OpenELIS Global 3.0  (August 2024) 

• New UI / UX

• Create a Rule builder for reflex and testing algorithms 

• Rule builder for Reflex tests and Algorithms.docx 

• Adopt the Carbon Design System for UI/UX standardization and modernization

• Allow multiple results for a test (EG: numeric plus a calculated result)

• Allow Attachments to test results (EG: images, pdf, etc)

• Integrate with terminology service (OpenConceptLab)

• Add calculated values test type

• • • Design document

• Enhanced HistoPathology Workflow

• • • Identify specimen origin (w/ Coding)
    • Pathology Stages supported (cutting, staining, slide workflow, etc)
    • Clinical Pathology (histopathology).docx

• Enhanced ImmunoHistoChemistry Workflow

• Enhanced Cytology Workflow

• Add the ability for custom questions based on program

• • • TB Program.docx

• Improved display of patient histories, including graphs of previous results.

• Adding a Shared Health Record (SHR) and International Patient Summary to the consolidated server stack.  

• • • Patient History.docx

• Add critical result values support

• • • Implement Critical Ranges.docx

• Add Symptoms to order entry

• Creating a box of samples for referral to a reference lab

• • • Build a box of samples.docx

• Add ability to remember Facility/Ward/Dr and/or Sample/Test information

• Internal Dashboards for users

• • OE Internal Dashboard.docx
• New, more human friendly Lab Numbering scheme
  • Link to the new number description
• Physician lookup of test results on the consolidated server.
  • Longitudinal patient test history across all sites  

OpenELIS Global 2.7  (March, 2023)

• Billing and Inventory Functionality: 
  • Adopted the Odoo open source ERP/CRM system to provide this functionality
  • Configurable billing tab
•  Updates of all core technologies
• New versions listed below
  • Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS
  • PostgreSQL 14.5
  • Docker 20.10.18
  • Apache Tomcat 8.5
  • Java 11
  • Maven 3.8.5
  • Python 3.10.4
  • HAPI FHIR 5.4.1
• Allow < > symbols in numeric results (important for lower/upper limit on analyzers)
• Single sign-on capability
  • Using SAML / OAuth2
• Reject Tests from reception
  • Reject samples.docx
• Can now search for tests on the order entry screen
  • Search tests.docx
• Update the user interface to support React framework
  • This will provide the ability to design much more interactive UI elements
• Ability to search by order date in the validation tab
• Enhanced backups
• New aggregate reports
• Bug fixes to the analyzer and reflex workflows
• More mature ASTM interfacing
• Removed extraneous UI element on order entry
• Other security fixes and enhancements

OpenELIS Global 2.6  (July, 2022) 

Features:

• User Management Overhaul
  • Ability to set user access permissions by lab section
  • “Base permissions on User” capability
  • Simplification of roles
    • Reception, Results, and Validation are now configurable by lab section
  • Search usernames
  • able to filter users by active or not, admins, by test section
  • Tests available to order from order entry filtered by lab section
• Implemented reporting range for tests in the test catalog
• Patient reports by referring site and date
• Add tests to the default catalog for Serology, Hematology, and Biochemistry Modules
• Add Lists of physicians to the FHIR data structure, allowing requesters to be populated from the list. 
  • Populate provider information from the provider registry on the consolidated server
  • See this link for information on how to add providers to the consolidated server
• Improve Reports
• Improve labels in Admin section
• Integration with Global Open Facility Registry (GOFR)
  • GOFR is now available as part of our Consolidated Server stack of application. It provides an great UI to manage a master facility list, and OpenELIS can be configured to update the list of facilities in it using the MFL.
  • Please click here to see a video demo 
• All geographical fields (EG: address, city, region, district, etc) are now customizable from the user interface in the admin menu. 
• Improved Integration with OpenMRS 
  •  Using the FHIR Module
• Repaired the facility search on the Organizations page
• Added support to scan the sample labels (XXX.1, XXX.2, etc) in all fields where order numbers can be searched. 
• Support order priority
  • STAT, ASAP, timed, future STAT, routine
  • Order priority will appear in workplans and order entry
  • STAT orders being received will alert those in the workflow at appropriate times
  • Order Priority.docx
• Hide the reference value on the patient report for select list tests for added clarity. 
• Finalized Quantstudio 3 support for COVID 19 analyzer interfaces 
• OE now loads current values into the reference range when editing a test
• Test name now wraps on the patient report to support longer test names. 
• All countries now appear for nationality in patient registration
• Redesigned Order entry page – Samples are together with the list of tests available now
• Reflex Test Pop Up notifications
  • Reflex tests.docx
• Add Native ASTM support
• Add Methods to tests
  • Methods.docx

OpenELIS Global 2.5  (November, 2021) 

Features:

• Ability for OpenELIS to communicate with clinical lab analyzers via HL7
  • This enables bidirectional communication with analyzers, they lab equipment can query OpenELIS for pending tests of the appropriate type, and import patient and sample data. The results are reported back to the LIS. 
• Electronic Orders screen refactored to increase speed of searches when incoming samples are over 150,000 samples.
• GenExpert Analyzer interface via HL7
• Ability to set the default number of barcodes for orders in the admin menu
• Reporting Ranges are now implemented in the test catalog.
  • If the result reported is outside of the reporting range, there is a pop-up which 
• Current reference ranges now load when editing a test, also select list options are similarly retained.
  • Prevoiusly, the reporting ranges and select list options were dropped when editing a test, now this has been fixed. 
• Fix to analyzer import for flat files
• Referred tests now no longer show a results date when no results are ready

OpenELIS Global 2.4  (September 2021) 

Features:

• Complete redesign of the referral workflow:
  • These new features should help labs manage a large number of tests that will be referred to a lab for results. This should be extremely useful for sites where COVID sampling is happening and sent to a lab for analysis, or for the viral load testing as part of HIV care, but has many other uses as well. 
  • Now tests sent to reference laboratories can be sent and received electronically
  • Reception of referred samples can be accomplished by just scanning the barcode
  • Patient reports can be printed directly from the referral screen
  • Status of all referred tests can be seen in the tables
  • See the user manual for a complete representation of changes, or visit the demo
  • One step referral from both the order entry screen and the results entry screen
  • Default the sent date to the current date when referring a test
  • Default the ordered test to the selected test in the referral menu
• Redesign of the electronic orders page
  • Search for incoming orders by passport number, national ID, referred lab number, etc
  • Enter an order directly from the electronic orders screen
  • View details of an incoming order 
• Print patient reports by patient
  • Search for a patient and generate all reports for them in the patient report screen
• Add checking to ensure that no characters that can cause a system error can be saved in the “Lab Number” field, even if validation is deactivated
• Ability to designate a lab test as “In Lab Only”, creating the ability to designate an internal QA check test that is not reported on the patient report. 
• Units / Wards in a hospital no longer need to have unique names
• Result and validation screens capped to 99 results for faster loading
• Biological Validation Screens: Created the ability to validate by accession number or by range of accession numbers. 
• Increased the speed of results and validation screen loading
• Increased the speed of saving results and validation screens 
• QuantStudio 3
  • Create experiment files for QS3 with plate setup and results file import
• Removed the non-interactive background images
• Improved the new patient demographic import
  • First the system searches the local DB and displays any options, then it displays the options downloaded from the remote demographics server when they are ready
  • Previously, it would wait till all sources were finished before displaying results
• Fixed various issues with the test catalog tools (significant digit fixes, switching test types, adding options to result entry)
• Fixed various bugs, including the “Too many redirects” installer bug
• Updates to patch potential security vulnerabilities
  • Did a full scan for vulnerabilities, both in source code and a scan of the application
  • Fixed security issues, updated any software moving to end of life, updated the target installation environment to Ubuntu 20. 

Consolidated Lab Data Warehouse Features:

• Holds information about every OpenELIS test run in a national lab network
• Serves the latest facility registry information, including wards
• Now collects more of the OpenELIS data model in FHIR format, including sample information and codable concepts for lab results 
• “Data Mart” style flat table creation for reporting on specific indicators
  • COVID-19 Reporting is the first set of indicators developed
  • This produces tables that can have visualizations developed using any data analysis software (EG: PowerBI, Tableau, Big Query, etc)

OpenELIS Global 2.3  (March 2021) 

Features:

• Enhanced email and SMS result reporting tools for all types of results
  • New features allow one to set conditions and defaults for messaging. 
    • EG: setting a custom message for non-normal range results for a specific test, and specifying that it should go via SMS to the patient and email to the provider.
    • One can specify a custom message for any test in the catalog, and specify what method (email or SMS) and in what scenarios the test should be sent (all results, normal range results, or non-normal results).  
  • Ad-hoc notifications, the ability in the order entry screen to specify that an SMS or email should be sent to the ordering physician or patient. Defaults are set via the admin screen. 
• ASTM Analyzer interfaces
  • Enhanced analyzer connection functionality to compliment the existing flat file import capability. 
• Electronic Referrals Functionality
  • Connecting the reference lab network to the consolidated server
  • Referred tests arrive electronically to the reference lab, allowing a scan of the barcode on the order or sample to import the test request, and simplify the reception process. 
  • Results are sent back to the requesting system electronically, allowing for much faster results. 
  • This has big implications for Viral Load of HIV testing, Early infant Diagnosis of HIV, COVID-19 and other outbreak diseases, and any reference test where speed of result is of the essence.
  • It will alleviate some of the bottlenecks faced at reception for reference labs.   
• New accession number format
  • Now more total numbers are available per year
  • The ability to not validate accession number format
    • This allows any number to be used as long as it doesn’t already exist in the system. 
    • The practical application is that one could use commercially pre-printed barcodes, or use different prefixes for different purposes within one lab 
  • Note: part of the 2.2 patch release

• Custom pre-printed barcode accession number formatting
  • Allows use of a custom prefix for preprinted barcodes. 
•    Pediatric reference ranges added
  • We now support reference (normal) and valid ranges going down to days! This is very useful for pediatric testing. 
  • We also added days to age entry on the order entry page. 
• Panels now stay in the order they were assigned

• Analyzer plugin and plate setup for QuantStudio3 Analyzer for COVID-19 testing
• Support for sub-locations (EG departments or wards)
• OpenELIS Global can now pull the facilities list from the consolidated server.

OpenELIS Global 2.1  (September 2020) 

This is a re-write of OpenELIS on modern frameworks and a significant security upgrade. At the end of this process, all tech will be currently supported and up to hardening standards. This software will be certified for use on US Government, and other high-security networks.

Features

• Added a FHIR R4 based API for electronic test orders and results reporting. We have a FHIR API which allows OpenELIS Global to accept electronic test requests, electronic transmission of test results and allows the use of a centralized consolidated lab data server for reporting. This interoperability uses LOINC to match ordered tests with the internal catalog. More details at docs.openelis-global.org
  • Video Demo of the link with OpenMRS
• Added support for electronic signatures for lab reporting
  • OpenELIS Global is now in full compliance with the WHO’s Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation (SLIPTA) checklist
• Support for COVID testing 
  • Built a Airport Passenger public health screening form which can be previewed at https://testing.openelisci.org
    • This is so that passengers can self-register on arrival for a COVID test, get swabbed on arrival at the airport and have test requests relayed via FHIR to the OpenELIS system at the airport lab. 
    • Demo of the self registration process
    • Demo of the OpenELIS workflow after the registration: 
  • Created the ability to email and COVID results to patients
  • Added COVID-19 tests to the default test catalog
  • Developed analyzer interface for PCR results
• Preprinted barcodes – Added the ability to create pre-printed barcoded labels for sample collection
• Created an enhanced search functionality that can perform partial matches and be connected to a demographics server to import search results.
• One button validation – Added the option to validate all tests within normal ranges with one click on the validation screen
• Hid the normal range display for select list tests – was counterintuitive and confusing for this test type
• Added the ability to set a default test result in new/edit test
• Changed reports to a plugin and added the ability to manage reports menus dynamically
• Built the ability to import the organizations list from a file, details in documents
• Built the ability to import geographic units from a file, details in documents
•  Added fields for contact person and details in patient information
• Added sample nature (ante-mortem, post-mortem or environmental) to sample information
• Updated the admin menu to make it less confusing (no submenus, reordered entries)
• Added English User’s Manual
• Improvements to the English language localization
• Various Bug fixes and cosmetic improvements