Orchard® Pathology
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Orchard® Pathology is a comprehensive pathology information system designed to meet the future trends in pathology and handle the complexities of clinical, molecular, and pathology testing and reporting. Orchard Pathology is used as a stand-alone system for anatomic and molecular testing or combined with Orchard® Harvest™ LIS to integrate clinical testing. The shared database used by these systems provides access to the patient’s entire history and enables the consolidation of clinical results to the cytology or pathology report.
Image management tools make it easy to link digital images, annotated diagrams, and scanned documents to case worksheets and incorporate them onto patient reports. Information on each report is stored in discrete data fields that enhance EMR integration and simplify the process to mine data for evaluations, correlation studies, quality assurance, regulatory, statistical, and many other management reports.
| “I work for a Urology group and the group decided to expand our lab to include AP. We have installed and been live with our AP module since October 2007 and our physicians and pathologist are very pleased. Orchard was wonderful with helping get everything set up and the pathologist and staff trained. I think our reports (which are custom) look better than any other reference lab we have used in the past. Orchard has done a beautiful job helping us customize our reports. Orchard knows what they are doing and they have a great program for AP.” — Eyre Klindt, Metropolitan Urologic Specialists, P.A. |
The following trends in pathology are affecting information systems, their use, and desired features. The overriding question is how quickly pathologists embrace the value of informatics and the codification of diagnosis for synoptic reporting and improved data mining. We already see the increased use of microscopes with the capability to create digital images, and digital diagnosis will take place in the near future. Along with this is the increased desire to annotate these images and include them within the patient report. As the penetration of electronic medical records (EMR) systems increases, delivering these reports to providers’ EMRs will become more important. Finally, the growth in molecular and genetic testing is bringing together the disciplines of clinical and anatomic pathology for more sophisticated diagnoses and reporting.
Orchard Pathology, developed in 2005 and released to the marketplace in 2006, was designed to accommodate the comprehensive pathology laboratory and the future trends in diagnostics. Orchard Pathology is a complete diagnostic information system, where clinical and anatomic data share the same database and where pathology data is stored in discrete data fields to simplify synoptic reporting and data mining.
Stand-alone or Fully Integrated to Clinical & Molecular
Orchard Pathology can be utilized as a stand-alone anatomic pathology information system or integrated to the clinical laboratory with Orchard® HarvestTM Laboratory Information System. For laboratories performing clinical, cytology, histology, and molecular testing, Orchard’s pathology system utilizes a single database structure which allows the pathologist to access the patient’s entire testing history and easily add results from any department to the final report.
Changes in Workflow: Batch to Real-time Processing
Requirements to improve and streamline the workflow of processing and reporting are increasing. Orchard’s ability to interface pathology instrumentation for positive sample identification reduces errors and allows the pathology laboratory to move away from the inefficiencies associated with batch processing. Bar coding of specimens, tissue cassettes, and slides, allow pathologists and technicians to move cases confidently through the analytical process with greater speed and accuracy.
Simplified Case Management and Synoptic Reporting
Orchard Pathology is designed to simplify case management by employing a worksheet window that can be configured for use with the laboratory’s established templates, protocols, and diagnoses. The worksheet is very flexible, allowing the pathologist to add observations by free text, text shortcuts, drop-down menus, voice recognition software, or formatted templates. These features provide the tools for diagnosis standardization and synoptic reporting.
Result Evaluation Rules for Reflex Testing
Rules-based decision support is available throughout Orchard Pathology, and result evaluation rules for reflex testing can be configured to individual workflow scenarios. As an example, send-out tests, correlations, quality assurance protocols, and confirmatory testing can be automatically reflex-ordered according to verbiage in the report text. The rule triggers the protocol, provides internal and/or reportable documentation, and automatically adds charges for billable procedures.
Image Management
The image management tools and ability to integrate the drivers of microscope cameras in Orchard Pathology make it easy to link digital images and scanned documents to case worksheets and incorporate them onto patient reports. Annotation tools are built within Orchard Pathology, making it easier for the pathologist to associate pertinent images and comments with each diagnosis.
Orchard Pathology Reports
Discrete Data Fields for Data Mining and Management Reports
Pathologists can easily create ad-hoc reports without special computer programming skills. Unlike older legacy systems that do not utilize pathology specific word processing, Orchard Pathology stores report information in discrete data fields that enhance EMR integration and simplify the process to mine data for evaluations, correlation studies, quality assurance, regulatory, statistical, and many other management reports. With the system’s powerful data-mining browsers, pathologists can perform searches and build reports by specimen, diagnosis, test result, or case number, and then print the completed reports as needed or schedule the reports to print automatically at a more convenient time.
Consolidated Results―A Single Patient Report
Orchard Pathology simplifies the complexities of clinical, anatomic, and molecular reporting by combining and consolidating results into a single patient report. The shared database for all departments gives the pathologist access to the patient’s entire clinical history and enables the addition of clinical results to the cytology or pathology report. This saves time and streamlines the process of reporting from multiple disciplines.
The Future of Reporting and Report Delivery
With increasing demand for digital images and annotation on pathology reports, text-only reporting may become a thing of the past; however, getting those images into providers’ EMRs will be the next challenge. Orchard Pathology has the ability to send a Bitmap or PDF image of the finished report within the HL7 message to the client providers’ EMR. To date, however, no EMR vendor is ready to accept such an image, as there is no method for storing or viewing the image within the EMR system.
Complete the Request for Information Form to receive additional information about Orchard Pathology.
See a demonstration of Orchard Pathology software. Orchard will be exhibiting at the following tradeshows in 2010.
| February 2010 | |||
| Date | Trade Show/Event | Location | Additional Information |
| 12-14 | Florida Society of Pathologists Conference 36th Annual Anatomic Pathology Conference | Orlando, FL | http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=8e81c78d-9a28-42be-8a39-7848bf8832bb |
| March 2010 | |||
| Date | Trade Show/Event | Location | Additional Information |
| 4-5 | American Pathology Foundation 2010 Spring Conference | Las Vegas, NV | www.apfconnect.org/ |
| 22-24 | US & Canadian Academy of Pathology 2010 Annual Meeting | Washington, DC | www.uscap.org/home.htm |
| May 2010 | |||
| Date | Trade Show/Event | Location | Additional Information |
| 4-5 | CLMA ThinkLab '10 | Las Vegas, NV | This conference is the leading educational event for clinical laboratory professionals, with more than 75 CEU-accredited educational sessions. You do not have to be a CLMA member to go to ThinkLab '10, and we encourage attending this valuable educational event For additional information about CLMA or ThinkLab, please visit www.clma.org/index.php/corporate/corporate-thinklab. |
| June 2010 | |||
| Date | Trade Show/Event | Location | Additional Information |
| 2-4 | Washington G-2 Lab Outreach 2010 Conference | Baltimore, MD | www.g2reports.com/conferences/1307.html |
| 10 | Orchard Spring Symposium | Raleigh, NC | www.orchardsoft.com/ |
| July 2010 | |||
| Date | Trade Show/Event | Location | Additional Information |
| 27-29 | 2010 AACC Annual Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo | Anaheim, CA | |
| September 2010 | |||
| Date | Trade Show/Event | Location | Additional Information |
| 20-21 | Pathology Informatics 2010 | Boston, MA | www.pathologyinformatics.org/ |
| 26-28 | 36th Annual NSH Symposium/Convention (National Society of Histotechnology) | Seattle, WA | http://www.nsh.org/ |
| 26-29 | CAP 2010 THE Pathologists’ Meeting™ | Chicago, IL | www.cap.org/apps/docs/annual_meeting/2010/index.html |
| October 2010 | |||
| Date | Trade Show/Event | Location | Additional Information |
| 13-15 | G-2 28th Annual Lab Institute | Arlington, VA | www.g2reports.com/conferences/1308.html |
| 27-31 | ASCP Annual Meeting | San Francisco, CA | www.ascp.org/ |