Electronic Laboratory Reporting Advancing, But Greater Adoption Needed

Two recently published studies indicate that electronic laboratory reporting (ELR) is substantially penetrating laboratory and physician workflow, although much more needs to be done to reach meaningful use stage 2 goals. ELR holds promise for both improving the quality of individual clinical care and speeding the nation’s response to infectious disease outbreaks. State and local public health departments have made substantial progress in ELR in recent years. The number of state and local health departments receiving electronic reports from laboratories has more than doubled since 2005, with 54 state and local public health departments now receiving laboratory reports electronically, compared with 26 in 2005, according to a Sept. 27 study in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Additionally, nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of the 20 million total lab reports received were reported electronically in 2013, an increase of 8 percent in just the past year. “Electronic laboratory reporting can give health officials better, more timely and complete information on emerging infections and outbreaks than they have ever received before,” said Robert Pinner, M.D., associate director for surveillance, programs, and informatics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a statement. “Implementing these systems is a complex task […]