In 2005 Beckman Coulter approached us to assist with the interfacing of the Epics XL Flow Cytometer into the South African National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) LIS DisaLab.

For the previous 2 years the NHLS had to rely on manual entry of results and could not make use of automatic result transmission from the Epics XL. With thousands of CD4 tests being performed daily in South Africa this was a crisis.

A preLink interface was created and there are now more than 65 Epics Flow Cytometers interfaced at 40+ NHLS laboratories.

Professor Debbie Glencross who created the cost effective PLG methodology for CD4 testing then requested us to add flow count rate (FCR) monitoring to monitor quality control (QC).

Please see the PDF papers below which describe the usage of PLG and FCR monitoring as well as the excellent performance of PLG in the AFREQAS External quality assessment programme versus other CD4 methodologies.

Solution at Johannesburg General Hospital Five XL's are interfaced to preLink. FCR graph is displayed and results are uploaded to DisaLab through one connection using ASTM.

XL's in the Joburg Gen lab processing thousands of samples monthly The preLink Solo with FCR Large-scale Affordable PanLeucogated CD4 Testing with Proactive Internal and External Quality Assessment African Regional External Quality Assessment for CD4 T-Cell Enumeration Science In Africa - "Faster, better, quicker ways to fight hidden costs of CD4 counting in HIV/AIDS"

A cornerstone of the preLink LIMS is the ability to scan request forms from remote locations into the system for data capture.

This installation only makes use of the document management abilites of preLink such as split screen data capture, priority queuing and of course scanning using the preLink Image Station and Image Station PRO (please see products).

Approximately 40 Ampath depots in Gauteng scan request forms into preLink based at the Ampath data center in Centurion. Other depots can also fax request forms which are picked up by a preLink service and added to the data capture queue.

Solution at Ampath Centurion The server receives and stores images (900,000 and counting) and data capturers recall images to capture from an automated queue.

Split Screen Capture Image Station PRO   Schematic overview of the solution Powerful statistics on each data capturer can be reported such as Turn around times, volume per day, waiting time per depot and more. Central Data Capture Overview

A proof of concept with Dräger Medical and Netcare at Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg. STAT results received in a preLink enabled laboratory are sent to a patient monitor in the ICU, thereby providing critical results in the shortest space of time.

Dräger Medical

This busy laboratory in Mbabane, Swaziland was converted from completely manual processing to automated processing with the preLink LIMS in December 2006.

Apart from the many other improvements in laboratory practice, the turn around time for CD4 results was
decreased from 2 weeks to 1 day!

more information coming soon...

Laboratories running preLink and clinics using Bookwise (a product from our partner Virtual Purple) can integrate seamlessly to order tests in the laboratory as they are requested from the clinic and receive electronic lab results back into the patient's EMR in Bookwise.

Virtual Purple Bookwise HIV & AIDS Management System