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Case study · Nexus suite · Laboratory

LIS
Laboratory Information System

A complete laboratory system that also runs as its own business unit, with its own cashier, books and partner-lab network. It includes an HL7 v2 analyser gateway and a simulator that let the whole analyser-to-report path be tested without lab hardware.

Role: Solution architect & lead engineer
Client: Private hospital, Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Part of: Nexus suite, integrated with HMS & Accounting
Status: Going live at the reference hospital
Stack: Go · PostgreSQL · Lit · HL7 v2.5.1 / MLLP · LOINC · ZPL

01 at a glance

271: tests across 10 sections
15: panels · 19 specimen types
162: age- and sex-specific reference ranges
121: critical ranges
127: tests with LOINC codes
12: audited order stages
10: versioned result templates
8: laboratory staff roles

02 the workflow

Order, pay & collect

front of the lab

Order and pay in one transaction: patient → tests/panels → pricing → discount and tax → payment → order, all atomic.
Three billing modes: paid, deposit, or deferred to the inpatient bill in HMS.
Specimens: one specimen per tube type, derived automatically, with extra tubes added when tests are added later.
Labels: Code 128 and QR, with Zebra (ZPL) label printing.
Tracking from collection to disposal, with rejection and re-collection.

Results & safety gates

the bench

A 12-stage order status with an audited event for every step. Moving backward needs a supervisor.
Workbenches per specialty, driven by 10 versioned templates: haematology, biochemistry, microbiology, PCR/molecular, blood bank, urinalysis and others.
Automatic flagging (N/L/H/LL/HH) against reference ranges chosen by the patient's age and sex, with server-side validation.
Critical values cannot be released until the notification to a clinician has been logged.
A passing QC run is required before results can be submitted, and PCR batch controls must pass before result entry.
Reflex suggestions are advisory and never place orders on their own.

Verification & reporting

release

Microbiology staged release: Gram stain → interim → final culture, with antibiotic panels.
Pathology addenda that keep the original report.
Verification per analyte and in batches, with return-to-technician.
Immutable report versions (interim / final / amended / addendum, each watermarked) and signed PDFs.
Delivery by email, SMS, WhatsApp and Telegram, which can be held until the bill reaches a set paid percentage.

Lab network

a business unit of its own

Lab branches and lab-to-lab transfers.
Partner-lab referrals with inter-lab balance settlement.
Own cashier and books: lab checkout posts to the ledger as cash, insurance or patient receivable (see Accounting).

03 analyser integration

HL7 gateway: lis-mllp

separate Go service

An MLLP listener that accepts HL7 v2 ORU^R01 results from lab analysers.
Parses MSH/PID/OBR/OBX, matches each result to its order and replies with an HL7 ACK.
Writes through the REST API rather than straight to the database, so every analyser result passes the same permission checks and audit trail as a human entry.
A message-id table prevents duplicate processing.

Analyser simulator: lis-simulator