Originally Published IVD Technology January/February 2003
EDITOR'S PAGE
Connecting into the New Year
For IVD manufacturers, connectivity is by no means a new concept. In fact, the makers and users of instrumented IVD systems have been on the cutting edge of the connectivity trend for quite some time. In most hospitals and clinics, laboratory analyzers as well as point-of-care (POC) devices are connected to a central laboratory information system (LIS) that compiles and stores clinical data and enables physicians to access patient information when needed.
When such systems were first conceived, however, a number of problems accompanied the development of connectivity capabilities in IVD instruments. Each manufacturer had its own unique way of connecting its devices with an institution's LIS, forcing these institutions to deal with multidevice integration, thereby increasing their equipment and management costs.
To eliminate these obstacles to the growth of the market for connected POC devices, IVD manufacturers soon recognized that it would be necessary to standardize connectivity among IVD devices. In turn, the Connectivity Industry Consortium took on the challenge of putting together standards that would meet the needs of healthcare providers for uniform connectivity and data transfer for POC devices. At the same time, the consortium preserved an open-systems approach that permits manufacturers to produce competitive advantages on top of the standard baseline.
Standardization issues aside, connectivity presents IVD instrument manufacturers a host of opportunities for growth. With the continuing development and expansion of broadband technologies, connectivity offers a number of possibilities to increase the capabilities of IVD devices. One such opportunity lies in expanding the reach of instruments, such that data can be sent via the Internet and made available to remote sites.
In this issue of IVD Technology, authors Carl Apfelbach and Jose de la Torre-Bueno discuss how their company has made use of such connectivity technologies. Their article, "Making Image Analysis Technology Accessible to Community Pathologists" (page 33), examines how a virtual network was set up to distribute the results of tests to clinicians in locations throughout the country.
The beginning of every year offers a time to reflect on what challenges may lie ahead. With this example of advanced connectivity in mind, perhaps more IVD manufacturers will soon consider expanding the capabilities of their instruments beyond what they are presently offering.
Copyright ©2003 IVD Technology
