Clicks for Diagnosis:
Busy Hospital No Longer Keeps Patients Waiting, Thanks to Tech
Written by: William Opio | Film and Photography by: William Opio.
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
At Kawempe National Referral Hospital, a laboratory chief is bearing witness to a tech-powered transformation in patient diagnosis, records, and prescription.
Before the clicks of keyboards, and wheezing of lab machines filled the air, Catherine Nansubuga, the Principal Laboratory Technician and Manager relied on handwritten forms, to connect the laboratory results to Clinicians.
This normally came with missing sample results, long queues and the burden of storing large volumes of accumulated paper-files.
“We used to get overwhelmed. People brought samples without proper requests. Doctors had to walk down here just to pick up results. We couldn’t track anything. If something got lost, we had no way of knowing where it went,” Nasuga says.
Catherine Nansubuga, the Principal Laboratory Technologist and Manager at Kawempe National Referral Hospital outside Kampala.
That world changed in April 2023 when an open middleware was introduced to connect laboratory machines to digital systems. The artificial intelligence powered system, called LabXpert Automation was pioneered by at most high volume public health facilities to ease pressure on healthy workers.
When a sample is taken the patient records are captured and attached to the sample. After the test, the laboratory machine will automatically update the results to the patient data and send a notification to the clinician for review and prescription.
“Everything is electronic now. You see the request before the sample even arrives. You track the sample in real time. If there’s a delay, you know where it happened. Results are reviewed and shared instantly. There’s less stress for everyone,” Nansubuga explains.
The system is a brainchild of MedX International, a Ugandan medical technology company whose goal is to improve laboratory and health data management systems across Africa.
The Lab Xpert technology helps to channel all lab results into a database for doctors to make prescriptions in no time. Photo by William Opio.
Patient diagnosis is part of the grand health access challenge for many Ugandans. It is faced with a cocktail of setbacks, including the absence of proper research and financial barriers and systemic flaws in patient record management.
For the last three years the adoption of LabXpert Automation has helped Kawempe reduce its patient waiting time by about 60%, and is showing how digitally transforming even one part of healthcare can create ripples across an entire hospital system.
“Back then, in critical cases, we had to write down test results, get them signed, printed, and then delivered. That whole process took too long. Now, we run the test, verify it, and release the results instantly,” says For Esther Nanyonjo, a senior laboratory technician.
“Our lab machines are linked to LabXpert. Everything we use is tracked. You know what test was done, who did it, when, and which supplies were used. There’s accountability in every click,” Nanyonjo adds.
Ernest Okot, the founder of MedX International supports public health facilities to centralize data and quicken diagnostic processes. Photo by William Opio.
According to Ernest Okot, the proprietor at MedX International their product is built from the ground up to meet Uganda’s unique healthcare challenges.
“Most medical decisions depend on lab results … yet labs in Uganda used to be the weakest link. Machines can run tests in three minutes, but the results would take hours or even days to reach the doctor. We focused on fixing everything around the machines,” Okot says.
The result? A fully digital lab workflow from test request to final report that cuts turnaround time by up to 80%. But speed isn’t the only thing that matters.
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The system prioritizes data integrity and security: results are pulled directly from lab machines, cannot be altered manually, and must pass two levels of review before they’re released.
The system also features built-in audit trails, a crucial tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. When samples went missing, LabXpert’s logs were used to find where they were last seen and who handled them. “We havea had cases of internal fraud exposed through these records,” Okot notes.
Privacy is just as important. With ISO 27001 certification, encrypted data, automatic logouts, and role-based access, patient data is kept safe while still allowing for efficient, coordinated care.
Ensuring the entire system works day and night Kawempe has had to invest in training its laboratory teams to use the automated structure.
Kawempe National Referral Hospital IT officer takes healthy workers through how to handle send and interpret data. Photo by William Opio.
Jeanette Kawoya Nakabuye, an IT Officer has trained staff to troubleshoot errors, and makes sure LabXpert links smoothly with the hospital’s electronic medical records system, EAFFER.
“People think digital transformation is just about speed. But it’s also about trust,” she says. “Every test now has a digital trail. If something goes wrong, we don’t guess we check the system. Everything is tracked: who logged in, who verified the results, and when. It makes our hospital more transparent and accountable,” she says.
That level of transparency is now not just a hospital standard it’s part of a broader national push by Uganda’s Ministry of Health to phase out paper-based systems in public health facilities.
Kawempe Hospital is showing how that policy can work in real life.
What’s happening at Kawempe is more than a tech upgrade it’s a shift in how public hospitals serve patients. With clearer records, faster diagnoses, and less administrative chaos, medical staff are empowered to do what they do best: care. Patients, in turn, get treated faster and with greater confidence.
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