Electronic Test Orders and Results

When public health laboratories and medical providers can exchange test orders and results electronically, it allows them to bidirectionally share critical information in near real-time—increasingly considered a core public health need. ETOR eliminates the need for manual data entry, thereby reducing errors and improving data quality. ETOR also allows laboratory staff to anticipate and prepare for incoming samples. The sooner laboratories receive and process test orders, the faster they can return results, which is essential for improving public health surveillance as well as direct patient care. 

However, public health laboratories have had limited success implementing ETOR to date, as building the information technology (IT) infrastructure is consuming, expensive and requires dedicated staff. Additionally, each instance of ETOR with a provider has been a one-off solution, needing to be re-implemented and maintained for each partner, making widespread ETOR largely unachievable in public health.

APHL has developed a national ETOR solution on the AIMS platform, called Detor. Detor provides a centralized approach that takes the onus off laboratories to develop their own disparate technical solutions and, instead, allows them to plug into existing infrastructure, leveraging and sharing tools, resources and technical expertise to achieve ETOR nationwide. 

The AIMS intermediary approach to ETOR substantially reduces the need for data exchange expertise at the laboratory, removing that as a barrier to implementation. Translation and mapping happens in AIMS, allowing healthcare providers and laboratories to submit and receive orders and results in their preferred formats. This model also comes with dedicated technical assistance from APHL and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help facilitate the onboarding process.

Learn more about Detor