Electronic Laboratory Reporting

ELR is the automatic, real-time, secure transmission of electronic reports from laboratories to healthcare and public health partners. By law, laboratories must report certain conditions discovered during testing to state and local public health departments, which is essential for timely and effective response to outbreaks and cases of state reportable conditions.

ELR translates testing information in a laboratory information management system into a standardized electronic message. After these electronic messages are created, they are sent from the laboratory to public health partners through electronic data systems using standardized code sets such as HL7 Version 2.5.1, LOINC and SNOMED.

Each year, millions of ELR messages are sent through the AIMS Platform. Upon receipt of a standardized ELR message, AIMS validates and subsequently routes the ELR to the appropriate recipient(s), where it is ingested into the recipients’ system. This model effectively connects a national network of public and private public health entities, including state and territorial public health laboratories and agencies, hospitals, and national commercial laboratories. Utilizing AIMS to validate and route ELR messages reduces the need to establish and maintain point-to-point connections.