ENDO-LAB: an integrated, portable endocrinology laboratory software system

ENDO-LAB is an IBM PC-based system which performs calculations and record-keeping for the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Endocrinology Laboratory. It manages maintenance and quality control, and prints reports for regulatory agencies. The system was designed to minimize paperwork without changing laboratory procedures in any way. Key features of ENDO-LAB include a uniform user interface, and error detection mechanisms. The system is designed to detect data which has been incorrectly entered. In addition, where the efficacy of a test can be determined on the basis of limited data, preliminary graphs are screened as soon as possible, so that the user can terminate lengthy calculations whose outcome would be invalid or inconclusive. ENDO-LAB is an integrated system in that the same statistical and calibration programs can be applied to all of the analyses. The system is both extensible and portable; it has been successfully implemented outside Vanderbilt.