A survey of Australian laboratory scientists carried out by information systems vendor InterSystems has found that the quest for cost savings and an increase in automation are driving change in the pathology sector, but for public laboratories at least, current laboratory information systems (LIS) are not up to the task of coping with these changes.

InterSystems, which markets a laboratory module as part of its TrakCare suite and is due to launch what it calls a laboratory business management system (LBMS) early next year, conducted one of its annual surveys of the sector at the Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists (AACB) conference in Sydney in September.