[Effective use of a laboratory database: quality assurance and laboratory workflow applications]

Recent laboratory information systems have usually adopted a client server system. Computing tools which can provide easy access to a database using simple language are now strongly needed. These functions are provided in an End User Computing (EUC) system. An EUC is defined as follows: 1) General end users can easily access the database of the laboraotry system and extract objective data stored in database. 2) The extracted data will be easily converted to files that can be processed by commercially available software. In this paper, we demonstrate the examples how to use the EUC for a quality assurance system and analyses of laboratory workflow. In the case of quality assurance, we demonstrate the setting of reference intervals from stored laboratory data concerning health care examination programs at our university. Secondly, we developed a system of monitoring quality control data, and set parameters for delta checking and actual zone QC method. We can estimate and design an outline of laboratory workflow from extraction of the time currently required for each task. We can measure the turn-around time for laboratory testing and rate of requests for laboratory tests received from physicians via order entry system. Moreover, we can estimate and simulate the waiting time and time required for analyses by outpatient clinics. These time monitoring systems reflect the design of laboratory workflow such as the labor and equipment time required in laboratory work. These uses of laboratory data are currently expanding further and further in the fields of education and laboratory research. We believe that information technology will facilitate future advances of laboratory medicine.