iVention has announced that RIVM via a European Tender has chosen iLES as their new LIMS for NHS to replace the current LIMS system.
‘The assignment is an essential milestone in our ambition to increase our presence in the Healthcare industry. The winning bid proves that our innovative approach provides great benefits to organizations like RIVM in their search for a more flexible, configurable and future-proof NHS LIMS. As our system is based on the latest technologies it offers unrestricted scalability and brings down the total cost of ownership’, comments Oscar Kox, CEO of iVention.
The Neonatal heel prick screening is a nationwide screening program for babies in the first week after birth. Annually approximately 170.000 newborns in the Netherlands receive the heel prick. The heel prick screening is the longest running nationwide screening program in public healthcare in the Netherlands.
The analysis of the heel prick blood provides important information about currently 19 rare, often hereditary, serious diseases. Early detection of these diseases is crucial to limit or prevent serious damage to health by timely treatment of babies that are born mostly symptomless. The blood tests are performed by five screening laboratories, of which the laboratory of the RIVM acts as a reference laboratory. The screening laboratories are responsible for the analysis of the heel prick blood and adequate reporting of the results. High demands are placed on the reliability and quality of the blood tests. The analyses must be carried out in a timely manner and with great care.
In July 2015, the Minister of VWS took up the recommendation of the Health Council to add 14 disorders to the screening program. With the expansion plans of the heel prick program to 31 diseases the number of functionalities and complexity will increase significantly. As the current LIMS system is not sufficiently equipped for these changes replacement is necessary. Therefore RIVM published a European Public tender for the delivery, implementation and maintenance of a LIMS for neonatal heel prick screening.
The European tender for this NHS project started in early 2017 and 4 vendors were selected for a final proposal and a dedicated demonstration to show their fit to the RIVM requirements. Critical elements in the delivery of the new NHS-LIMS include integration with lab equipment, interpretation functionality (decision rules), and the administrative process support system. The full digitalization of the information on the heel prick card with a mobile App has been determined as a potential added value for the near future. Finally iVention was selected as the best-qualified partner for the assignment. The agreement was signed on July 5th at RIVM in Bilthoven.
‘Great teamwork, passion, talent and challenging work in iVention formed the basis for this new success’ according to Oscar Kox, the CEO of iVention.
