I have been working in a laboratory now for a good few years within the UK NHS. During this time I have experienced a vast number of laboratory information management systems (LIMS) and pathology database systems.
In essence these systems are used to:
1) Store patient demographics, results from blood tests, biopsies, x-rays and other data created from pathology investigations etc.. in a secure manner
2) Interface a variety of analysers that carry out the testing of the samples
3) Link the results from the analysers to the correct patient record
4) Print paper reports for the requesting doctor and send various forms of electronic downloads and messages to other related systems
5) Audit security and access and in some cases perform other database related functions such as financial packages and stock control packages.
There are a number of commercial packages available but they all seem to lack the OOOOOOHHH factor that is really essential for the product to stand out from it’s competition. It is highly apparent that the majority of these systems show their age and are merely based on a small database with ad-hoc modules added on as and when they are thought up. Therefore they lack the kind of fluid, well-planned user interfaces and in many cases are clunky old Unix programmes run via telnet sessions and dumb terminals.
One of the most amusing products I have been able to look at is a system that boasts itself as a piece of windows software….. Sounds good in comparison to some old text based Unix system one would assume?….. However on close inspection all of the main ‘user interaction’ takes place in a *DOS* based program which the user later merges into a ‘Windows style’ dialogue box with the click of a button. WHY!?!
With the current reliance on Microsoft beginning to lapse, due to open source, cheap / free alternatives such as Linux and mySQL it seems like there is a gaping hole in a market, where each project generally costs in excess of ?1,000,000, for a product designed from the ground up taking inspiration from the good aspects of the current systems.
The thing is nobody seems to want to go back to basics and plan from the beginning. A simple, stable and secure database back end with a intuitive GUI and a reporting facility along with any other ideas given by the people who actually use the systems ‘day in day out’ and you would have a market leading product.
There are small businesses who have database systems which are more complex than the systems used in many (if not most) of the worlds healthcare laboratories and that just makes no sense.
So the floor is open for someone with some fresh ideas to come and blow away the competition!