Microlabs has always viewed technology as a way of increasing efficiency. Over the past couple of years we have tried to keep up with the industry trend. We have done this by periodically upgrading and updating our instruments and information infrastructure to be in line with newer industry standards.

In 2004 Microlabs migrated from our PMIS (Patient Management Information System)¹ to our LIS (Laboratory Information System)². Partnering with a major provider or LIS software, and actually one of the first Widnows™ GUI applications for an LIS, Microlabs ushered in a new era where our investment in technoogy was no longer a consequence of providing services but became a core function of our service model. Our LIS allows us to collect results from our instruments in real time from any one of our diagnostics centers islandwide. The capabilities are endless, with historical result comparisons and analysis, exceptional graphical reporting, and excellent QC record³.

Also with real time QC perfomance we are able to monitor instrument performance as far away as Montego Bay and employ corrective measures thereby improving our uptime to a proud > 99%⁴. This is a core function of our service associates - a team of industry professionals who use this real time data to determine when an instrument needs to come out of the system for servicing before a problem arises that will compramise the quality of the results we offer⁵.

Microlabs has pushed for a number of service innovations which we attribute to our relentless pursuit of the best way to achieve the best result. We have develoepd our own in-house technology model which is currently producing some remarkable breakthroughs in how the laboratory operates. Some of the current achievments include:

Virtual Instrumentation Platform

LIS Extra Reporting

Electronic Patient Result Transmission and Reporting

Electronic Medical Records

Quality Management Systems

The complete scope of the use of various technologies in Microlabs is not even glanced over above. However, we will try our best to continue to add more information on the importance of this aspect of our service model and will be sure to update the content; trying to capture as much of it as possible.

1 - Patient Management Infomraiton System was a legacy application developed for the 16-bit Windows™ platform in the early 1990s. It was based on the Microsoft Access Database platform and served Microlabs for the greater part of the 1990s.

2 - Laboratory Information System is a generic term used to describe any software the performs the functions of keeping records for patients and results and offering some interface to instrumentation and reporting. Microlabs' LIS is one of the first Windows™ GUI applications and was developed in California by a very insightful software development company. It is probably the most user friendly LIS available today offering the familiar Windows™ widgets and controls that one uses everyday while working with Windows™. It offers a full range of LIS features including graphical reporting which allows hardcopy data representation to be easily understood.

3 - Microlabs is an active participant in the American Proficiency Institute's Quality Program. Our excellent record of passing their administered tests for all departments are available at our head office along with all our certificates.

4 - Only where a service disruption occurs. > 99% is calculated by subtracting instrument failure time from instrument operational item and dividing by total instrument up time in a one quarter period or ((T_o - T_f) / T_o) x 100, where 'o' is operational time and 'f' is failure time. Instrument failure is defined by the manufacturer and that criteria is used to determine instrument failure time. An instrument taken out of service before this criteria is met is not considered a failure. An instrument that is replaced because of failure is not used in this calcuation because the operational time is not interrupted.

5 - An instrument that meets the manufacturer provided failure criteria should never be used to generate laboratory results as the results obtained cannot be verified.