Summary
PathGroup, a clinical laboratory, partnered with Labgnostic to automate proficiency testing order entry and result delivery. LabgnosticPT, an application from Labgnostic, automates the PT process, integrating with laboratory information systems for seamless order and result transmission. This automation significantly reduces administrative time, allowing PathGroup staff to focus more on patient-centered work.
Editors: Raymond D. Aller, MD & Dennis Winsten
New entrant in U.S. PT transmission
April 2026—The use of automation in clinical laboratories for test order entry and result delivery has been steadily picking up steam, but proficiency testing has been an outlier, with many labs still addressing such tasks manually.
“In 2024, we had seven [CAP] Surveys with 12 different tests that had unacceptable results because of clerical error,” says Jamey M. Miller, MLS (AMT), clinical quality assurance specialist at PathGroup, Nashville, Tenn., which, until last year, had been submitting all orders and results for PT manually. Issues with manual order entry and result reporting and the resulting time and personnel commitment led PathGroup to enter a pilot project with Labgnostic (the U.S. arm of the United Kingdom-based health care software company X-Lab) that focused on electronically transmitting lab orders and PT results for quantitative assays to PathGroup’s PT provider, the College of American Pathologists.
The aim of the project, which marked X-Lab’s foray into the U.S. health care proficiency testing marketplace, was to demonstrate the British company’s digital PT workflow in clinical practice, says Steve Box, Labgnostic global business development director. At the center of this effort was LabgnosticPT (known outside the United States as LabgnosticEQA), an application from Labgnostic that automates proficiency testing for laboratories from order intake through result submission to the PT provider. The application, which is being used in the United Kingdom and, more recently, underwent proof-of-concept testing in an Australian pathology lab, is integrated with Labgnostic’s flagship software solution, also called Labgnostic, a platform for electronic order and result transmission in reference lab testing.
“We provide interconnectivity between clinical labs and pathology services, primarily interfacing to laboratory information systems as an agnostic facilitator for exchanging information,” explains Box in describing the company’s hub-and-spoke diagnostic testing model that allows labs to easily exchange patient test information with each other. A PT provider, such as the CAP, can connect into that model so labs can receive electronic orders for their proficiency tests and return the results. Laboratories log in to a portal to upload their test compendium, and the portal will automatically match that compendium with the PT provider’s compendium. “Once they’ve done that,” says Box, “and we’ve got their mappings, they can receive electronic orders for their PT, which go straight into their LIS, and then results come out of the LIS and populate the [PT provider’s] protocol.”
LabgnosticPT’s direct transmission process mirrors a standard patient order and report workflow, says Box, noting that taking a familiar approach leads to more efficient laboratory operations, promotes safety, and makes implementation easier for a laboratory’s information technology team.
Feedback from PathGroup, which provides anatomic, clinical, and molecular pathology services in more than 20 states and employs more than 240 pathologists, confirmed the company’s satisfaction with LabgnosticPT’s straightforward and fast setup, as well as the software’s “very intuitive” home screen. “It has your upcoming events listed for the next 30 days,” says Miller, allowing users to view the lab’s centralized schedule, including completed tasks and the upcoming pipeline, without navigating multiple screens on a PT provider’s website.
Furthermore, PathGroup’s IT department completed its end of the installation process in less than two hours, according to Miller. “With Labgnostic, it’s a standard HL7 interface with an LLP [lower layer protocol] over a VPN connection, which takes all of five minutes to set up after the IT host vendor has set up the VPN,” she says.
Labgnostic offers a white glove service as part of the implementation process to help ensure a smooth and controlled product rollout, Box adds. The service includes comprehensive support, such as assistance with loading test compendiums and conducting trial runs with synthetic patients.