University of Vermont College of Medicine
Fletcher Allen Health Care
Burlington, Vermont
Michael Gagnon
J. Mark Tuthill, MD

The PathLINE (Pathology Laboratory Information Network) system was developed at Fletcher Allen Health Care and the University of Vermont College of Medicine to automate the flow of information from the physician office to the laboratory and back. The system is a true three tier application written entirely in Java. This innovative Internet-based system is designed to:

Integrate with ADT/HIS systems for patient demographics, insurance and providers
Provide an integrated Master Member Index
Accept orders from physician offices
Check for all insurance limitations (not just Medicare compliance)
Produce ABN and other insurance waivers that include the test price
Request crucial patient clinical information at ordering
Fully integrate with the LIS for orders
Print collection lists and specimen barcode labels at the physician office
Report out all lab results via the browser
Future enhancements include the concept of a Virtual Lab Information System, whereby any number of labs may perform the ordered test, and all the results will be collected in a single database. This is based on our development of something we call LOINC Plus and new Java interface agents.