Back in 1998, when the use of technology in the field of healthcare was very limited and management systems for the hospitals were at a very nascent stage with just a handful of healthcare organizations using it, a Chennai-based diagnostic laboratory approached Medi Interface to develop a Laboratory Interface System (LIS) for them. Although the client's requirement was to only build a simple billing module along with a reporting module, Medi Interface saw an opportunity to develop a futuristic interface system that could prove instrumental in bringing technology into healthcare. Post a detailed discussion with the client, Medi Interface developed an interface to capture result data from the diagnostic analysers in real time over serial ports, eliminating the need for manual transcription of the result data into the Laboratory Information System (LIS). As one of the earliest players in the area of laboratory automation, Medi Interface sold and implemented this concept quite early and re-defined & mapped laboratory processes to adapt bi-directional interfaces.

Automating Services

Founded as a dedicated healthcare division of Adroit Software Solutions, Medi Interface went independent in 2009 with Adroit's entire healthcare services moving along with it, therefore making the company specialists in Laboratory Automation solutions and interfaces. Today, the company is a brand by itself, associated with software solutions for diagnostic laboratories in the healthcare vertical. Leveraging its vast experience as an early entrant in laboratory automation in India, the company designs and provides total automation solutions for diagnostic labs and hospitals, apart from building LIS.

The company's services and interfaces have the capability to enable HIS to talk to laboratory analysers to upload work lists and capture real-time data of the patients' test results, therefore eliminating manual intervention, thus resulting in almost zero transcription errors. Being mostly focused on the interfaces, the company has developed interfaces routines and solutions for over 300 different types of analysers with solutions ranging from bi-directional interfaces and bar coding of samples to simple uni-directional interfaces.

In-Depth Understanding of the Domain

The involvement of complex processes and the need of solutions based on demand makes healthcare one of the toughest nuts to crack. But Medi Interface has always focused on first understanding the domain through

deep research and then design solutions that could meet the requirement of the industry. The regular interaction sessions with clients who in most cases are doctors and laboratory heads enables Medi Interface to design solutions specific to their inputs and advices. "Medi Interface, though a technology company, has understood the laboratory domain and has been able to provide solutions that meet the requirements. This is what differentiates us from other players and has helped us establish ourselves," says Venkateshwaran Krishnaswamy, Founder, Medi Interface.

Running its operations from Chennai, Medi Interface has been the major healthcare solution provider for many hospitals and laboratories spread across Asia and Middle East. Its clientele comprises of many large healthcare providers. Today, Medi Interface is evolving alongside the industry and looks to serve other areas in the healthcare space where capture of data is critical. "We have already initiated work in these areas and have worked with speciality labs, and have automated the HLA matching process, which has reduced the work involved in matching requirements with donor data. We have also been working in such areas as Critical Care where patient monitors can be interfaced to reduce the manual intervention of recording data, leaving the nurses and paramedics to concentrate on patient care instead of doing routine clerical work," concludes Venkateshwaran.