Glossary
LIS (laboratory information system)
Software that manages a clinical lab's orders, specimens, results and reports.
What is an LIS (laboratory information system)?
A laboratory information system, or LIS, is the software a clinical lab uses to run its daily work. It keeps track of each test from the moment it is ordered to the moment the result is reported.
What an LIS usually does
- Stores patient details and test orders.
- Assigns specimen IDs and prints labels.
- Connects to analyzers so results arrive without retyping.
- Checks results against reference ranges and flags abnormal values.
- Produces reports and sends them to clinicians and patients.
- Keeps an audit trail of who did what.
You may also hear LIMS (laboratory information management system). The terms overlap, but LIMS is more often used for research, industrial or environmental labs that focus on samples and batches, while LIS is the usual term for patient testing.
Large hospital LIS products can be complex and costly. Small labs often need a simpler tool that covers the same core steps.
How Lab Desk handles it
Lab Desk is lab management software for small labs. It covers patient records, a test catalog, orders and results, AI flagging and secure result sharing in one place.
Related terms
- Requisition (lab order): The request, on paper or electronic, that tells a lab which tests to perform for a patient.
- Specimen ID (accession number): A unique number given to a specimen or order so it can be tracked and matched to the right patient.
- HL7: A family of standards for exchanging health information between systems, and the organization that publishes them.
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