Collaborative solutions fora Global Pandemic
Working together to respond
The coronavirus pandemic has touched every corner of the globe, and with all eyes on finding solutions, our teams across Europe have been working together to build rapid solutions to support the battle against COVID-19.
In Belgium we helped create a federal platform for COVID-19 testing. In the Netherlands we connected GGD laboratories, while in France we supported the government in its pandemic response response to create a national system to collect all results for COVID-19 testing. In Germany we quickly responded to interfacing requirements for customers. In the UK we supported for Nightingale Hospitals and helped deliver agile, sustainable solutions supporting rapid reporting to our customers.
Some of the challenges our customers have faced include:
- Rapid increase in demand for testing capacity
- Unprecedented workload around specific clinical areas, such as Microbiology
- New equipment and new procedures
- Enhanced reporting
- More stringent health & safety procedures
- Reduced staffing through illness, self-isolation or redeployment of resources
Robust and reliable IT solutions have been essential to reduce the pressure and streamline these new processes while working seamlessly with disparate healthcare IT systems and increased out of hours support.
Drawing on our existing scalable systems, we have reacted quickly to support governments and health organisations across Europe, developing both rapid response solutions and sustainable innovations which will support and improve testing and reporting in the long term.
A federal platform for Belgium
The Federal Government in Belgium set up a consortium of university hospitals and software, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies to increase testing capacity.
A cloud-based IT platform is now in place to digitally support the workflow and to ensure that the information could be shared, optimally between the various laboratories, governmental agencies, care providers, and contact tracers, using GLIMS laboratory information system and CyberLab results ordering and reporting software.
We assigned a team to the project to support the government in their approach to this crisis, and within 17 days of the initial request, the system generated its first results. The entire process was based on a standard approach and a method was developed to automate the testing in short order. This made it possible to add an extra laboratory in less than a week.
Our team is also actively involved in the roll-out of ‘Platform.bis’ to further expand testing capacity so that all recognised Belgian laboratories can process a total of 70,000 to 90,000 tests per day.
Connecting GGD laboratories in the Netherlands
Dutch residents who show symptoms of coronavirus infection can be tested at a GGD (Gemeenschappelijke Gezondheidsdiensten) test site. This wide-ranging, national COVID-19 screening uses a central IT platform called the ‘CoronIT-platform’.
CliniSys | MIPS | MIPS helped set up this new platform connecting the 12 laboratories that work directly with the GGDs, all of whom use our LIS, GLIMS. We have also integrated a further 15 laboratories that perform analyses when the GGD testing labs have reached their capacity limits.
Now all of the connected laboratories can seamlessly receive electronic orders for COVID-19 analyses and send the results back to the GGDs.
Sustainable solution, quickly implemented
“As project leader, I want to emphasize the speed with which everything was executed. I really like it when the staff of our supplier organization act like true professionals and expertly and the management of their part of the project can be left to them with confidence. MIPS was able to develop excellent project roadmaps and was a great partner to discuss these complex topics with. MIPS’s virtual consultation also proved to be an efficient means of collaboration, in times when face-to-face meetings were not possible.”
Laurens Groenewegen, Information Architect, Team information, GGD Amsterdam
CyberLab at heart of French testing platform
The French government has established the national SI-DEP IT platform to request laboratory tests, return the test results to requesting clinicians and to the patients, to feed the information into the government’s contact tracing app, and to store the results securely in a national database.
At the heart of the platform is CyberLab, our web-based order entry and result consultation application, which can easily be linked to all the LIS systems used in France and is capable of processing large volumes of data, independent of their origins.
The French government, together with the Assistance Public – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) hospitals and CliniSys | MIPS | MIPS, succeeded in building this platform in just two months.
Today, there are 374 GHT’s (Groupement Hospitalier de Territoire) and hospitals, and approximately 4,500 private laboratories connected to the platform. Together, they can process up to 800,000 test results per day.
800.000
Consultations
More then 800.000 consultations in the national SI-DEP IT platform in one day.
350.000
Order entries
Up to 350.000 order entries in the national SI-DEP IT platform in one day.
“This project has led to the development of a surveillance tool that plays a crucial role in public health policy, in the context of an unprecedented health crisis. Driven in an exemplary manner thanks to the commitment of all MIPS employees in France, but also in Belgium, it was able to be put into production in exceptionally tight time frames and with success!”
Thierry Ginod, Director of Customer Service, CliniSys | MIPS
Supporting the COVID-19 response in Germany
In response to both a financial change and the new corona contact tracing app that was commissioned by the German government, our team has adapted the processes related to SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics in Germany, such as the transfer of data and the invoicing of the accompanying laboratory services.
We have enabled interfaces between a whole series of laboratory equipment from various manufacturers and helped customers to quickly set up complete analysis platforms and equip new laboratory departments.
We have also developed a new interface for the export and digital transfer of SARS-CoV-2 results to the DEMIS reporting and information system for infection control at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
Support for Nightingale Hospitals
The Nightingale hospitals in the UK were designed to provide the highest level of specialist care for critically ill coronavirus patients. Diagnostics is vital to running an ITU, so these new facilities needed to be linked up with the local laboratory services , which perform all of the tests required.
It is critical to be able to order tests for a range of conditions and for the results to be integrated into the incumbent patient management system. The integration work that we carried out means that clinicians have all the data they need together, in one place.
We were able to use the CliniSys | MIPS Integration Manager to facilitate the necessary integration and pass information from the ICE electronic requesting system into the WinPath LIMS and back again.
Delivering agile, sustainable solutions
Mr Tim Whittlestone, medical director, NHS Nightingale Hospital Bristol explains: “Our work with CliniSys | MIPS and other digital partners means that our hospital is completely paperless which not only increases our efficiency but supports the health and safety of patients and staff.
“It was a daunting and complex exercise to ensure the pathology and testing aspects of the Nightingale Bristol project were put in place, but due to the expertise of CliniSys | MIPS and the collaborative energy of those involved, it became one of the most straightforward.”
We went from the seemingly impossible to having a slick solution for the Nightingale Bristol in a matter of days.
By sharing knowledge and experience across borders, the CliniSys | MIPS Group has succeeded in supporting several national projects, despite the unprecedented time pressure and the exceptional circumstances which we, and our customers, face.
