No. 03 · The observatory
Laboratory information systems
Lab systems run for decades. One audit quantifies a late, over-budget replacement.
- Status
- Open
- Rank
- 14 of 35 in the atlas
- Scored
- 2026-10-05
- Report
- Back to the study
- Rank
- 14 of 35, published score 58.0
- Scoring date
- 2026-10-05, reported 2026-10-09
- Buyable
- $1.3B buyable midpoint, $0.9B to $2.0B recorded legacy spend
- Factors
- size 3, pain 2.8, AI fit 3, lock-in 2.2, crowding 2
- Coverage
- none recorded; AI-native challenger recorded
Laboratory information systems
Ranked 14 of 35 at 58 out of 100.
Laboratory information systems for clinical and pathology laboratories.
What the evidence says
The checked evidence corroborates bounded pain in one named audit. PathWest’s ULTRA system ran from 1994. Its replacement was forecast about two years late and $23.7 million over budget. The audit ties the overrun to weak governance and underestimated staff effort.
Providers
The card checked three incumbents: Clinisys, SCC Soft Computer and Epic’s Beaker. Clinisys reports over 7,000 laboratories across 42 countries. SCC’s vendor survey reports 1,199 sites operating SoftLab. Epic’s survey reports 192 contracts for Beaker sites. The figures mix laboratories, sites and contracts. No ranking is supported.
elea is the recorded challenger. Its adoption rests on vendor-hosted testimonials without deployment dates. No completed legacy displacement is evidenced.
Sources:
- elea health - AI-Powered Healthcare Systems
- History of Clinisys
- Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide)
The pain
A delayed replacement leaves the lab exposed to vendor-support and failure risk. The audit links the delay to weak oversight and limited project-management experience.
PathWest underestimated the staff effort its own team would need.
Sources:
Events
The Western Australia audit covers the ULTRA replacement project. Vendor appointment was May 2016, with a planned May 2018 go-live. The audit forecast an April 2020 deployment at $50.5 million total. Delay and overrun figures are audit forecasts, not completed outcomes.
Sources:
Limits
The evidence is a single-jurisdiction audit, not a category-wide failure rate. The two quotes are audit-office findings, not buyer testimony. The audit page’s date label is a last-updated marker.
Sources:
- History of Clinisys
- Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide)
- elea health - AI-Powered Healthcare Systems
- Executive summary - Office of the Auditor General
In their words
weak project governance and reporting
Source: Western Australia Office of Auditor General, undated
continues to meet PathWest’s primary needs
Source: Western Australia Office of Auditor General, undated
Relevant workflows
6 recorded openings. A missing mapped round is a coverage gap, not an empty field.
| Workflow | Index | Labour | AI use | Core | Mapped |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Send-out testing, CPT coding and lab billing lab-information:sendouts-coding-billing | 335 | $12.0B | 65% | non-core | 0 |
| Specimen receipt, requisition intake and order entry lab-information:accessioning-order-entry | 187 | $7.5B | 13% | non-core | 0 |
| Quality control, calibration and instrument maintenance lab-information:qc-instrument-management | 122 | $10.1B | 0% | non-core | 0 |
| LIS build, interfaces, validation and accreditation records lab-information:lis-admin-validation-compliance | -252 | $37.6B | 31% | touches core | 0 |
| Result review, autoverification, release and critical-value calls lab-information:result-verification-release | -458 | $12.3B | 42% | touches core | 1 |
| Anatomic pathology case tracking, diagnosis and report sign-out lab-information:ap-case-reporting | -502 | $27.3B | 10% | touches core | 2 |
Recorded providers
Provider claims carry their recorded kind and citations. Undisclosed figures stay undisclosed.
| Provider | Products | Parent | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clinisys | Sunquest Laboratory, Clinisys LIS/LIMS family | unknown | cl-lab-clinisys-m1 (observation) source |
| SCC Soft Computer | SoftLab | unknown | cl-lab-scc-rel (inference) source cl-lab-scc-inc (inference) source cl-lab-scc-m1 (observation) source |
| Epic | Beaker | unknown | cl-lab-epic-rel (inference) source cl-lab-epic-inc (inference) source cl-lab-epic-m1 (observation) source |
Recorded inputs
Raw scored inputs exactly as frozen. Values and units keep their recorded definitions.
| Factor | Input | Value | Count | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pain | keep_alive_share | 0.45 | 20 | 3 |
| pain | backend_failure_share | 0.2 | 100 | 4 |
| pain | app_rating_inverted | 3.627564090909091 | 22 | 3 |
| pain | failed_rate | 0.2 | 10 | 1 |
| pain | s3_grade | weak | 1 | 3 |
| pain | mean | 2.8 | unavailable | 2.8 |
| lockin | award_duration_months | 36.1 | 19 | 2 |
| lockin | noncompetitive_share | 0.1 | 20 | 4 |
| lockin | replacement_duration_months | 36 | 5 | 2 |
| lockin | regulator_approval | 1 | 1 | |
| lockin | mean | 2.25 | unavailable | 2.2 |
| crowding | ai_native_traction | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| crowding | funding_per_billion | 14832396.974191325 | 3 | 2 |
| crowding | yc_2024_plus | 7 | 7 | 3 |
| crowding | mean | 2 | unavailable | 2 |
| size | users_midpoint | 416 | unavailable | unavailable |
| size | buyers_mid | 27841.5 | unavailable | unavailable |
| size | midpoint | 1334915727.6772194 | unavailable | unavailable |
| ai_fit | mean | 2.9156 | 12 | 3 |
| ai_fit | unanswered | unavailable | 0 | unavailable |
Recorded sources
25 recorded citations. Each link lands on the sources catalogue.
| Source | Locator |
|---|---|
| History of Clinisys | captured lines L55-L59 (laboratory informatics footprint and sectors) and L74-L85 (Sunquest founding, sister-company and 2022 merger history) |
| Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide) | extracted lines 793-799 (Sunquest Information Systems column; Sunquest Laboratory product row at 798) |
| History of Clinisys | captured lines L55-L59 (7,000+ laboratories across 42 countries) and L74-L85 (Sunquest founding and merger history) |
| Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide) | extracted lines 793-799 (Sunquest Information Systems column; Sunquest Laboratory product row) |
| History of Clinisys | captured lines L55-L59 (over 7,000 laboratories across 42 countries and sector span), L74-L85 (Sunquest founding and CliniSys|MIPS/Roper history), L90 (Horizon LIMS), L112 (ApolloLIMS) and L117 (Promium) |
| Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide) | extracted lines 694-724 (SCC Soft Computer column; product name SoftLab at line 699) |
| Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide) | extracted lines 691-692 (vendor-supplied non-endorsement disclaimer and November 2020 page header) and 694-724 (SCC column; 1,199 sites at line 709) |
| Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide) | extracted lines 691 (vendor-supplied non-endorsement disclaimer), 694 (SCC Soft Computer column header), 699 (SoftLab product name) and 707-711 (1,199 sites breakdown at line 709; contracts and installations rows at 708 and 711) |
| Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide) | extracted lines 302-332 (Epic column; product name Beaker at line 307) |
| Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide) | extracted lines 299-300 (vendor-supplied non-endorsement disclaimer and November 2020 page header), 302 (Epic column header), 307 (Beaker product name) and 316-320 (192 contracts and 35 sales at line 317) |
| Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide) | extracted lines 299-300 (vendor-supplied non-endorsement disclaimer and November 2020 page header), 302 (Epic column header), 307 (Beaker product name), 316-320 (contracts/sales row '192/35' at line 317 and partly untracked site buckets at 318-319) and 323-325 (foreign marketing countries) |
| elea health - AI-Powered Healthcare Systems | captured lines L145-L168 (testimonials: OnePath Diagnostics launch and Gesundheit Nord Chief of Pathology) |
| elea health - AI-Powered Healthcare Systems | captured lines L38-L59 (AI-powered information systems; fully integrated AI, end-to-end replacement, automated reporting and AI-supported workflow) |
| elea health - AI-Powered Healthcare Systems | captured homepage accessed 2026-10-06; footer at line L234 (© 2026 Elea.ai GmbH) |
| History of Clinisys | captured lines L55-L59 (7,000+ laboratories, 42 countries) and L74-L85 (Sunquest founding, sister-company and 2022 merger history) |
| Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide) | extracted lines 691-724 (SCC SoftLab column incl. non-endorsement disclaimer at 691, November 2020 header at 692, identifying rows at 694/699, survey-deadline row at 707 and sites row at 709) and 299-332 (Epic Beaker column incl. non-endorsement disclaimer at 299, November 2020 header at 300, identifying rows at 302/307, survey-deadline row at 316 and contracts row at 317) |
| History of Clinisys | captured lines L55-L59 (group laboratory and country footprint) |
| Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide) | extracted lines 691-709 (SCC SoftLab column: disclaimer 691, November 2020 header 692, column header 694, product row 699, survey-deadline row 707, sites row 709) and 299-317 (Epic Beaker column: disclaimer 299, November 2020 header 300, column header 302, product row 307, survey-deadline row 316, contracts row 317) |
| Executive summary - Office of the Auditor General | captured lines L25 (ULTRA in place since 1994), L36 (continuing needs with rising vendor-support and failure risk) and L58-L60 (legacy support costs and technical weaknesses) |
| Executive summary - Office of the Auditor General | captured lines L37-L38 (governance findings and DoH 2018 review) and L45 (underestimated staff customization cost) |
| Executive summary - Office of the Auditor General | captured lines L13-L60 (executive summary body) |
| Executive summary - Office of the Auditor General | captured lines L13-L60 (executive summary: background, audit conclusion and key findings) |
| Executive summary - Office of the Auditor General | |
| Laboratory Information Systems (CAP TODAY Product Guide) | |
| History of Clinisys |
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