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Lab software compared with Word and Excel

Most small labs in India still type reports in Word and keep the register in Excel, and it works: the layout is exactly what the pathologist wants and nobody needs training. What it cannot do is check itself. Nothing tells you a haemoglobin is below the range for a woman, nothing stops two patients getting the same case number, and nothing proves who changed a value after it was printed. Here is the trade, in both directions.

What Word and Excel do well

Worth reading first. If these three things are what your lab depends on, the rest of this page may not change your mind.

  • Any layout you can imagine. A page in Word is a blank sheet, and a pathologist who wants a table in a particular place can put it there in five minutes.
  • Everyone in the lab already knows how to use them, so there is nothing to learn and nothing to roll out.
  • They work with no internet, no subscription and no account, on a machine you already paid for.

Side by side

Scroll the table sideways on a phone; the first column stays put. The rows marked not available are the ones where this system is the worse choice.

Where this system and Word and Excel differ, including the rows where it loses.
What you are comparingWord and ExcelThis system
Any layout you can drawYes, the page is a blank sheetNot availableThe template editor gives you the letterhead, the patient fields, the result columns, the font size, the margins, two signatories and the footer lines, on A4 or Letter. It is a set of switches, not an empty page.
Works with no internetAlwaysNot availableRegistration, result entry and reports all need a connection. A phone hotspot covers a power cut; a day with neither is a day on paper.
Report formats to start fromWhatever you have typed before, in whichever file you can find157 formats install into your catalogue in one click, with their parameters, units and ranges
Reference rangesTyped into the template, and edited per patient by handSex-specific reference ranges ship where they apply; add age bands per test
High, low and critical flagsThe person typing decides by eyeComputed from the range that matches the patient, with critical limits held separately
Calculated valuesA spreadsheet formula, if someone built one and nobody broke it26 shipped parameters compute themselves, including ones that read the patient’s age and sex
The same patient coming backA new file, and a new spelling of the nameOne patient record with the whole order history behind it
Case and report numbersSomeone remembers the last oneIssued by one atomic statement, so there are no gaps and no duplicates
Sign-off before a report goes outThe file’s last-modified dateDraft, verify, approve and release, each a separate permission recorded with the person and the time
Who changed what, after the factTrack changes, if it was switched onAn append-only audit trail the application offers no way to edit
Sending the reportAttach the file to an email or a chat by hand, each timeEmail on every plan, WhatsApp and SMS on paid plans, with a log of what went where
A patient checking a report is genuineThey telephone the lab and someone looks for the fileThe QR code on the report opens a verification page that names the issuing laboratory
BillingA receipt book, or a second spreadsheet that does not agree with the firstThe bill comes off the registration screen as A4, A5 or a 3-inch thermal roll
What it costsAlready paid for, plus the hours spent retypingFree for one branch; paid plans from ₹999 a month plus GST, billed monthly

Switching, step by step

Every step below is manual. There is no import: your old reports and registers stay where they are, and this system starts from the day you begin. Tick the steps off as you go; the ticks are saved in this browser only.

0 of 8 steps ticked off. Every one of them is yours to do.

Then what

Two pages worth opening before you decide.

Pricing

Every plan, every limit and the trial terms, with prices shown before GST and billed monthly only.

Book a demo

Pick a date and a slot and we will walk the whole flow on your own test list, including the parts this page says are missing.

Set up your lab this afternoon.

Create your organisation, add your tests, print the first barcode. If you would rather see it first, ask for a walkthrough.

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