Delivery of laboratory data with World Wide Web technology

Area of Science:

• Veterinary Medicine
• Health Informatics
• Information Technology

Background:

• Veterinary clinical pathology laboratories generate data often stored in legacy systems.
• Existing systems lack direct integration with hospital information systems, hindering clinician access.
• Limited accessibility of laboratory results impacts timely clinical decision-making in veterinary medicine.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a World Wide Web (WWW)-based system for delivering veterinary laboratory results.
• To create a secure, location-independent method for accessing patient data.
• To enhance the usability and accessibility of clinical pathology data for veterinary clinicians.

Main Methods:

• Developed a 'meta' system to parse routine print reports from legacy systems.
• Instantiated parsed data into a modern, open-architecture relational database.
• Utilized a data model based on international standards for data representation and communication.
• Implemented secure WWW-based delivery for location-independent data access.
• Incorporated value-added graphic representations for enhanced data visualization.

Main Results:

• Successfully created a WWW-based system for accessing veterinary laboratory results.
• The system enables data viewing through any standard web browser.
• Ensured no adverse impact on existing legacy laboratory or hospital information systems.
• Designed for future extensibility and inter-institutional compatibility.

Conclusions:

• The developed WWW-based system effectively delivers veterinary laboratory results to clinicians.
• Enhanced data accessibility and usability improve the potential for better patient care.
• The system's design supports future integration and compatibility within veterinary health informatics.