DIGITAL TECHNOLOGYIS PAVING THE WAY TO REDEFINE THE LABORATORY SCENARIO

HEALTHCARE IT

Digital technologyis paving the wayto redefine the laboratoryscenario

R.Subramanian,Vice President - Product Management and Business Development,Transasia Bio-Medicals talks about connected healthcare infrastructure and its accelerated acceptance

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated acceptance of connected healthcare infrastructure. Be it pathology laboratories, clinical set-ups or hospitals, the focus is on enhancing operations through faster adoption of the latest technological advancements. In areas related to Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), HIS, cloud storage, apps, etc., labs and hospitals are competing to ensure better quality of services for patients and stakeholders.

Digitisation of laboratory medicineIt is a well-known fact that treatment decisions depend on timely availability of reliable lab results. However, a majority of the patients in India reside in areas that lack a sophisticated lab infrastructure and thus have to spend their time and money on travel. In such a scenario, the advent of digital technology can transform rural India and make ‘New India’ a reality.

Digital technology has led to reducing the barriers between patients and clinicians and clinicians and pathologists. A pathologist based in a metro or mini-metro can easily be consulted by using smart phones through whatsapp, etc.

In fact, government institutes are liaising with manufacturers to take digital technology to the PHC level. Manufacturers are offering a comprehensive suite of medical instruments connected with LIMS and a web cam. This allows the doctor to generate formal reports, which can be retrieved on the followup visit of the patient. Moreover, a large amount of data is generated which can be used for generating MIS for analysis.

Additionally, integration of collection centres and patient

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and rider apps ensures convenient home collection. This has aided greatly in reducing the patient’s travel and ensuring faster diagnosis and treatment, thereby contributing to better outcomes.

With highly evolved AI tools, pathologists and clinicians can now invest their time and expertise to focus on assessing rare and complex cases. Further, it also reduces the time spent on routine/ manual slide reviews, etc.

Moreover, digital records and reports ensure full traceability and easy retrieval by both the patient and clinicians, at any location, any time.

Digital transformation is shaping the future of labs and IVD companies in India in the following ways: ◆ Integration of Laboratory

Information Management

System (LIMS): Data today, has become the central point of all operations to optimise patient outcomes. Cloudbased LIMS and middleware solutions are aiding the amalgamation of automated instruments within the labs, across lab chains, ensuring quality, TAT and transforming traditional labs into ‘Smart labs’. ◆ Cloud-based platform for data security: LIMS solution based on secured cloud-based platform allow labs to store, document, share, analyse and manage data to standardise operations. Healthcare informatics will be in demand in the future with sharing of information among medical practitioners for better diagnostics and treatment. The cloud-based solutions guarantee 24x7 data security and seamless data transfers across various locations at a fraction of the cost of managing one’s own datacenter. ◆ Shift from preventive to

predictive maintenance:

From an operational point-ofview, downtime remains one of the biggest concerns for laboratories. The days of preventive maintenance are fast giving way to predictive maintenance. Major diagnostic

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manufacturers are offering automated instruments integrated with IoT and AI capabilities for predictive maintenance to limit downtime. This is helping in increasing customer satisfaction and minimising loss of business. Devices with IoT capability can sense when specific components are exhibiting faults or when they near their expected end of life and communicate this back to technical support. Timely actions can be initiated to resolve them – from alerting to scheduling maintenance, replacing parts or requesting a completely new/ upgraded device. IoT and AI tools are being put to good use in these areas. ◆ Inventory management: Remote monitoring is also used to evaluate the usage and consumption of reagents for each test along with their expiry to allow efficient management of lab inventory and utilisation. Further, by analysing actual usage data, the lab and the supplying company can provide better customer service by pre-scheduling the delivery of consumables. This is particularly relevant for a diagnostic laboratory that is faced with a major challenge of optimising load capacities of capital equipment across various centres and ensure faster TAT. ◆ Minimising complexity in trouble shooting: Capturing error codes and directly alerting the staff and support teams has reduced the time taken in trouble shooting and reducing downtime. Also, tapping the equipment’s performance and understanding mean time between failures has aided greatly in load balancing during crucial hours. A lot of this was demonstrated in the handling of large number of COVID related tests during the peak of the pandemic. Specialised software can be useful for tracking the functioning of medical devices at scheduled intervals to alert users of impending failures, etc. ◆ 24x7 remote access: While nothing can replace personalised customer service, IoT is playing the role of an adjunct to ‘smarter’ personalised customer service. In the traditional approach, a device manufacturer provides an after-sales service to solve a problem with the instrument in case of a breakdown. This could result in repeated visits by the sales team to first diagnose the problem and then fix it. However, with IoT, the service team can receive real-time reports. Technicians can thus remotely access the

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