5. Scope

The Malawi LIMS covers the management and exchange of information associated with laboratory services from the point of laboratory request through testing, result management and reporting.

The scope encompasses both facility-level laboratory operations and national-level laboratory information management and analytics.

5.1 Facility-Level Scope

At the facility level, iBLIS supports:

• Patient registration
• Patient search
• Patient demographics
• Laboratory order management
• Priority samples
• Referral samples
• Test ordering
• Sample collection
• Barcode generation and printing
• Sample reception
• Sample tracking
• Sample storage
• Referral tracking
• Manual result entry
• Automated analyzer result import
• Result verification
• Result authorization
• Result printing
• Quality control
• Inventory management
• Local reporting

5.2 National-Level Scope

At the national level, NLIMS supports:

• Laboratory data aggregation
• National reporting
• Dashboard visualization
• National analytics
• Monitoring laboratory performance
• Monitoring synchronization
• Integration with external systems
• Programme and disease reporting

5.3 Integration Scope

The LIMS ecosystem interfaces with:

• ART/EMR systems
• NLIMS
• Laboratory analyzers
• External systems through APIs

The current documentation identifies REST APIs and data formats, including JSON, CSV, XML, and HL7 where applicable.

5.4 Infrastructure Scope

The LIMS environment includes the supporting infrastructure required for laboratory information management, including:

• Servers
• Client computers
• Barcode printers
• A4 printers
• Barcode scanners
• Power backup systems
• LAN infrastructure
• VPN connectivity
• Laboratory analyzers

5.5 Geographic Scope

The system is implemented as a national laboratory information ecosystem supporting laboratory services across Malawi.

The current implementation includes iBLIS deployment across most district hospital laboratories and integration with ART/EMR across approximately 272 facilities.