The LABTALK/2 system is a middleware interface between WizOrder and the clinical laboratory system. Initially, as order entry was first implemented, all requisitions for future laboratory tests were sent “unfiltered” from WizOrder to the laboratory system; when an actual specimen arrived in the laboratory, technicians there had to painstakingly identify the order associated with the specimen by retrieving it in the lab system. The LABTALK/2 project, developed by trainee Aamir Zakaria, involved three steps (a) all orders for future laboratory tests were “cached” in a database rather than forwarded to the laboratory system; (b) WizOrder was altered to print barcoded requisitions to be sent to the laboratory when laboratory specimens were collected, with the barcode identifying the patient and the specific order; (c) when laboratory technicians received the specimen, they wanded its barcode, automatically generating a request to the database cache to send the relevant order for that specimen to the laboratory system. This project greatly increased the productivity of the laboratory related to the clinician order entry project.

Primary Contact: Dario Giuse, Dr. Ing.