Quality Control information system for immunology/ serology tests in medical laboratories

This paper presents the design and development of a new Quality Control (QC) system for immunology/serology tests at medical laboratories. The developed QC system which is based on client-server a architecture provides a scalable architecture for future integration of other categories of medical laboratory tests. The architecture and functional features of the proposed QC system are presented along with the workflow process and UML design models of the key QC and management processes. More than 15 graphical user interface (GUI) forms are designed and implemented to enter/display various types of information. Functionality of each form and its interactivity with the system database and operator is tested along with its interaction with other forms. Test results showed that the developed QC fulfills all the functional requirements and provides accurate QC reports. A wide spectrum of immunology/serology tests is performed and the obtained results are found in correlation with the QC statuses assessed manually by specialists. This not only confirms validity of the implemented QC process, but delivers higher confidence in lab-testing procedures, and allows for more reliable results.