Ovation LIMS Release Notes: Release 39

We’re thrilled to bring more operational efficiency to your lab with our upcoming Ovation LIMS major release (Release 39)!

In this article:

• Release 39 Timeline
• Release 39 Highlight: New & Improved Turnaround Time Analytics
• Release 39 Minor Improvements
• In Case You Missed It: Product Update Roundup

Release 39 Timeline

Before we jump into the details, here are the important dates you should mark on your calendar:

• July 7, 2022: Release 39 will automatically go live in your lab’s Ovation LIMS sandbox environment (lab-sandbox.ovation.io). Please note: the new and improved Turnaround Time Analytics may already be available in your sandbox environment if your lab was part of an early access beta. If you have questions about this, reach out to support@ovation.io.
• July 14, 2022: Join Ovation LIMS product experts for a webinar reviewing the ins and outs of Release 39, complete with use cases to help your lab report on turnaround time metrics like a pro. UPDATE: Recording from this webinar is now here.
• July 24, 2022: Release 39 will automatically go live in your Ovation LIMS production environment (lab.ovation.io). Please note: the new and improved Turnaround Time Analytics may already be available in your production environment if your lab was part of an early access beta.

Release 39 Highlight: New & Improved Turnaround Time Analytics

The operational data you need to maintain compliance and meet client expectations must be easy to access, understand, and take action on. That’s why we built new and improved Turnaround Time Analytics to help you quickly understand your lab’s performance with clear, concise, real-time metrics.

What Your Team Can Do With Ovation LIMS Turnaround Time Analytics

• Assess performance against compliance requirements. Turnaround Time Analytics is a simple and effective mechanism for monitoring key quality indicators that you can use as evidence of compliance with accreditation agencies and state health departments. 
• Achieve timely reporting goals. By easily accessing turnaround time metrics, you can implement a data-driven improvement cycle that ensures you’re continuing to exceed client expectations.
• View the metrics that make sense for your lab. We understand that every lab tracks its turnaround time metrics a bit differently based on its operations. Whether your key indicator is collection-to-reporting, receipt-in-laboratory-to-reporting, or something else—we’ve got you covered.
• Easily identify data outliers. Sortable columns allow you to quickly determine where a data entry error may have occurred before reporting on your metrics.

How to Access New & Improved Turnaround Time Analytics

The new and improved Turnaround Time Analytics will automatically be available in your Ovation LIMS sandbox environment on July 7th and in your Ovation LIMS production environment on July 24th. 

On those dates:

• The existing Turnaround Time Analytics (under Analytics > Turnaround Times) will be automatically replaced with the new and improved Turnaround Time Analytics.
  

  

• The “Turnaround time history” section of the Project Dashboard will be automatically replaced with the new and improved “Turnaround time history” section from the new Turnaround Time Analytics.
  

  

The new Turnaround Time Analytics includes a new “TAT” Permission. When this new functionality goes live in sandbox and production environments, the “TAT” Permission will be set to “None” automatically. That means the “Turnaround Times” navigation tab to access the new and improved TAT Analytics will not be visible to a LIMS user until the “TAT” permission for their role is changed to a “Read,” “Write,” or “Admin” Permission Level. (Please note: all permission levels are equivalent and allow complete access to the new Turnaround Time Analytics). 

We recommend that your lab’s LIMS Administrator adjust these permissions when the functionality goes live in your sandbox and production environments so that your team can use the new TAT Analytics appropriately. 

Please note that users with a Role assigned any Permission Level for “TAT” will see metrics about all Projects within your LIMS. However, users cannot click through to the details of any Projects unless they are added as a user to the Project. Therefore, to prevent unwanted viewing of all Project metrics, we recommend only enabling the TAT permission for Roles where users are added to all Projects (example: Lab Manager Role). See our Roles and Permissions Article to navigate to the Users and Permissions Page.

Learn More About New & Improved Turnaround Time Analytics

To get the most value out of the new and improved Turnaround Time Analytics:

1. Now: Review the resources below.
2. July 7th: Test the functionality in your sandbox environment.
3. July 14th: Attend our webinar “All You Need to Know About Release 39” where we’ll review the functionality in detail and answer your questions! UPDATE: Recording from this webinar is now here.

Resources:

• Turnaround Time Article — a deep dive into the functionality
• 9-minute Video Tour

Release 39 Minor Improvements

We've made a few recent updates that haven't been available to every lab yet—until now. With Release 39, we're making the following minor improvements available to all Ovation LIMS labs! Please note: your lab may already have this functionality in your sandbox and production environments if requested in the past.

• Schedule Requisition Report — Users can now customize and schedule a requisition report on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. Links to the generated reports will be automatically emailed to you. Learn more > 
• Bulk Tube Barcodes (Container IDs) — When creating a rack-like container, users can now choose between automatic barcode generation, manual specification, or upload of a file with barcodes for each tube.
• Containers Page — Users can now navigate to a Container’s details page from the Containers page to view all sample identifiers within that container, their sample state, and well position. From the Container’s details page, users can use the new table view to navigate to individual samples and their requisitions. Users can also view a complete container history and use navigation links to view corresponding workflows and workflow activities.  The “Containers” navigation tab is available under the “More” button from any Ovation LIMS screen. Learn more in the Containers Article >
  
  If you don’t see the “Containers” Navigation tab, you may need to adjust your Permission settings. Learn more in Roles & Permissions Article >
  
• Manual Plating — In the Batch Plating Activity Step, users can now choose the “Manually assign” option when assigning samples from one container to another. Learn more > 
  

In Case You Missed It: Product Update Roundup

Here’s a roundup of some of the most impactful updates that have gone live in Production since our last major release.

Arkstone OneChoice Report Integration

Arkstone’s OneChoice report can help your lab gain a competitive edge by providing your clients with a value-added service. Their advanced technology analyzes your microbial diagnostic test results to recommend an optimal treatment regimen that you can deliver to providers automatically combined with your existing patient reports. 

Here at Ovation, we’re committed to making the Arkstone offering operate as seamlessly as possible for your lab. That’s why we built the Ovation LIMS + Arkstone OneChoice report integration!

With this integration, you can start sending your providers treatment recommendations for existing infectious disease workflows in a matter of days, not weeks or months.

If you’re ready to add Arkstone to Ovation LIMS, complete the Project/Change Request Form to let us know that you’re interested, and your Ovation Account Manager will get back to you with next steps!
To learn more about the integration, check out our Arkstone OneChoice Report Integration Article and watch the webinar we co-hosted with Arkstone that dives deep into the integration and its various use cases.

Roles & Permissions Improvements

We made a number of enhancements to clean up and clarify the Roles and Permissions table:

• Added a “Category” column and moved permissions settings relating to “Document Folders” into its own “Documents” tab so that users can more easily navigate permissions.
  
• Removed permissions which are no longer applicable and added a new permission called “Requisition Templates” which controls access to Template Information, Forms, Sample Routing, Reports, and Billing (view the latest permission matrix document in our Roles & Permissions Matrix Article).
• Removed the “View” Permission Level for non-document-related permissions as that setting was only relevant for managing document permissions.

QR Codes on Patient Reports

QR codes can now be displayed on Ovation COVID-19 and Infectious Disease Patient Reports with COVID-19. The mobile-friendly QR code is securely linked to the person’s report so that their result can be verified easily. 

This was introduced in summer 2021 so that people could provide proof of COVID-19 testing to businesses and agencies (concert and sporting venues, airports, cruise lines, schools, and other). Reporting with QR codes will continue to be valuable whenever testing results must be verified.

To configure this feature, submit a Project/Change Request Form.

Ovation Portal: Dynamic Electronic Signature on Orders

We added the ability to capture dynamic electronic signatures produced in real time when the Order Form is submitted in the Ovation Portal. A new Signature Box in the UI enables Providers and Provider Delegates to use their mouse or stylus to draw a signature or type their name (which translates to a signature font). The drawn or typed signature is then saved for reuse. 

Providers and Provider Delegates can submit one signed Order Form at a time or filter for drafts awaiting signature and sign a batch of Order Forms all at once.

Other impactful Ovation Portal updates:

• We’re also consistently updating the Orders view in the Ovation Portal to be as user-friendly as possible for your clients. For example, based on client feedback, users can now see MRN and Reported Date as columns to the Orders view.
  
• The Requisition Print Template was condensed to print fewer pages, plus more field options can be added. To configure this feature, submit a Project/Change Request Form.

User Experience Improvements

Documents

Users can now more easily find and download documents within Ovation LIMS. For example, navigating to "More" > "Documents" > "Complete Reports" displays all the complete reports for the Projects and Requisitions that you have access to. Plus:

• The Documents view now consistently displays the same document folders at the Organization, Project, and Requisition level.

• Users can search and filter within the Documents view to quickly access the document they’re looking for.
  

• Users can bulk download documents to a zip file right from the Documents view.
  

Learn more in the Using Documents Article >

List Views

• Enhanced the Requisitions and Samples pages (both organization and project level) to include a “Columns” dropdown menu to show/hide the columns and also added the following columns: 
  • Requisition Page: Provider Account, Provider, Date of Birth, Report Generated Date, Report Signed Date.
  • Samples Page: Date Received, Collection Date, Project, Provider Account, Provider, Secondary Provider Account, Date of Birth.

Workflows

• Added the ability to specify the well positions for COVID-19 pooled samples when completing the workflow plating activity.
• Added "10x10 Box" as a new Container Type. To add this Container Type, submit a Project/Change Request Form.
• Enhanced QC routing options to include routing rules based on multiple sample groups. 
• Enhanced the functionality of routing samples in a workflow by sample type to allow for routing by a group of sample types.
• Added the ability to define Automatic QC Routing using custom values defined in the Workflow Definition, Test Panel, or Test custom attributes.
• Enhanced the routing post activity function (SetComputedRoutingFromResultTypes) to:
  • Support dynamic routing based on selected test genes. (Before, this function only allowed routing rules based on selected test panels.)
  • Include samples from requisition when computing required results.
• Added the ability to exclude controls from being routed according to the routing rules configured in your workflow. If you want your controls to be excluded, submit a Project/Change Request Form.
• Users can now change the sample state label during any Workflow Activity Step.
• On linear workflows (workflows without branching paths), users can now progress to the next activity step by clicking a new “Next Step” button.
• Added an option to allow users to complete the queue assignment when result reports are not generated from a QC Step in the Workflow. To configure this feature, submit a Project/Change Request Form.
• Added support for larger sample workflow batches for processing.

Patient Reports

• Users can now customize the names of test result PDF files generated for requisitions.
• In the case of an “inconclusive” result in an infectious disease patient report, the Description column of the patient report will no longer display a value (or, will display “None,” if that’s what’s configured).
• Users will now be warned when they attempt to generate a corrected report without another report being active.
• Added a configuration setting to include text in the footer of Patient Reports that indicates the report is now Corrected, as well as include the Corrected Reason on the first page of the Report. The default text of the footer will appear as "Corrected" unless you request alternate text to display. To configure this feature, submit a Project/Change Request Form.
  

  

• Added the ability to include a page number and page count on the Addendum Page of Patient Reports. To configure this feature, submit a Project/Change Request Form.
• A Fax Cover Sheet can now be added when the result report PDF is generated from a third party interpretation tool. To configure this feature, submit a Project/Change Request Form.

Notifications

Under Individual User Settings, users can now receive system email notifications when a new Provider or Provider Account is created via API or .csv import, and when a new Secondary Provider or Secondary Provider Account is created using the “Create New Provider Account” button in the Order/Requisition Form.

Barcode Labels

Users can now include the patient's name formatted as "last, first" without extra spacing on a barcode.

Requisition Forms

Users can now customize the organization of requisition form sections, which can be applied to both LIMS and Portal forms and print templates. To configure this feature, submit a Project/Change Request Form.

Misc

• When clicking a link that leads to an Ovation LIMS page URL, users have always been redirected to the login page if they were not already logged in. Once users logged in, the path they were on was then lost and they were brought to the Dashboard. We made an update so that once users log in they’re automatically redirected to the page URL within Ovation LIMS where they were originally headed. 
• Users will now see more specific error language when a sample target is not included in the payload for Covid processing lambdas.
• Users can now delete requisitions, samples, and patient reports. Before, in most cases, a user had to contact Ovation to take this action.
• Added a new reporting interactor that creates an “empty” report upon completion of the QC workflow activity. This interactor allows for identifiers to be generated and utilized for third party result reporting or customer-generated result reporting. 
• Users can now filter records on the Users and User Roles pages.
  

Reporting & Analytics Improvements

• Users can now select Correction Reason as a column for inclusion in Requisition Reports and CDC Reports. 
• Users can now see when Analytics reports were requested.

• Users now have the option to receive an email notification when a COVID-19 or Requisition Report is available for download. 
• Users can now include draft orders created in the Ovation Portal in their Requisition Reports. To enable this feature, submit a Project/Change Request Form.
• Made the following improvements to scheduled reports:
  • Users can now schedule Covid-19 reports to be sent on a weekly frequency.
  • Users can now assign a name when setting up multiple scheduling configurations for COVID-19 CDC/State or Requisition Reports so that they're easier to identify (e.g., "Weekly Req Report," "Daily COVID Report," etc.). This report name is visible from both the Report History table and the Schedule table, but does not affect .csv filenames. 
  • Users can now see which user created a scheduled report.
• Users can now include Overall Status, Sample Status, Report Generated, Notes and workflow Metadata columns in the QC Workflow Report. 

API, HL7, Webhooks Improvements

API

• Added the ability for CRM integrations to retrieve, create, update, or delete the following entities in Ovation LIMS via our API. To enable this feature, submit a Project/Change Request Form.
  • Provider Accounts 
  • Provider Account Providers 
  • Provider Account Contacts 
  • Sales Reps 
  • Sales Groups 
• Users can now upload/download Supplemental Documents and generate requisitions in Ovation LIMS via our API. 
• Enhanced the GET Requisition API to return the following additional fields: 
  • Project Name
  • Template Name
  • Created By
  • Created Date
  • Overall Status
  • Sample TAT (hours)
  • Signed By
  • Project Template ID
• The GET Requisition API call was updated to:
  • Return a result value for reports if it exists. For Covid reports, this returns "Positive", "Negative" or "Inconclusive."
  • Allow optional query parameters for "accessionStatus", "processingStatus", "reportingStatus", "billingStatus" and "overallStatus.”  This allows your lab to parametrize the counts in the event a count should not be included. 
• Users can now query the Webhook Events for failed entries and resubmit them. In addition, Webhooks Endpoints now have an owner associated with them. Users must have the "Webhook Admin" permission to interact with webhooks via the API. See the updated API documentation for details. To configure this feature, submit a Project/Change Request Form.
• Users can now use the Workflow API to get information (such as dates and times) relating to workflow steps and workflow results.
• Added an alternative API for creating orders that can infer which project template to use based on the provided test panel and provider account. Please see the updated API documentation for details.

HL7

• Made the following updates to the HL7 Import via SFTP integration tile:
  • Users can now see an event log of all attempts to create an order via HL7 message in the last seven days, including the actual HL7 message.
  • Users can now interactively import an HL7 ORM file to create an order on the "HL7 Import via SFTP" tile on the Integrations page. After the file is processed, users will get a link to the created requisition or an error message.
• Users can now add multiple credentials (SSH keys) to integration tiles that use Ovation-hosted SFTP. The integration tile Configuration page has been updated to show all active credentials, audit information, and a button to deactivate individual keys.
• We now provide HL7 integration capabilities to an Ovation-hosted SFTP server, instead of relying on third-party servers. 
• Enhanced our HL7 requisition import functionality to allow files to be pulled directly from an SFTP server without requiring the use of Box. 
• Improved our support for accessing external SFTP servers by allowing additional ports for these transmissions.
• Added the ability to support SFTP exports to multiple locations. To configure this feature, submit a Project/Change Request Form.
• HL7 for order creation can now be configured so that inbound messages can specify custom attribute values for multiple samples. Plus, added the ability to export requisition, patient, and sample custom attributes to the same HL7 segment type.
• Now allow multiple HL7 import configurations and SFTP sources to be associated to an organization. Before, only one import configuration and source SFTP server was supported. 
• Enhanced the HL7 Requisition Import to support:
  • The following billing details: billing_information_attributes, patient_pay_attributes, and insurance_attributes. 
  • Custom attributes in a requisition form 
• Added the option of enabling/disabling the sending of HL7 messages when a requisition is signed.
• Enhanced the HL7 export functionality to export medications defined for a requisition. 
• Exported HL7 messages for results and billing can now include AUT, GP1 and IN2. We also added support for ZCF segments, which are intended to hold custom attribute values.
• Made the following updates for billing systems that integrate via HL7:
  • Integration can now be configured to send patient demographic information upon requisition verification. 
  • Configuration of flags can be set to the integration to indicate removal of Panels and Tests after verification of the Requisition.

Webhooks

• Users can now view an event log of all attempts to send webhooks in the last seven days.
• A new permission allows users (via the API) to access all webhooks associated with the organization. Before, only the user that created the webhook was allowed to access the webhook.
• Added an attribute for gender ("patientGender") in the report_signed and report_corrected webhooks.
• Updated response for the "report_signed" webhook to include a new “signedBy” field indicating who the report was signed by. 
• The webhook payloads for the report_signed and report_corrected events now also include the requisition's template identifier (as "projectTemplateID"), collectionDateTime, receivedDateTime, and reportDateTime. 
• Added webhook events ("report_ready_for_generation" and "report_correction_ready_for_generation") that are triggered when a new report is created in the LIMS. 
• Added the ability to allow for custom headers (request and authentication) in our webhooks. To configure this feature, submit a Project/Change Request Form.

Ovation Research Network Biobanking Improvements

Recently, we made several improvements that help labs participating in the Ovation Research Network efficiently process and send remnant samples to Ovation’s biorepository. Here are just a few highlights:

• Users can now use bags as a shipment container option, as they allow for an unlimited amount of samples to be added to one container. We also now support a wider variety of box container sizes and rack configurations.
• Users will now see clear and actionable error messaging when any issues occur as they’re creating a shipment.
• Users now have more visibility into which samples are eligible for biobanking throughout Ovation LIMS, specifically the Samples Summary Table on the Samples page and in your workflow’s Create Batch Activity Step.

If your lab is not part of the Ovation Research Network yet and interested in helping turn remnant samples into data that accelerates the discovery of targeted diagnostics and therapies, reach out to your Ovation Account Manager for more information!

We can’t wait for you and your team to access the new and improved Turnaround Time Analytics! If you have any questions or feedback about Release 39 or any of the minor improvements that we recapped here, send an email to support@ovation.io. We love to hear from you and we’re here to help!