With the emergence of the COVID-19 epidemic in the Kyrgyz Republic in late March 2020, the Kyrgyz Government tasked the National Reference Laboratory (NRL), along with 12 Sanitary Epidemiological Service (SES) laboratories, with testing for COVID-19. To quickly register and map new cases and control the spread of infection, the country needed a system to record, store, and share laboratory test results in real-time to track cases.
The laboratory data management information system (LDMIS) developed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to record and report cases in tuberculosis (TB), became even more useful during the COVID-19 epidemic as an existing national health information system. Its coverage and user-friendly inter-face were the decisive factors that made the Kyrgyz authorities reach out to USAID for help. A short time later, the USAID Cure Tuberculosis Project had modified the LDMIS to include a new module to capture tests for COVID-19, implemented the new system in the NRL and all 12 SES laboratories performing COVID-19 testing nationwide, and trained all staff in its use.
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