Point of care (POC) devices come in all shapes and sizes, each with unique integration requirements even when from the same manufacturer. The TELCOR QML system was designed to address this challenge by providing an individual piece of software to communicate with each unique device type. POC devices communicate directly to QML or via their associated, and often required, device management system (DMS). Each unique device type connectivity module does three main things:

• Communicates to the manufacturer’s proprietary software or device directly,
• Remaps the data provided by the manufacturer into a common TELCOR format for normalized data within QML and interfacing to the LIS/EMR, and
• Transmits data back to the manufacturer’s proprietary software or devices if capable of receiving electronic data. Data going back to devices can include lists of certified operators, current date/time, manufacturer’s unique configurations, reagents, and patient lists for positive patient ID on the devices.

Historically, laboratory systems charged a fee per device connection, which has been an acceptable practice for central laboratory testing. But when point of care testing can have hundreds to thousands of devices, the cost becomes prohibitive.

Most interfaces coming directly from manufacturers are not flexible in their ability to customize the output from the device or the devices’ DMS. Though manufacturers may say they use an industry standard POCT1A or HL7, these standards have historically been interpreted and applied very differently. Without consolidation, the laboratory system must manage the individual result interfaces and will not provide the last bullet mentioned above back to the devices.

Why do we interface all these results? Simply, to eliminate the errors and omissions of manual charting and reduce associated labor.