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Electronic Lab Information Exchange (ELIE) in Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the Saudi experience in implementing Electronic Lab Information Exchange (ELIE) within healthcare organizations in Saudi Arabia. This paper reviews the benefits, challenges and achievements that Saudi Arabia has gone through over the last five years in implementing ELIE. Data sources included academic literature, websites, and informant interviews. Results show that various Saudi healthcare organizations are participating in ELIE and improvements in laboratory department workflow and patient care have been reported. Future work includes projects to be implemented in different laboratories within the Kingdom to link the various laboratory information systems to Electronic Health Records. Various challenges stand in the way of implementing ELIE including weakness of the information infrastructure, staff resistance, recruiting qualified staff to develop and implement ELIE, producing clear policy and procedures to ensure staff compliance with the data entry, ensuring the privacy and integrity of patient data, and the lack of awareness on the importance of ELIE.