title: Migrating a clinical laboratory information system between technologies.
abstract: The technical revolution that has strongly driven events in the clinical laboratory for the last thirty years is now threatening to make obsolete what has become the central pillar of operation in many laboratories, the minicomputer-based laboratory information system. Some of its functions could easily be absorbed by the personal computers which are proliferating in the laboratory, but any single step leap between systems risks replacing order with chaos. Appropriate use of networking tools, together with essential software development, can provide a systematic migrational path for both the administrative and technical computer support from one environment to another without the trauma of a massive replacement step.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison 53792.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Eggert
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Emmerich
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Blankenheim
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Smulka
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Bowers
mesh_terms: D002984:Clinical Laboratory Information Systems / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008838:Microcomputers / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D008905:Minicomputers / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D012985:Software Design; D014922:Wisconsin