Interpretative reporting and alarming based on laboratory data

The utilisation of laboratory services for patient diagnosis and management involves many steps with both clinical and laboratory components. The clinical components include the decision to order a test, intepretation of the test results and actions taken on the basis of the results. The laboratory components on the other hand include receipt of the request, specimen collection, preparation and analysis, result entry, test result validation and verification and reporting of the results. In this paper, which is part of the OpenLabs project, we concentrate on the post-analytical applications which include interpretation and reporting of the laboratory results to the users in primary care and in high dependency care units. The final objective of the work described is to develop generic modules which can be integrated both with an Open laboratory information system architecture and existing laboratory information processing environment.