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Beckman Coulter introduces cloud-based middleware

Beckman Coulter has released its DxOne Workflow Manager cloud-based middleware, which is designed to help low-volume laboratories deliver timely patient results.

By integrating DxOne into their critical functions, laboratories can standardize and automate workflows across Beckman’s chemistry, immunoassay, and hematology platforms. The software allows technologists to manage samples by exception using autoverification and provides automatic reflex testing.

The middleware features an intuitive interface with an at-a-glance view of ordering information and patient demographics on one screen. Comments and flags alert users to required actions based on laboratory-defined criteria. A sample-status overview feature shows items that need attention. Patient-associated results are consolidated on one screen and organized in graphs and by historical data.

Beckman Coulter, 800-526-3821

Qiagen acquires N-of-One

Qiagen has entered an agreement to purchase N-of-One, a molecular oncology decision-support company and provider of clinical interpretation services for complex genomic data.

Under the agreement, Qiagen plans to integrate N-of-One’s MarkerMine somatic cancer database and Precision Insights and Rapid Insights reporting tools into its Qiagen Clinical Insight solution for next-generation sequencing analysis and interpretation. The MarkerMine database contains more than 125,000 anonymized patient samples and will expand Qiagen’s genomics knowledge base. N-of-One’s technology helps pathologists produce case-specific reports using molecular test data.

“N-of-One has made tremendous strides in molecular oncology decision support, and their combination with Qiagen’s own pre-curated knowledge base of evidence will provide powerful new tools to expand our abilities to deliver patient-specific insights,” said Jonathan Sheldon, senior vice president of Qiagen’s bioinformatics business area, in a press release.

Qiagen, 800-426-8157

ARUP Laboratories and Techcyte collaborate

ARUP Laboratories has partnered with Techcyte to develop and commercialize digital diagnostic solutions using artificial intelligence.

“The collaboration between ARUP and Techcyte will significantly accelerate the number of new test algorithms available to the lab diagnostics market,” according to a press release from Techcyte. “ARUP’s vast expertise and access to rare samples combined with Techcyte’s data-pipeline and machine-learning experts will produce high-quality algorithms that can be developed quickly and then introduced into the market following thorough testing.”

Techcyte’s digital diagnostics platform applies sophisticated convolutional neural networks to deliver test results to doctors and patients. The platform supports a range of whole slide scanners and such tests as blood differential, cervical cytology, fine-needle aspiration, fecal ova and parasites, urinalysis, and bacteriology.

Techcyte, 801-980-0414

HL7 announces new release of FHIR standard

Health Level Seven International has published release four of the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, or FHIR, standard.

The most significant change with release four is that the base platform of the standard has passed a normative ballot and will be submitted to the American National Standards Institute as a normative standard. “This means that future changes should be backward compatible so applications that implement the normative sections of R4 no longer risk being nonconformant to the standard,” according to a press release from HL7.

The portions of the standard that are normative with the latest release include the RESTful application programming interface, XML and JSON formats, and basic data types; terminology layer (code system and value set); conformance framework (structure definition and capability statement); and patient and observation resources.

HL7 plans to bring more sections of the standard to normative status in its next release.

Dr. Aller teaches informatics in the Department of Pathology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He can be reached at raller@usc.edu. Hal Weiner is president of Weiner Consulting Services LLC, Eugene, Ore. He can be reached at hal@weinerconsulting.com.