OpenELIS: Open Source Laboratory Information System (LIS)

OpenELIS is a robust Enterprise Laboratory Information System built around an extensible and scalable framework. OpenELIS is designed and developed through the collaborative efforts of Public Health Laboratories to accommodate business processes that are common to all public health laboratories; encompassing clinical, environmental, newborn screening, and animal testing.

The goal of the OpenELIS team is to develop a state of the art system that is economically sustainable by reducing both initial investment and ongoing maintenance costs. By using an open source approach, we ensure that the project will continue to evolve and meet the changing needs of the community.

The project has potential to become a viable product that can be used in clinical laboratories. It uses cross platform programming language Java and open source database PostgreSQL. One of their goals is to be able to connect to EMRs using connectivity standards.

http://openelis.uhl.uiowa.edu/

HITSP HL7 Lab Standards Webinar

I found this interesting HITSP standards webinar series that is available online.

http://www.hitsp.org/archived_webinars.aspx

The link includes PPT presentations that are discussed in the recorded sessions.

California HIE Releases Open Source ELINCS Documentation

Early this year Alliance Medical Center received a grant from California HealthCare Foundation to demonstrate a simple software tool to receive electronic laboratory results in the new ELINCS format. ELINCS is a messaging system intended to standardize the electronic reporting of test results from clinical laboratories into electronic health record (EHR) systems. A new "HL7-R1" format of ELINCS was adopted by HL7 this past Summer. Today Alliance Medical Center is joined by two partners in releasing a technical specification titled "Using Mirth to transform HL7 v2.x into ELINCS (HL7- R1)".

www.redwoodmednet.org/projects/hie/docs/amc_elincs_20081121.pdf

WebReach Announces Mirth 1.8

Mirth 1.8 has over 200 new features, improvements and bug fixes driven
by your feedback. Some highlights for Mirth 1.8 include:

- Added delimited file support (e.g. CSV files)
- Added DICOM Listener (C-STORE SCU) and DICOM Sender (C-STORE SCP)
- Improved server stability and performance
- Improved UI performance and usability
- Improved inbound and outbound queuing and queue message management
- Added network share authentication support to the File Reader/Writer
- Added SSL and TSL support to SMTP connections
- Added attachment and HTML support to the Email Sender
- Added XSLT transformer support
- Added ability to reprocess and replace stored and errored messages
to only specific destinations
- Added support for transformations using an external JavaScript file
- Added option to check for and install new Mirth updates and updates
to Mirth extensions
- Added auto-creation of the Mirth database schema if it has not been
created yet
- Added ability to import/export entire connectors

You can browse the Mirth 1.8 release notes for the complete list at:

http://www.mirthproject.org/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?version=10100&styleName=Html&projectId=10000&Create=Create

LOINC version 2.26 and RELMA version 3.25

Regenstrief Institute and the LOINC Committee are pleased to announce that
LOINC version 2.26 and RELMA version 3.25 are now available for download:

http://loinc.org/downloads

This latest version of RELMA includes support for the new context-specific
hierarchies and is also available with multilingual searching via separate
download. RELMA now uses and requires the .NET framework. LOINC version 2.26
features the new Long Common Name.

In addition, we now offer a computable representation of the multi-axial
hierarchy, and selected panels/forms (with hierarchical arrangement and
answer lists) as separate exports available for download.

ELINCS defined

The EHR-Lab Interoperability and Connectivity Specification (ELINCS) specification provides a profile that refines (or constrains) “standard” HL7 messages to moving lab results from reference labs to physician offices. Like IHE, the ELINCS profile constrains the generic HL7 standard to a specific set of use cases. In addition the ELINCS standard provides business rules that must be followed between the trading partners. Such rules are outside the scope of the base HL7 standard.

CHCF Awards $120,000 to Implement New ELINCS Lab Standard

California providers will use the specification to improve delivery and exchange of clinical information

September 22, 2008

The California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) today announced it has awarded eight grants to implement a new version of the EHR-Lab Interoperability and Connectivity Specification (ELINCS) to deliver lab results to clinical information systems.

ELINCS is a format that enables standardized lab results reporting between laboratories and ambulatory electronic health records (EHRs) systems. It provides a common language for patient data and helps providers deliver the right care by making data consistent, accessible, and accurate.

Grant recipients include independent physician associations, community clinics, private practices, and other ambulatory care providers across the state, which will receive technical assistance and up to $15,000 each over 12 months. The recipients are:

• All for Health, Health for All, Glendale
• Chinese Community Health Care Association, San Francisco
• Clinica Msr. Oscar A. Romero, Los Angeles
• Community Health Alliance of Pasadena, Pasadena
• County of Santa Cruz Health Services Agency, Santa Cruz
• Foundation Laboratory, Pomona
• Redwood MedNet (with CliniPro), Ukiah
• Redwood MedNet (with SpringCharts), Ukiah

"This is a great step to broaden ELINCS adoption to help providers and patients manage chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease," said Sophia Chang, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Better Chronic Disease Care Program at CHCF. "Improving access to accurate and timely lab results is also a patient-safety issue."

CHCF supported ELINCS in collaboration with leading national health care organizations, and this year transferred its copyright and management to HL7, a standards development organization that is recognized and accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

"Given the specificity of the HL7 ELINCS implementation guide for the electronic reporting of laboratory results to ambulatory EHR systems, such standard transactions should be cheaper and faster to implement, providing immediate value to the health care industry," said Bill Braithwaite, long-time HL7 member and former board member. "We feel that HL7's open, rigorous, and multi-stakeholder standards-development process provides an appropriate home for implementation guides of widespread applicability and national importance, such as ELINCS, and we are happy to take over its development and management."

The new version includes changes to ELINCS that conform to the HL7 v2.5.1 message standard and meet the 2008 Certification Commission for Health Information Technology's EHR certification criteria.

With grants to implement ELINCS, CHCF and HL7 will receive feedback that can be used to improve the specification; expand adoption of ELINCS throughout the state and across the country; demonstrate models for use in diverse settings; and keep California organizations in step with national initiatives.

Electronic lab reporting will be a topic of discussion at the annual meeting of the American Health Information Community tomorrow, September 23 at 8:30 AM Eastern, in Washington, D.C. The public can participate remotely via www.videocast.nih.gov.

For more information on ELINCS, visit www.elincs.org.

Contact Information

Marcy Kates
California HealthCare Foundation
510.587.5162

Related CHCF Pages

ELINCS: Developing a National Lab Data Standard for EHRs