Test results shared via new national repository

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

A set of standardised results will be available across the country as part of work to deliver a national Clinical Data Repository (CDR) for laboratory tests.

The repository is planned to be live by June 2024 as part of the delivery of Hira tranche 1 with a subset of results, and tranche 2 this will extend this to include more.

New Zealand’s three largest integrated laboratory providers are working with Te Whatu Ora to deliver the CDR for lab results, as there is currently no single repository that captures all results, and they are not described consistently.

Warren Wright, Pathlab information technology manager, spoke at Co:Lab 2023 lab sector forum last month about the project.

He said around 250 tests, that cover more than 90 percent of tests ordered on a daily basis around the country, have now been mapped to their respective Lab Information Systems using the new NZ Pathology Observation Code Set (NZPOCS)

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These are internationally recognised codes for ordering and reporting laboratory tests and results and will enable sharing by ensuring consistent coding is in place.

Information systems manager at Medlab Central, Gareth Orme, says labs regularly field phone calls from around the country asking for a patient’s test results because health professionals cannot access them if they are out of region. For example, a patient from Waikato who has been transferred to Auckland Hospital.

A national CDR would solve this problem, saving time for the health service and providing a better experience for patients.

He says the three lab providers, Medlab, Pathlab and Awanui Labs provide around 70 percent of all lab tests completed nationwide and have worked to align those tests that have the highest volume first, before moving on to the more specialised tests.

“We are taking a ‘good, better, best’ approach to doing this as we can never get 100 percent of the lab tests we do standardised,” says Orme.

Orme says the national CDR would not have been possible before Te Whatu Ora was created and old technology and infrastructure would have previously made standardisation and sharing impossible.

NZPOCS are based on the international standards Laboratory Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) and SNOMED CT. The Health Information Standards Organisation (HISO) has adopted around 3000 of these as the NZ Pathology Observation Code Set (NZPOCS).

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