICOM, INC.
Weymouth, MA www.metri.com
For laboratories and hospitals with internal technical staff, Metricom, Inc. offers to license the source code for its “LRSweb” system and will help the lab or hospital customize and interface this code with its existing HIS and LIS installations.
The LRSweb system implements a complete ordering, result reporting, scheduling, and medical policy checking solution and uses secure connections over the Internet. the secure Internet capabilities of LRSweb are also suitable for bi-directional CPU-to-CPU links, as well as supporting links with specialty testing sites.
The LRSweb system has been in operation at the UMass Health System Laboratory, in Worcester, Massachusetts for more than three years. It uses the Web to process nearly 10,000 requisitions per month from affiliated hospitals, referring laboratories, and medical practices.
PROXYMED, INC.
Fort Lauderdale, FL www.proxymed.com
ProxyMed, Inc. has developed a comprehensive system for clinical reporting. To strengthen its presence in the lab marketplace, in 1998 it acquired Key Communications Service, Inc. (with an existing base of customers using Key’s teleprinters for lab results reporting).
ProxyMed wants to link laboratories, hospitals, clinics, physicians, pharmacies,
and other healthcare providers for all aspects of clinical ordering and reporting through an Internet network maintained by ProxyMed.
Its solution for laboratory test results reporting can be operated as a stand-alone system, as can its specialized system for pharmacy ordering and results. according to ProxyMed, Wuesthoff Reference Laboratories in Florida and Boston BioMedica are using its system for lab test results reporting with physician clients.
SOFT COMPUTER CONSULTING
Palm Harbor, FL www.softcomputer.com
Soft Computer Consulting, Inc. (SCC) is updating the capabilities of its “SoftLab II” system. this product has been capable of Web-accessed test ordering and results reporting, but the new version will incorporate the most recent software technology designed to use the Internet to maximum advantage.
Unity Health System and its ACM Laboratory division in Rochester, New York currently use SoftLab II to allow its physicians’ office clients access to lab test results via the Web. Unity will move to the enhanced, thin-client version when it becomes available in early spring. Mt. Clemens Hospital in Mt. Clemens, Michigan is also expected to implement SCC’s SoftLab II system this spring.
SUNQUEST INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Tucson, AZ www.sunquest.com
Sunquest Information Systems has built its “FlexiLab” LIS product suite around functional software modules. This modular approach gives it the flexibility to add other functions to the basic LIS package.
For users on an intranet, FlexiLab has a module called “Remote Web Access.” This allows a viewer to access lab test results using a browser and pc connected
to a corporate intranet.
Comments:
Two companies were not included in this list, but are active in the laboratory marketplace. MedPlus, Inc. and Axolotl, Inc. have systems designed to accommodate the entire spectrum of clinical data. Their products are in operation at several locations and are transmitting laboratory test results to physicians.
For reasons explained elsewhere in this issue, WebMD, Inc. and Advanced Health Technologies, Inc. (Dr. Chart), were not mentioned. During 2000, laboratories had unfavorable comments about certain aspects of their business relationships with both companies.
One pioneering company in Web-accessed lab test results reporting is Integrated Informatics, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia. It has several installations operating in the field, and specifically requested that it no description of its products be included in this vendor list.
