CLSI Publishes "Laboratory Automation: Communications with Automated Clinical Laboratory Systems, Instruments, Devices, and Information Systems"
The document provides standards to facilitate accurate and timely electronic exchange of data and information between the automated laboratory elements. This will allow and encourage scalable, open systems, and extendibility and interoperability of automated laboratory elements.
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Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) recently published a new document, "Laboratory Automation: Communications with Automated Clinical Laboratory Systems, Instruments, Devices, and Information Systems; Approved Standard -- Second Edition (AUTO3-A2)." The document provides standards to facilitate accurate and timely electronic exchange of data and information between the automated laboratory elements. This will allow and encourage scalable, open systems, and extendibility and interoperability of automated laboratory elements.
This standard provides a protocol for communications between Laboratory Automation Systems (LASs), Laboratory Information Systems (LISs), automated instruments (analyzers), and pre- and postanalytical (pre- and postexamination) automated devices.
Andrzej J. Knafel, PhD, Roche Diagnostic Ltd, and vice-chairholder of the committee that developed the document, says, "This document enables optimization of workflow in an automated laboratory through providing a standard for the exchange of information about the capabilities and processing status of system devices. This information can be used by the Laboratory Automation System in controlling the process and controlling system performance. Ease of integration, increase in total system performance, and increase in patient safety are the desired primary benefits for vendors and health care providers. These have been the driving principles for the CLSI laboratory automation standardization activities since they started in 1996."
The primary audience for this standard includes health care providers in the clinical laboratory implementing laboratory automation, vendors of laboratory automation, instrumentation, and laboratory information systems. In the future, elements of this standard may be applicable in the anatomic pathology, cytology, and related laboratories, as well as in nonclinical (analytical) laboratories. Additionally, although the focus of this standard is clinical laboratory automation, elements of the standard may apply to related (nonautomated) areas such as small analyzers or point-of-care devices.
