Healthcare software is a market that has grown from data management to a wide variety of tools that support the growing demand for advanced computational software. Workflow automation, lab productivity, data visualisation and application-specific software such as drug discovery, genomics, microbiology, pathology and toxicology are all examples of healthcare and life science workflows seeing more specific tailored software that is designed to solve challenges with a particular subset of applications related to a given speciality.
Laboratories that support healthcare programmes can turn to sophisticated software platforms that will accelerate research. Whether developing drugs and vaccines, helping scientists better understand diseases, or providing faster and more precise diagnoses, healthcare software opens up new opportunities to harness computing technology for scientific discovery.
Innovation and research breakthroughs in this area are directly tied to better patient outcomes and more specialised and personalised medicines for disease. Healthcare software helps support digital transformation and enables organisations to take the next step towards a connected and digital laboratory that supports higher productivity and faster insights from research.
Healthcare software products on the market now:
Apex Healthware offers a laboratory information system (LIS) built on a set of established modules. These core components manage order entry, specimens, analysers, results processing and reporting. Using a “rules- based” design, all components can be configured to meet the specific requirements of a given workflow.
The core LIS components support plug-in modules for various specialities including genetics, microbiology, pathology and toxicology. Apex provides a comprehensive Compliance Module in all versions of its LIS to ensure compliance with regulatory and manufacturer requirements.
CDD Vault from Collaborative Drug Design offers a user-centric informatics platform. CDD Vault aims to help research teams manage, analyse, and present data via an intuitive user interface accessible from any web browser.
Scientists can use this software to intuitively organise chemical structures and biological study data, and collaborate with internal or external partners through the web interface.
eLabJournal from eLabNext is used for both small and large-scale medical laboratories. The software allows users to trace, match, and visualise lab workflows; allows improved productivity and collaborative efforts; and can elevate research with a secure and compliant online lab notebook.
eLabJournal is designed to have an easy- to-use interface. Explicitly designed for life sciences R&D, the digital lab notebook includes modules for sample tracking and protocol management.
Data can be connected by uploading or externally linking any file to an experiment. The company’s mobile app (Android and iOS) lets users add images directly. Users can maximise customisation with the eLab API and SDK, and with access to the eLabJournal ELN software core functionality, can customise their ELN to fit a lab’s specific needs.
Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare aims to make it easier to improve the entire healthcare experience. Instead of managing their own data centres, users can take advantage of Microsoft’s scale and experience in running exabyte-scale workloads.
Because Microsoft Genomics is on Azure, users have the performance and scalability of a supercomputing centre, on-demand in the cloud. User can take advantage of a back-end network with MPI latency under three microseconds and non-blocking 32Gbps throughput. This back-end network includes remote direct memory access (RDMA) technology that enables parallel applications to scale to thousands of cores.
Microsoft Azure provides users with high memory HPC-class CPUs to help get results fast. Users can scale up and down based on what they need and pay only for what they use to reduce costs.
Orchard Software’s Orchard Cloud Services offer a secure environment for a LIS, intended to strengthen system security, increase reliability, and simplify maintenance, allowing users to focus on patient care. Today’s anatomic pathology laboratory requires a reliable information system infrastructure to accession specimens, record gross and microscopic findings, regulate laboratory workflow, and create and deliver reports to requesting providers and organisations. The anatomic pathology laboratory information system (APLIS) must also support quality assurance initiatives, boost patient safety efforts, and aid in regulatory compliance measures.
An effective APLIS plays a key role throughout the pathology workflow, supporting and monitoring laboratory operations across the testing continuum. To achieve rapid turnaround time and support an interoperable healthcare system, an APLIS needs to be interfaced. This allows orders to be electronically received from the host system or EMR/EHR. Testing and patient information is transmitted to the pathology instruments, and patient reports are delivered back to the ordering provider. This connectivity speeds the communication of vital results and contributes to the overall quality of patient care.
OSP supports healthcare and life science companies by developing bespoke software and offering a range of services tailored to software and system development. This includes web development, mobile application development, project management and quality assurance (QA) and testing.
LabWare’s healthcare laboratory automation solution aims to drive delivery of quality healthcare results, operational efficiencies, improved laboratory fiscal management, and regulatory compliance. LabWare flexible workflow tools automate clinical test order processing through the entire order life cycle.
Configurable order management, specimen collection, and accessioning tools address various situations including manual order entry, CPOE via an automated interface with HIS or EMR, interface with another LIS, and import of batch order files.
Other integrated features include sample collection/ phlebotomy, built-in tools to capture ICD-9/10 codes with medical necessity checking, recurring orders, cloning and merging orders, double data entry, question forms, and label printing.
SoftFormance offers its services to medical organisations and labs that need to improve the storage of patient samples, automate trials on the impact ofpharmaceuticals on patients, improve cost-efficiency, and solve many other challenges of healthcare lab management. This includes software consulting, system customisation, custom software development, medical lab software interoperability, regulation compliance assistance and Internet of Lab Things integration.
SoftFormance will map out users’ lab processes and help them to choose the medical lab software that fi ts them best. If a user already has medical lab management software that needs improvement, SoftFormance says it can help them to customise it.
