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Is Your Pathology Lab Reporting Software System Outdated and Lacking Functionality?
September 10, 2025
The digital transformation of clinical reference labs and pathology groups is advancing rapidly.
Modern pathology lab reporting software improves everything from specimen collection and sample tracking to laboratory workflow management and reporting. While labs are the big winners in this pathology lab software race to the moon, patients are winning, too. This is especially true when it comes to patient reporting and record keeping.
Thanks to LigoLab’s all-in-one laboratory information system (LIS software) and laboratory billing (lab revenue cycle management) platform and its shared infrastructure with the TestDirectly Direct-to-Consumer Lab Testing Web Portal (TestDirectly.com), patient reports that were once kept on paper, in triplicate, and confined to folders and filing cabinets are now available electronically via advanced pathology software for easy access and sharing.
The days of report delivery by a postal carrier or phone call are also long gone. Reports can now be sent remotely to the laboratory’s clients, and instantly to patients via web portals, with email and text message notifications alerting patients to check their results.
Discover More: The Best Laboratory Information System Companies and the Advantages They Offer to Their Laboratory Clients
Modern laboratory information system software technology is driving change, and results reporting has also become more frictionless thanks to a 2014 ruling by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
That year, the DHHS issued a final rule allowing patients with verified IDs (or their representatives) direct access to laboratory test reports before results are sent to a health practitioner.
This DHHS ruling created significant efficiencies, enabling labs to ultimately connect directly with patients. It has also empowered patients to be more active in their healthcare decisions.
On-Demand Webinar: Learn How to Expand Your Lab’s Services and Add Lab Billing Revenue with Direct-to-Consumer Lab Testing
What’s in a Laboratory Information System Report and Why?
Although beneficial in many ways, easier access to test results also gives patients greater responsibility. They may encounter complex test results on lab reports without understanding the context in which providers use results to make treatment decisions. This first requires patients to educate themselves about their test results, the purpose and meaning, and second, laboratory information system vendors like LigoLab to work closely with their laboratory customers to develop customizable and more patient-friendly reports.
Most lab reports contain standard administrative details, such as the patient’s name, ID number, report dates, and the ordering physician. Beyond that, they also include more complex elements such as accession numbers, test names, results, measurement units, reference ranges, and specimen conditions. With several variables in play, laboratories need pathology report software that offers full customization. Reports must be clear, patient-friendly, and structured so recipients can quickly locate and understand their results.
Discover More: How LigoLab's Pathology Lab Software Supports Lab Report Customization and Client Preferences
The Importance of Pathology Lab Reporting Software with LIS System Customization
Not all laboratory information system companies and LIS software vendors offer fully customizable lab reports, meaning medical labs with this capability are at a definite advantage.
Unlike legacy laboratory information systems, LigoLab stands out with advanced reporting and distribution engines that deliver the rule-based formatting and consistent presentation today’s labs require. These engines support full Word-style formatting, fonts, colors, highlights, tables, bullet points, as well as images, diagrams, annotations, macros, conditional rules, speech-to-text, and CAP cancer protocol templates.
Can your legacy LIS laboratory information system do that?
Discover More: Streamline Laboratory Workflow Management With Customized Laboratory Information System Reports & Unmatched Client Support
With your current pathology lab reporting software solution, do you have the freedom to customize the patient info header?
The diagnosis?
The comments?
What about the gross description, microscopic findings, and patient history?
Does your pathology report software allow you to enhance the reports with images and diagrams?
If the answer is no or mostly no to everything listed above, it may be time to explore what an advanced medical LIS software can do, one with the robust features and laboratory information system functions that modern lab operations demand.
Just as important, LigoLab’s reporting and distribution engines also cater to your laboratory customers by offering multiple distribution options. Options include provider portal, patient portal, outreach software, EMR/EHR, fax, secure email, in-house printing, PDF drops, APIs, IVR, SMS, and remote print server.
Discover More: How Modern Laboratories Produce and Distribute Reports
Pathology Lab Reporting Software With Remote Access for Orders and Results
What if I told you there was a free and easy-to-install pathology lab reporting software solution for remote orders and remote test results, and the pathology software solution didn’t involve any middleware or third-party service for this kind of outreach?
Would you want to learn more?
LigoLab’s LIS system software application for outreach is called LigoLab Connect, one of several supporting modules and engines that wrap around LigoLab’s all-in-one medical LIS & lab billing informatics platform.
When all laboratory information system functions are combined into one unified database and LIS lab infrastructure, the result is the most comprehensive healthcare LIS in the marketplace.
Discover More: Learn Why Leading Clinical Laboratories Continue to Choose Our LIS System
LigoLab Connect is a secure Java-based web application that streamlines communication between the laboratory and its clients. It allows users to search and retrieve reports, view cumulative charts, send faxes directly from the LIS system, and access all patient-related scanned documents. The portal can also be fully branded to reflect your laboratory’s identity, serving as a seamless extension of your business while reducing client service call volume.
Discover More: LigoLab’s Provider Portal Facilitates Faster Order Processing and Improved LIS Pathology Turnaround Times
The Advantages of Pathology Report Software Engineered for Direct-to-Consumer Lab Testing
For easy access and distribution of lab reports to patients, the TestDirectly direct-to-consumer lab testing portal checks both boxes.
This innovative LIS medical application is the latest addition to LigoLab’s feature-rich informatics platform. TestDirectly gives patients the power to order and schedule the tests they need conveniently from any electronic device, while at the same time making it easier for LIS systems to collect and process specimens, and report safe, fast, and accurate test results directly to patients via customizable consumer lab reports, minus the paper forms and the data entry errors and delays associated with more traditional direct-to-consumer lab testing and LIS software models.
Lab operators take note, TestDirectly is easy to implement (the application typically takes two weeks to a month to go from planning to going live), and it integrates with all leading examples of LIS software and lab revenue cycle management (lab RCM) systems. In essence, it acts like an electronic health record with laboratory information system functions.
TestDirectly supports patient and family self-registration, scheduling, capacity management, specimen collection, tracking, processing, lab billing, and compliance. Its workflow automates report delivery through email, SMS, portal, or interface, including required reporting to public health departments and government agencies nationwide.
Just as important, TestDirectly delivers a better patient experience and gives laboratories and other providers the pathology lab software tools they need to boost testing capacity, improve turnaround times, and support drive-through, walk-up, at-home, and all other forms of direct-to-consumer lab testing.
Discover More: Highlighting the Versatility of the TestDirectly Direct-to-Consumer Lab Testing Portal
Innovative Laboratory Information Systems: A LigoLab Commitment
LigoLab’s approach to pathology lab reporting software is just one example of how the LIS company values its customers.
By offering customers a path to achievable and sustainable success with a comprehensive and flexible LIS software platform that assumes full responsibility for all of their technical, financial, and administrative operations, LigoLab sets itself apart from other laboratory information system vendors and positions itself as one of the best laboratory information system software providers.
To learn more about LigoLab’s all-in-one informatics platform that includes powerful and fully integrated modules for anatomic pathology, clinical pathology, molecular diagnostics, lab revenue cycle management (lab RCM), and direct-to-consumer lab testing, request a LIS system demo or a brief consultation with a product specialist today.
