In March 2020, with the emergence of COVID-19, the healthcare community was forced to make a hasty and radical change in mindset of how it handles and interprets data due to the emergence of new pathogens.
Faced with the urgency of the pandemic, Nosotech was able to use the team’s expertise and resources to support the efforts of hospitals and meet an urgent public health need. In record time and in an exceptional context, it is thanks to Nosotech’s experts that a new data aggregation platform was created: the IRIS solution.
This story is one of responsiveness and collaboration. An achievement that has positioned Nosotech as an essential player in the management of epidemiological data on COVID-19, both in Quebec and in Europe.
Controlling the crisis, if not avoiding it
With an error rate that can reach nearly 25% when entering case follow-up information and data transmitted by fax, which causes delays of several days to obtain results, public health authorities had to evolve their processes and this, in an expedient manner. The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) and the Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec (INSPQ) turned to Nosotech to work on the centralized management of laboratory results for COVID-19 analyses. This was followed by collaborative work with targeted laboratories to implement the IRIS solution in order to connect different types of laboratory information systems (LIS) and different data formats to the Nosotech monitoring platform.
Tons of data, millions of results.
30million
COVID-19 test results
10million
laboratory analyses
100laboratories
In just a few months, thanks to the development of IRIS, more than 30 million COVID-19 test results and over 10 million analyses from 100 laboratories were compiled by Nosotech.
“It is thanks to IRIS that this data could be quickly standardized and aggregated in real time. This achievement was made possible thanks to the valuable collaboration and trust between our team of experts and that of the Ministry. This large-scale project allowed us to build a solution entirely tailored to meet a specific need and safeguard public health as much as possible.” – Laurent Bellavance, General Manager of Nosotech.
The addition of the IRIS solution will also have had great benefits for Nosotech, which has added 5 new people to its team since the beginning of the project. It will allow the company to diversity revenues and create a product with a strong export potential.
Development of the IRIS solution, over just a few months
March 15, 2020
First configurations of COVID-19 result codes, 16 laboratories were initially targeted.
April 10, 2020
Connection and validation of the first laboratories. The network grew to 60 laboratories. Nosotech then had to connect with private laboratories.
October 27, 2020
Connection of 88 laboratories with 49 data streams thanks to the IRIS solution.
February 2021
The platform supports screening and sequencing data for monitoring variants.
October 2021
Evolution of the platform to include respiratory viruses.
December 2022
IRIS connects 100 public & private labs for COVID-19 & other Respiratory Viruses.
IRIS: A scalable solution according to the evolution of your needs.
To monitor the activity of pathogens, such as COVID-19, influenza, C. difficile, MRSA.

For the first time in Québec, IRIS is a multi-platform data aggregation solution that automatically manages, in real time, the results of 100 laboratories despite the presence of different types of laboratory information systems (LIS) and 55 different data standard formats. Iris provides accurate information on official figures and allows citizens to receive their test results quickly—and seamlessly.
Developed by Nosotech to initially meet the needs of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, the IRIS solution has many advantages:
- Centralized receipt of all tests pertaining to COVID-19, respiratory viruses, and others
- Integration and standardization of lab data in real time
- No manual or duplicate data entry/extraction required by labs
- Local and provincial aggregation module
- Flexible architecture for adding variables, tests or new pathogens
- Data import into INFO-Center, TSP, DBBM, dashboards and more
- Tools for hospital laboratories to enable staff to visualize and extract the status of the volume per site as well as information on processing times
- Standardization and aggregation of test results for respiratory viruses, such as influenza A-B and RSV from a network of selected laboratories
Unmatched customization capabilities
With scalable connectivity, IRIS receives complete raw data from laboratories, offering more possibilities for monitoring other microorganisms and types of infections beyond those of an epidemiological nature.
As the needs of healthcare establishments are constantly changing, IRIS is a modular solution that adapts when any new infection arises and requires the attention of various intervention teams. The ultimate goal is to consolidate data and better monitor the evolution of a high risky situation.
Nosotech is a partner of choice for the development of specialized solutions thanks to the expertise, agility, responsiveness and commitment of the team. Our professionals are available to explore, design and operationalize any unsolicited request, to help you increase the efficiency of your establishment.