Pathology Informatics

Informatics plays an important role in every aspect of the clinical pathology laboratory, blood bank, and transfusion medicine service. Part of this chapter focuses on regulatory standards including Current Procedural Terminology (CPT), International Classification of Diseases (ICD), Health Level Seven (HL7), and Logical Observation Identifier Names and Codes (LOINC). The remainder of the chapter focuses on relevant topics in informatics including: bar coding and tracking; laboratory information systems; laboratory automation; middleware; workflow optimization; and database schemas.