MedLIS: Delivering Connected, Safer Laboratory Care Across Ireland

The rollout of MedLIS, Ireland’s National Laboratory Information System, is well underway transforming how laboratory data is accessed, shared, and used across the health system. As part of the Transforming Healthcare – The People Behind the Progress series, HSE Technology and Transformation sat down with Dr Gerard Crotty, National Clinical Lead for MedLIS, and Thomas Walsh, Programme Manager for the Laboratory Programme, to explore how MedLIS is delivering on its promise of safer, smarter, and more connected care.

From Fragmentation to One National System

MedLIS is being introduced across more than 40 HSE-funded diagnostic laboratories, many of which have operated on separate systems for decades. This fragmentation has made it difficult to access and share patient results between services, often requiring duplicate testing or paper-based reporting.

MedLIS replaces these siloed systems with a single national platform, creating a clinician and patient-centric laboratory record that can be accessed securely, no matter where a patient presents in the health service. In doing so, it enables faster decision-making, improves quality, and eliminates inefficiencies caused by paper requests and disconnected systems.

Aligned with the Digital for Care Strategy

As one of the key enablers of the Digital for Care programme, MedLIS supports several national priorities: improving patient safety, supporting clinical decision-making, and ensuring trusted data is available where and when it’s needed.

The system is underpinned by a standard data model and a single database, offering interoperability across hospitals and primary care. It lays the groundwork for future integration with systems like digital pathology and supports alignment with the European Health Data Space enabling secure, federated access to health data for direct care, research, and innovation.

Collaboration Between Clinical and Digital Teams

MedLIS has been designed and implemented through close collaboration between clinical and digital teams at both national and site level. The programme is clinically led, with strong input from laboratory scientists, consultants, and frontline staff from the earliest phases of design through to go-live.

One clear example of this partnership was the successful implementation of MedLIS at Beaumont Hospital the first hospital to go live with the new system. That launch required coordinated work between the national project team, vendor partners, hospital leadership, laboratory clinicians and quality managers, all while maintaining full accreditation and service continuity.

What It Means for Staff and Patients

For clinicians, MedLIS offers a consistent, standardised interface and easier access to lab results regardless of site or location. This is particularly valuable for non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs), who frequently rotate across sites and often work with different systems. With MedLIS, familiarity and ease of use travels with them.

For patients, it means shorter wait times, reduced risk of test duplication, and a more joined-up experience. Test results can follow patients across their care journey, supporting integrated care between hospitals, primary care and community settings.

The system also improves the working experience for staff, by reducing manual filing, replacing paper-based forms, and streamlining turnaround times from sample collection to result interpretation.

Lessons Learned Along the Way

Implementing a national system across a diverse health service comes with challenges. Change management has been a key focus of the programme, particularly given the level of transformation required moving from paper-based or legacy systems to a single digital platform.

Many laboratories have long operated independently, and adapting to new governance models, shared workflows, and standardised data entry has required deep engagement. The programme has learned the value of early stakeholder involvement, clear communication, and dedicated local resources to support implementation.

MedLIS Champions and Growing the Network

As the programme expands into more sites, the need for clinical and digital champions continues to grow. The MedLIS team actively encourages staff from all disciplines particularly early-career professionals to get involved in implementation, governance and future planning.

These champions play a vital role in aligning national system requirements with local workflows, troubleshooting challenges, and supporting their peers through change.  Staff don’t need to be IT experts to participate. The programme is about improving care, not technology and frontline experience is one of the most valuable contributions.

Looking to the Future

MedLIS is more than a system replacement it’s an essential building block in Ireland’s national digital health infrastructure. As more hospitals come online, the network effect of having consistent access to patient data will grow. New capabilities, like digital pathology, AI-powered diagnostics, and secondary data use for research and planning, are all made possible by the foundations MedLIS provides.

In the years ahead, the vision includes a national shared care record, where patients could one day access their own results directly, securely, and with confidence.

Final Thoughts

MedLIS is already showing what’s possible when digital innovation and clinical leadership work together. It’s improving safety, supporting staff, and delivering on the goals of Digital for Care site by site, system by system.

To get involved or become a MedLIS Champion, contact: Gerard.Crotty@hse.ie

You can watch the full Interview here