Changing Practice Software? Don't Forget to Tell Your Pathology Provider
15 July 2026 · 5 min read
One of the most common support calls we receive goes like this: a practice has recently moved from one clinical software to another, and pathology results have stopped arriving. The doctors are chasing results manually, the practice manager is stressed, and everyone assumes there is a complicated IT problem to solve.
In most cases, the fix takes a phone call — not to an IT provider, but to HealthLink or Medical Objects. The problem is almost always the same: nobody told the integration provider about the software change.
Why this happens
When your practice receives pathology results electronically, they do not arrive by magic. A third-party integration service — most commonly HealthLink or Medical Objects — sits between the pathology laboratory and your clinical software. That service maintains a configuration that says: "Deliver results for this practice to this software, at this mailbox address, using this format."
When you change clinical software, that configuration does not update itself. The integration provider still has your old setup on file. Results keep being delivered to the previous system — or to a mailbox address that no longer exists — and your new system receives nothing.
The practice has moved. The mail is still going to the old address.
What integration providers need to know
When you change from one PMS to another — Best Practice to Zedmed, MedicalDirector to Genie, Genie to Gentu, or any other combination — your integration provider needs to be contacted before go-live, not after.
They will ask for:
- The name of your new clinical software and version
- Your new HL7 mailbox identifier or routing address (your new software vendor or IT provider can give you this)
- The date you intend to switch over
- Confirmation of your practice provider numbers (so they can match the routing correctly)
- A test result to confirm the new configuration is working before you go live
HealthLink: 1800 188 969 Medical Objects: 07 5456 6000
Both providers have dedicated configuration teams and process these changes regularly. It is not a difficult conversation — but it has to happen.
The timing matters
Ideally, contact your integration provider at least two weeks before your planned PMS changeover date. This gives them time to set up the new routing, test it, and confirm it is working while your old system is still running.
If you contact them after the switch and results have already been lost, recovery depends on how the pathology laboratory handles undeliverable results. Some labs queue undelivered results and can re-transmit once the routing is fixed. Others do not retain them, and results that were sent to a dead mailbox are gone — meaning the ordering doctor needs to contact the lab directly for those specific results.
The same rule applies to other integrations
Pathology is the most visible, but it is not the only integration affected by a PMS changeover. Check each of the following with your new software vendor and integration providers:
- Radiology and specialist correspondence — often routed through HealthLink or Medical Objects separately from pathology
- eReferrals — HealthLink referral routing may need to be updated
- My Health Record — your conformance with the NASH PKI certificate and your software's My Health Record registration may need to be reconfirmed with the Australian Digital Health Agency
- Medicare Online — your PRODA credentials and software registration need to be linked to the new clinical software
- Secure messaging — if your practice uses HealthLink Secure Messaging or a similar service for specialist communication, the mailbox configuration transfers to your new system, it does not carry over automatically
Who is responsible for this?
Your IT provider can assist with the technical side — configuring the new software to accept incoming results, setting up HL7 message handling, and testing the delivery. But the integration providers require the practice itself to authorise configuration changes, because they are handling clinical data and need confirmation from the account holder.
In practice, this means the practice manager or principal GP needs to make the call, or at minimum authorise the change. Your IT provider can be on the call or handle it on your behalf with written authorisation, but they cannot initiate a routing change without your involvement.
A simple checklist for PMS migrations
Before you go live on any new clinical software:
- [ ] Contact HealthLink and/or Medical Objects to update your result routing
- [ ] Confirm your HL7 mailbox details with your new software vendor
- [ ] Request a test result to verify delivery before switching over
- [ ] Check radiology and specialist correspondence routing separately
- [ ] Confirm My Health Record and Medicare Online registration with the new system
- [ ] Keep your old system accessible for at least two weeks post-switchover to retrieve any results that land there during the transition
If you are working with an IT provider for your migration, ask them explicitly whether they will handle integration provider notifications as part of the project scope. It is a small piece of work with a significant impact if it gets missed.
A PMS migration done well should result in zero disruption to incoming results. If your practice has recently changed software and results are missing, the first call to make is to your integration provider — before assuming the problem is technical.
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