Increasing operational efficiency

As science becomes more digitized, laboratory information systems are being adopted rapidly.

The laboratory information system has come a long way since its inception, and has become a vital component of effectively managing and increasing the pathology department’s efficiency. By standardizing tests, procedures, and workflows of a laboratory, the software enables labs to improve patient care, reduce human errors, and constructively decrease operational costs.

Unlike older times, now there are various laboratory management software that are highly efficient in collecting evidence-based data and analyzing it to provide valuable insights for accurate diagnostics and treatment of the patient.

The Covid-19 epidemic has wreaked havoc on the global population and economy. As a result of the pandemic, healthcare providers are under tremendous pressure to create a well-coordinated environment in which all clinical tasks are linked internally and the organization works in tandem with other healthcare units.

Covid-19 research laboratories or diagnostic laboratories must handle a number of steps (such as packaging, sample handling, inventory control, test management, and shipment modules). Furthermore, research labs engaged on Covid-19 treatments or vaccinations require an end-to-end solution to increase the quality, efficiency, and speed of the vaccine manufacturing process. This is anticipated to boost use of informatics solutions like LIS.

Additionally, certain industry participants are concentrating on developing LIS solutions that are specialized to Covid-19 testing. Given the benefits of LIS in supporting end-to-end workflow, as well as activities done by governments and businesses in the LIS industry, LIS adoption is expected to rise. More health systems are projected to employ LIS as a result of the pandemic.

Lastly, the market is likely to have a significant increase in the short term, supported by strong assistance from the government and regulatory agencies to speed up efficient testing methods.

The global LIS market size is estimated to grow USD 4.2 billion by 2030 from USD 1.9 billion in 2022 and register a CAGR of 10.2 percent. Technological advancements pertinent to pharmaceutical laboratories, and the rising demand for lab automation, are expected to fuel the demand for these systems in the years to come. Advancements in R&D labs, especially in pharmaceutical and biotechnological laboratories, are expected to enable positive industry growth for laboratory information systems. In addition, low cost of implementation, efficient time management, and compliance with GDP, GCP, and GMP are other major factors driving the growth of the LIS market.

Collaborations, partnerships, acquisitions, and product approvals and launches have significantly impacted the market in recent years. Furthermore, there has been a significant rise in the demand for LIS due to its increasing awareness, which, in turn, is fueling the market growth. Rising automation in laboratories, increasing need for regulatory compliance, technological advancements in LIS, growing awareness through conferences, workshops, and seminars, and increasing R&D expenditure are also among the major factors driving the global market growth.

Technical considerations are of utmost importance while purchasing any laboratory informatics solution. Organizations assess the requirements of the solution as well as their IT infrastructure. This enables an organization to choose between on-premise, web-based, and cloud-based solutions.

The cloud-based product segment dominated the market in 2021 and accounted for a share of more than 42.5 percent of the global revenue. The segment is estimated to retain its leading position, growing at the fastest CAGR in coming years. The data can be accessed from multiple locations, multiple systems, and multiple branches, and these are the key factors attributing to the dominance of the cloud-based products segment.

In addition, reduced IT manpower, cost-effective data management, and easy deployability are some other factors driving the segment growth. The web-hosted segment accounted for the second-largest revenue share owing to the high adoption of web-hosted LIMS among the customers. These LIMS are suitable for a wide range of laboratories, including R&D departments, manufacturing companies, public utilities, and environmental, chemical, contract, and QC labs. The on-premise segment is also expected to grow at a significant CAGR from 2022 to 2030 as it is more customized and reliable as compared to other LIS services and, thus, expected to gain more popularity over the coming years.

The services segment dominated the market and accounted for more than 58 percent share of the global revenue in 2021. This is due to the increased need for LIS implementation, integration, maintenance, validation, and support. The use of services like workflow automation systems has greatly aided laboratories in streamlining their workflows, resulting in better healthcare delivery and quality control. Services improve efficiency and allow employees to focus on more important duties like drug research and API formulations. Services promote synergy, which improves coordination among key stakeholders.

Moreover, the high demand for LIS outsourcing solutions is expected to drive the segment growth. Large pharmaceutical research labs lack resources and skills required for the deployment of analytics, thus, these services are outsourced. This outsourcing can be short-term, project-based, or a long-term contract.

These services are offered in packages, and these packages include compliance pertaining to promotional spend, social media analytics, predictive analytics for medical devices failure, benchmarking services, and others. The software segment is expected to show steady growth over the next 10 years with the advancement of a software system from SaaS to more advanced PaaS, CaaS, and community networks. The market players are constantly adopting different strategies and promoting market growth.

The life sciences end-use segment accounted for the largest share of more than 40 percent of the global revenue in 2021. This is owing to the high adoption of LIS in pharmaceutical laboratories. Lack of in-house qualified resources, higher productivity, cost-efficiency, and increasing demand for biobanks and biorepositories are also expected to bolster the growth of this segment.

The Contract Research Organizations (CROs) segment is expected to register the fastest growth rate from 2022 to 2030. This rapid growth can be attributed to the increasing demand for outsourcing by pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies. In addition, various associated advantages, such as cost-efficiency, focus on major competencies, and mutual benefits to both contractor and client, are anticipated to drive the growth of this segment in coming years.

The North America regional market accounted for the maximum share of more than 45 percent of the global revenue in 2021. The dominance is owing to the supportive policies facilitating laboratory automation adoption, such as EHR programs. In addition, the presence of advanced infrastructure, increasing demand for genomic studies, and rising government funding are some other factors responsible for the region’s high share. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing regional market on account of the increasing number of LIS, providing CROs in this region.

China holds 34.6 percent share in the APEJ market in 2021, which is projected to increase at a CAGR rate of 9.4 percent. The prompt upsurge in the demand for personalized medicine and propagation of cloud-based LIS present a lucrative opportunity in terms of growth for entrant operators in the country. Additionally, the Chinese government is standardizing clinical trials, simplifying reimbursement processes, and modernizing regulatory pathways, making it easier for biotech firms to access permission quickly. As a result, in recent years, the number of medicine approvals in China has surged. This has strengthened multinational pharmaceutical companies’ desire to develop a strong presence in the country, resulting in the adoption of laboratory information management system (LIMS) technologies.

In 2021, Japan held an 8.4-percent share in the global LIS market, which is projected to expand at a CAGR of 8.9 percent from 2022 to 2030. With a high geriatric population and automated care systems, the care of patient is comprehensive. This integration of software-based solutions into the healthcare environment in the country has affected the growth of laboratory information systems market. Furthermore, the growing number of clinical studies, the need for additional cost containment in clinical trials, and the growing number of pharmaceutical and biotech companies in this region, are driving the market.

The Middle East & Africa region is predicted to have the least share of the LIS market due to middle-income countries’ existence driving the market growth. However, the lack of healthcare awareness and advanced technology are restricting market growth. Saudi Arabia and UAE dominate the region regarding the market, which owes to a good economy, expert professionals, and availability of new and recent technologies.

The global market is highly competitive. Key companies are focusing on implementing strategies, such as new product launches, regional expansion, partnerships, and distribution agreements, to increase their revenue share. In addition, technological advancements offered by major players in the market are anticipated to boost the competition.

In December 2021, Oracle Corporation and Cerner Corporation jointly announced an agreement for Oracle to acquire Cerner through an all-cash tender offer for USD 95.00 per share, or approximately USD 28.3 billion in equity value.

In August 2021, CTI partnered with LabWare for LIMS in the expanded global laboratory services.

In May 2021, Orchard Software Corporation acquired Corwen, LLC to expand molecular testing capabilities and provide comprehensive and integrated LIS solutions.

In January 2021, PathWest integrated its new laboratory information system transfusion medicine module, SoftBank, with the National Blood Authority’s (NBA) BloodNet LIS interface.

In January 2021, SCC Soft Computer’s SoftBank.web version 25.6, with enhanced features to increase productivity in the laboratory while maintaining compliance with safety regulations, received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration.

In December 2020, CompuGroup Medical acquired Schuyler House, an established developer of LIS, to increase its footprint in the US and expand its portfolio of lab management software.

In December 2020, Cerner Corporation collaborated with Xealth to foster digital innovation and strengthen connections between providers and patients.

In September 2020, IDBS publicized a combination between the E-WorkBook electronic laboratory notebook and SCIEX Analyst Software. Thus, it helps in expanding the company’s present family of integrations.

In July 2020, LabVantage Solutions launched its fully integrated Scientific Data Management System (SDMS) through its LabVantage 8.5 edition.

In July 2020, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. and Microsoft Corporation extended their long-term strategic alliance to enable the development and delivery of cloud-based health IT solutions. This extension would support Microsoft Corporation with the cloud-based Sunrise EHR and help it create a more-scalable technology.

In July 2019, Abbott launched Starlims Life Sciences Solution 11.1 to manage complex sample and testing workflows.

Some of the prominent players in the global laboratory information management system market include: Thermo Fisher Scientific, LabVantage Solutions Inc., Abbott Laboratories, PerkinElmer Inc., Illumina, Inc., Siemens, Cerner Corp, Evident, McKesson, Medical Information Technology, Epic Systems Corporation, SCC Soft Computer, Roper Technologies Inc., CompuGroup Medical, and LabWare.

The restrictive factors affecting the growth of the LIS market are associated with the chief cause of concern, being the high cost of implementation of LIS. It is not feasible for all laboratory settings to transform into an LIS-implementing laboratory over manual record-keeping.

This is because the start-up cost of implementation of laboratory information system is inclusive of purchased software and hardware and the additional cost of integration personnel and skilled coders, migrating platform cost, installation cost as well as contracting cost for the entire system. This factor thus acts as a deterrent for many small-scale laboratories for implementation of laboratory information systems worldwide.

Moreover, one of the major causes of concern during the adoption of such management systems containing data of patients is the risk of intentional or unintentional misuse of patients’ personal and medical data, illegally, or by unauthorized persons in the medical facility.

Thus, the concern related to privacy and security is a major factor involved in hampering the growth of the laboratory information systems industry, and is likely to persist to be a factor of concern.

Additionally, errors in the software design may alter the test results generated through laboratory information systems, thus impacting the patients undergoing personalized clinical care.

Furthermore, the laboratory information systems require skilled and trained professions who can work on the system and run routine operations as well as maintain patient information with efficient management. In spite of considerable investments in advancement of LIS, the dearth of trained professionals is likely to be a factor slowing down the growth of LIS market in the next 8 years.

The demands for deeper data capabilities for healthcare are only going to increase as the 21st century progresses, and a modern LIS increasingly needs to be flexible enough to balance the needs for data accessibility with the requirements for data integrity and cybersecurity. The days when clinical diagnostic labs and healthcare in general – depended on paper orders and results reporting are fast disappearing, and today’s LIS integrates information flow by connecting all of the instrumentation and systems inside the lab.

A modern LIS has numerous components, including computerized provider order entry, rules-making ability, barcoding, direct interfaces with laboratory instrumentation and the electronic health records, patient portals, and so on, with potential for adding rich content and patient-oriented data interpretation. These capabilities, of course, are only the beginning – LIS have to be adaptable to meet the varying needs of more than a quarter-million different laboratories, including multiple lab types, and the LIMS needs to handle multiple complicated connections among all the moving parts, including physicians, hospitals, clinics, insurers, and patients.

One factor that is driving the growth in this market is the increasing demand for biobanks, repositories for the collection of biological materials, such as serum, blood, tissue, and DNA. Biobanks play a critical role in research, and they require an LIS solution to effectively manage and track data quality, bio-species location, security, compliances, end-user billing, and patient demographics. An LIS also helps improve the sampling of data that involves different laboratories, FDA, and partner organizations, and aids in integrating research information. It also helps in easy access of data for analysis. LIS deployment enables dependable transmission of information among different biobanks. Factors such as the integration of LIMS with hospital information systems and increased adoption of analytics in the healthcare industry will have a positive impact on the growth of the LIS market in coming years.

As the laboratory continues to evolve, LIS will act as a digital operating system, effectively providing a software environment that enables organizations to maximize the value of all parts of laboratory processes, including collaboration, with internal and external laboratories and departments. The role of LIS as an informatics platform is evolving to enable true digital transformation at the laboratory and, ultimately, enterprise scale. The industry is at an exciting time, where technology has evolved to where one can help their customers create a connected ecosystem that accelerates science and enables laboratory productivity.