First Two US labs Go Live with X-Lab's Labgnostic: the World's First Agnostic Laboratory Exchange Network

UK company launches successful pilot between TriCore and Arkana Labs to enable interoperability between diagnostic laboratories.

LEEDS, England, ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. and LITTLE ROCK, Ark. , May 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, X-Lab, a UK-based company who owns and operates a systems-agnostic laboratory exchange hub, called Labgnostic, went 'live' in connecting their first two US labs to the network. New Mexico-based TriCore and Arkansas-based Arkana Labs are the first two labs to join the lab-to-lab service and experience faster turnaround times, improved efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and patient-safety.

On the news of the "Go Live", X-Lab's CEO, Mat Barrow, said:  "We're excited about the go-live between TriCore and Arkana. This represents the first step towards growing a national exchange of laboratories in the US and sharing the benefits which the UK has been experiencing for a long time. As more labs join the network, the possibilities of what Labgnostic can offer to the US market will only grow stronger."

Both labs will see dramatic changes to the way lab-to-lab referrals work for them, alongside a host of benefits to using the system. Labgnostic enables requests to be automatically sent from the requesting lab to the reference lab as soon as an order is generated, it enters the reference lab's Laboratory Information System (LIS) and, when a sample arrives, it can proceed to testing straight away and, when a result it generated, this will be sent back to the requester via Labgnostic almost immediately.

TriCore, an independent, regional laboratory  who already receives 12 million samples per year, is aiming to create efficiencies for this business and increase capacity for new business from referring laboratories:

• Electronic interfaces allow TriCore to be more accessible to other labs
• TriCore are aiming to set up four electronic interfaces direct to their partner labs this year
• Each interface would only be used for around 1000 specimens per year
• Each interface costs around $25,000 with $3000-5000 annual maintenance fees
• Labgnostic can enable TriCore access to a network of labs via a single interface to exchange samples with any other lab on the network, for a fraction of the cost.
• TriCore also sends 14% of its tests to other labs, one of which is Arkana
• Currently, TriCore needs to transcribe the results for around 30% of the samples they recieve, which equates to 3.6 million results per year

Arkana, a speciality lab, are also looking to improve their business operations via electronic connectivity between labs:

• Many of Arkana's samples arrive, without prior warning, on a paper form which needs to be manually transcribed into the Arkana Laboratory Information System (LIS).
• Arkana receives around 3000 samples per month which equates to over 100 biopsies per day
• These 100 biopsies come from around 50 different sources, meaning that only around two samples per day come from each sender
• Arkana often has to chase missing patient information to ensure they can bill patients or insurers for their work.
• In the current workflow, results are sent back to the customer via email or fax where the customer manually transcribes the results back into their LIS or EMR.
• With Labgnostic, Arkana will be adding the capability for electronic workflows for internal and external stakeholders.
• Arkana are experiencing 14% year-on-year growth in use of their service, Labgnostic will help free up capacity to further enable this.
• Labgnostic can enable Arkana to meet their goal of same-day turnaround times and their goal of 20% of all orders being electronic by 2024.

The Labgnostic team is still looking for US labs to join their network as early-adopters. If you think your lab might benefit from the service then please email Aaron Green, Head of North America ([email protected]).

About TriCore:

TriCore is an independent, clinical reference laboratory founded and headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. TriCore provides over 2900 full-service, state-of-the-art laboratory tests to healthcare professionals and their patients. TriCore also provides analytics and research services, supporting healthcare and scientific organizations worldwide. Visit www.tricore.org 

About Arkana Labs:

Arkana Laboratories is a center for esoteric pathology focused on one thing: improving care for patients. As the largest renal pathology lab in the United States, Arkana is dedicated to providing rapid testing and results for all of our patients. We are a learning, teaching, innovating practice, with a mission to advance understanding of disease and provide world class diagnostics that aids in our work toward research breakthroughs. Visit https://www.arkanalabs.com/ 

About Labgnostic:

Labgnostic is developed by X-Lab, a UK-based healthcare software company. Labgnostic, Inc. is a wholly owned US subsidiary of X-Lab. X-Lab's core product, Labgnostic, is a service which connects almost 200 diagnostic organisations (primarily diagnostic labs and proficiency testing providers) together through exchange hubs across Europe, the US and, soon, Australia. Labgnostic - which has historically been marketed under NPEx (the National Pathology Exchange) in the UK - is the market leader for laboratory interfacing in the UK 100% coverage across English, Scottish, Welsh National Health Service). Labgnostic was also the data infrastructure for the UK's national COVID-19 testing response which saw the service process more than 300 million COVID-19 results for UK citizens with peak transaction volumes of two million tests per day. For more information, visit www.x-labsystems.com/products/labgnostic.

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SOURCE X-Lab