An information management system used by public health laboratories in four countries and co-developed by the Hygienic Laboratory drew staff from the South Carolina public health laboratory in hopes that the system might improve their processes, too.

Gathered in Central Accessioning are visitors from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (from left) Megan Davis, Linda Conway, Greg Fowler and Sam Hahn. Escorting the South Carolina team are Hygienic Laboratory staff (from left, front row) Patty Villhauer, Sherri Marine and Mike Hayek. In the back row are Matt Bielicke and Dari Shirazi.

Four laboratory and IT staff members from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control visited the Hygienic Laboratory on Jan. 26 and 27 to evaluate the operation of OpenELIS (Open-source Enterprise Information System).

OpenELIS is used by Hygienic Laboratory staff to manage testing volumes, provide clients secure access to results and communicate testing status, results and billing information. It was built on an open-source platform, which allows other laboratories to be licensed for its use at no charge.

A core component of OpenELIS is to build a community of users who each may benefit from the experiences of others. Versions of the design now are running in three US public health laboratories, and in Haiti, Vietnam and The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast).

OpenELIS was launched by the Hygienic Laboratory’s Environmental Health Division in 2012 and by its Disease Control (or clinical) Division in 2015.

“My goal for this visit is to showcase OpenELIS for many of the clinical areas using it,” said Dari Shirazi, director of the Office of Information and Technology. “Our clinical division has been on OpenELIS for less than one year, with some sections already operating with this paperless information system. We have made great strides in electronic connectivity with many partners, including the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa Department of Public Health and CDC. And we are more flexible and agile than many other public health laboratories.”

In the open philosophy, sharing OpenELIS expertise with other public health laboratories gives the Hygienic Laboratory an opportunity to learn from others how to improve its own system. It also opens the door to additional funding opportunities from project collaboration with laboratories that use the system.

The South Carolina visitors observed some laboratory operations in microbiology, serology, molecular and data entry sections.

“We came to the Iowa Hygienic Laboratory in order to evaluate OpenELIS,” Davis said. “We have been very impressed by the system and look forward to moving onto the next phase of the journey to a new laboratory information management system, working with Iowa and other states laboratories to build partnerships and work collaboratively to improve the system."