Reqscan: An open source solution for laboratory requisition scanning, archiving and retrieval.

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Laboratory Medicine
• Open Source Software Development

Background:

• Effective requisition storage and retrieval are crucial for outpatient laboratory testing.
• Manual paper requisition management is inefficient and time-consuming.
• Existing commercial solutions for barcode requisition digitization can be costly.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present Reqscan, a novel open-source software for digitizing patient laboratory requisitions.
• To demonstrate a cost-effective and efficient method for requisition storage and retrieval.
• To provide a practical solution for automating the naming and archiving of digitized requisitions.

Main Methods:

• Development of a dedicated Python application named Reqscan.
• Implementation of barcode scanning functionality to extract patient and test information.
• Saving digitized requisitions as portable document format (PDF) files, automatically named by barcode data.
• Testing and integration into routine clinical practice at St. Paul's Hospital.

Main Results:

• Reqscan successfully scans patient laboratory requisitions and extracts barcode information.
• Digitized requisitions are automatically named and saved as PDFs, facilitating efficient retrieval.
• The software has been successfully implemented in a real-world clinical setting, improving workflow.
• Demonstrated feasibility of using open-source tools for critical laboratory processes.

Conclusions:

• Reqscan offers a simple, efficient, and cost-effective solution for outpatient laboratory requisition digitization.
• Open-source software can be effectively utilized to enhance laboratory information management systems.
• The implementation at St. Paul's Hospital validates the practical application and benefits of Reqscan.