Background

Rapid and timely data exchange of laboratory test information is essential for patient care. State and local public health laboratories provide critical testing for healthcare organizations, such as hospitals, urgent care clinics, community centers, and physician offices. Facilitating ETOR with public health laboratories will result in the exchange of faster, more up-to-date, and complete laboratory test information for the benefit of all stakeholders. Enabling ETOR is critical for enhancing patient care and supporting public health reporting.

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APHL has served public health as a trusted nonprofit partner for over 60 years. As a member-driven organization, we are committed to our mission to promote the role of public health laboratories in shaping national and global health objectives, and to support policies, programs, and technologies that assure continuous improvement in the quality of laboratory practice and health outcomes. APHL’s ETOR intermediary was developed to support its members and advance the public health laboratory testing process.

Solution

At a high level, there are three possible ETOR implementation paths available to public health laboratories – web portal, system integrated (direct), and system integrated (indirect). The AIMS ETOR Intermediary follows the system integrated (indirect) approach, which supports the modernization and innovation of IT capabilities and services.

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