New Software Suite Supports Clinical Lab Outreach

I recently received an email from Mark Johnston, CEO of Outreach Advantage, announcing that his company is offering a suite of three types of software to support hospital lab outreach programs. Here are more specifics about the product line:

• OA Mobile: an integrated logistics management suite – from the dispatcher to the courier – to enable specimen tracking, regulatory compliance and detailed client reporting while optimizing logistics efficiency
• OA Connect: a set of integration tools and web products to provide flexible connectivity for diagnostic orders and results in a patient-centric fashion
• OA CRM: a customized laboratory CRM [customer relations management] system that tracks customer interactions and automates service delivery across multiple laboratory departments to improve customer retention rates

This new line of lab software from Outreach Advantage interests me on a number of counts. Here's some of my early impressions:

• You would need to describe this new company as having good genes. Mark Johnston was one of the pioneers in the "lab portal" market. His earlier company was actually named LabPortal. He also worked for both MedPlus and LabCorp so he knows the clinical lab business.
• Mark is currently CIO at PAML, one of the best regional reference labs in the country. This is a company that would certainly have an in-depth understanding of the outreach business and the underlying software tools necessary for such an enterprise to thrive.
• I like the idea of combining three of the important software components for lab outreach -- a web-based lab portal with test order-entry, result-reporting; logistics and courier support; and customer relations management. There are obvious synergies across these three components but it's not necessarily a "given" that a single software vendor can take advantage of them.
• Finally, I am interested in the fact that a reference lab like PAML is venturing into the lab software business. There is a major precedent for such an initiative with Quest's ownership of MedPlus. Lab outreach is already a highly competitive market niche involving well-entrenched incumbents such as Atlas Medical, Lifepoint (formerly Labtest Systems), CareEvolve, Gajema/Cerner, and 4Medica.