Installation of Network-Connected Point-of-Care Blood Glucose Meters

Oh, Sung Hee; Jeong, Tae Dong; Lee, Woochang; Chun, Sail; Min, Won Ki

Abstract

Point-of-care (POC) testing is desirable because of both the ease with which it can be administered and its short turnaround time. However, because standard POC devices cannot transmit test results automatically to a laboratory information system (LIS), each result must be recorded by hand. This inconvenience not only increases the possibility of clerical errors, but also limits the proper use of test results. If POC test results are not saved in the LIS, it is hard to either monitor patients' health trends or to quality control (QC) the test results. In this paper, we describe how we have solved these problems by connecting 250 POC blood glucose test devices to the LIS via a local area network (LAN). After connecting the POC devices (we used the Accu-Chek Inform II; Roche Diagnostics, Germany) to a manufacturer-provided POC data management system (Roche's Cobas IT 1000; Roche Diagnostics), we developed our own interface program for delivering data from the Cobas IT 1000 system to the LIS. By installing a program to scan the identification barcode worn by patients on their wrists, network-connected POC devices enable users to omit extra ordering, receiving, and recording processes, and they also reduce the possibility of patient misidentification. Such a system also provides an effective way for physicians to follow both the current and accumulated test results of patients. We note that performing QC on glucometers and the sending of data via LAN to the LIS are necessary steps to monitor both patients' results and the QC of those results.