title: Laboratory Automation and Middleware.
abstract: The practice of surgical pathology is under constant pressure to deliver the highest quality of service, reduce errors, increase throughput, and decrease turnaround time while at the same time dealing with an aging workforce, increasing financial constraints, and economic uncertainty. Although not able to implement total laboratory automation, great progress continues to be made in workstation automation in all areas of the pathology laboratory. This report highlights the benefits and challenges of pathology automation, reviews middleware and its use to facilitate automation, and reviews the progress so far in the anatomic pathology laboratory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Electronic address: mriben@mdanderson.org.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Riben
mesh_terms: D057205:Automation, Laboratory / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D002984:Clinical Laboratory Information Systems / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D010340:Pathology, Surgical / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012984:Software; D057188:Workflow
keywords: Anatomic pathology; Histology automation; Laboratory automation; Middleware; Workflow optimization