Practical guidance for running a modern lab
Field notes on LIMS workflows, molecular and precision-medicine testing, instrument connectivity, quality control, and the operational decisions behind a clean order-to-report process.
Whether you are scaling a diagnostic operation, standing up a molecular menu, or tightening your QC program, this is where we share what we've learned building LifeOrion. Articles are written for the people who run labs — lab directors, QA officers, and lab IT — with concrete steps over abstractions.
Browse by category below, or preview the topics we're publishing next.
Browse by category
LIMS best practices
How to design an order-to-report workflow that holds up at volume: accessioning, status lifecycle, turnaround-time tracking, and consistent master data across sites.
Molecular and precision medicine
Practical guidance for PCR/qPCR, molecular genetics, NGS, and pharmacogenomics — report templates, drug-gene mapping, and pharmacist-review workflows.
Compliance
Building lab software practices around audit trails, role-based access, and controlled report re-release — and how to evaluate a vendor's compliance posture and roadmap.
Instrument connectivity
Getting analyzers talking to your LIMS: ASTM (LIS2-A2) and HL7 fundamentals, port and field mapping, parser configuration, and analyzer-to-report flow.
AI in the lab
Where Banyan helps and where it does not: grounding answers in a verified knowledge base, role-aware assistance, and keeping automation accountable.
Suggested topics
Planned topics that illustrate the kind of content we publish here.
Designing an order-to-report workflow that scales
A walkthrough of the status lifecycle and how to instrument each stage for turnaround-time visibility and operational alerts.
Westgard rules without the spreadsheets
How multi-rule QC and Levey-Jennings tracking flag out-of-control runs automatically, and how to set control ranges that catch real problems.
Connecting your first analyzer: ASTM vs HL7
A practical comparison of the two interface standards, when each applies, and what a clean parser configuration looks like.
See how it works on your menu
Bring your tests, instruments, and report templates. We'll show you the order-to-report flow end to end.