Information technology and the clinical laboratory. Agenda for the '90s

The innovative use of information technology will be an essential response to the intense pressures and challenges health-care institutions face entering the final decade of the 20th century. Those pressures will affect the clinical laboratory and will result in significant use of improved information technology. The implications for laboratory management are significant. Changes in work methods, human resource needs, knowledge of information technology, and even laboratory organization will refocus the manager's attention. Routine, day-to-day activities that consumed the manager's attention will be handled automatically; long-range strategic planning, quests for productivity, and quality improvements will become more important and demanding. This article reviews current and evolving innovations in information technology and projects their impact on the clinical laboratory. Hardware, software, and communications technologies are examined. The effects on the laboratory, its manager, and the hospital are discussed.