New features and enhancements are driven by requests from current and potential adopters of the system, with each item being prioritized based on greatest collective need or whether it represents a blocker to deployment. Hence the following roadmap items are currently in no particular order:
- Additional instrument integration: As part of integrating with the key set of microbiology instruments from Becton Dickenson and BioMerieux, we implemented the long established protocols for LIMS to instrument communication, namely CLSI’s LIS01 and LIS02 (formerly ASTM 1381 and 1394). With these in place, we can now extend support to include a wide range of additional instruments (not specific to microbiology) simply by configuring field mappings and testing. The Cepheid GeneXpert is a case in point, support for which is currently being tested. For instruments that do not support these standard protocols, new development will be required. However, we have an extension point that allows others to develop new instrument interfaces independently
- Hospital Information Manager integration: While the majority of requests so far received have been to integrate with proprietary systems developed in country, we now have a number of sites that are using OpenMRS as their HIS system. Hence this standard, open source HIS is likely to be the first of its kind that we integrate with
- Billing: This has now been requested by a number of adopters and potential adopters; hence we are currently amalgamating their collective requirements in order to define a generic approach
- OneHealth: As a stated aspiration from the outset, with existing hooks in the UI, we are seeking veterinary labs to partner with for the inclusion of animal breakpoints and specimen types (and are currently pursuing a possible candidate in Sierra Leone). While animal health inclusion is expected to be handled by configuration alone, environmental AMR may need additional development. If you run an animal health lab and are interested in adopting SEDRI-LIMS, please get in touch
- Specialised support of other laboratory disciplines: While a basic level of support for other laboratory disciplines, such as biochemistry, virology, mycology, serology, parasitology and haematology is already facilitated through user defined tests, more specialized capabilities will need to be considered on a case by case basis. A new site at the National Reference Laboratory in Uruguay may require enhancements for serology and molecular biology for example
- SMS, WhatsApp and email notification: While notifications of significant events or test result combinations are currently provided within the UI in the form of alerts, adding SMS and/or WhatsApp and/or email integration would allow interested parties to be remotely notified
- Genomics (WGS): This is another item that has come up a number of times and will certainly require new development work. It will become increasingly important as WGS techniques become cheaper and more available
- Biobanking: There have been a few casual enquiries about this, but nothing concrete or deployment blocking yet
- Asset tracking: While the system infrastructure is already well suited to this extension, we have yet to receive any formal requests for it
If you are a current user of SEDRI-LIMS, or are interested in trialling the system, and have a pressing need for any of the above features (or any others that are not yet on the list), please let us know directly or add a comment below.