How This New Jersey Software Company is Changing Lab Processes

Running a diagnostic lab these days feels like a constant balancing act. Case numbers keep climbing. Regulations get more detailed every year. Good technicians are hard to find and even harder to keep. On top of that, everyone—doctors, veterinarians, patients, pet owners—wants results faster without any drop in accuracy.

A lot of labs still piece together workflows with paper logs, standalone instruments, and software that doesn’t quite connect the way it should. Those gaps add up to lost time, occasional mix-ups, and staff spending too many hours on things that aren’t actual diagnostic work.

That’s where NovoPath comes in. The company has been based in Princeton, New Jersey since starting up in 1993, and for more than thirty years they’ve concentrated on building laboratory information system software made specifically for pathology labs. Their platform works just as well for veterinary diagnostic facilities, which sets them apart from many other vendors who treat animal health as an afterthought.

NovoPath doesn’t try to be everything to everybody. Instead, they focus on getting the day-to-day details right so labs can process cases smoother, cut down on mistakes, and free up people to do the skilled work that matters most.

How Pathology Labs Actually Run Day to Day

Think about what happens when a biopsy arrives at a typical anatomic pathology lab. The package lands at accessioning. Someone logs the patient information, prints labels, and sends the specimen to grossing. There it gets described, sliced, and placed in cassettes. Those cassettes go through processors overnight, get embedded in paraffin, cut into thin sections, stained, and finally coverslipped. Only then do the slides reach a pathologist for review.

If any step relies too heavily on handwritten notes or separate spreadsheets, things can slow down fast. A label falls off. A requisition gets misplaced. Data has to be typed again when it moves to the next station.

NovoPath handles that entire chain digitally and automatically. Barcodes print the moment the case is entered. Every block and slide stays tracked as it moves through the lab. The system can even assign cases to pathologists based on their subspecialties and current workload so nothing piles up on one desk while another sits empty.

When the pathologist opens the case, everything needed is already there—clinical notes from the referring doctor, any previous biopsies on the same patient, photos from grossing, results from special stains or molecular tests. Reports build using templates that can be adjusted for different clients or requirements. Sign-out is just a click, and the finished report heads out electronically right away.

Labs that switch to the platform often find they can take on noticeably more volume without adding headcount. Dermatology groups, for example, regularly handle sudden spikes in skin biopsy numbers because technicians aren’t stuck printing labels or hunting down paperwork all day.

Instruments connect directly too, so measurements and counts flow straight into the case file. Fewer chances for transcription errors, fewer phone calls from clinicians asking why numbers don’t match.

Because everything runs in the cloud with strong security, pathologists can finish cases remotely when they’re on call or just clearing the queue on a weekend.

Making Room for Veterinary Diagnostics

Veterinary pathology gets shortchanged by a lot of software companies. NovoPath built real support for it from the ground up.

Animal cases bring their own set of variables. One day the lab might be looking at a cat spleen, the next a horse intestine from a colic surgery, and the day after that liver samples from an entire flock with sudden deaths. Normal values change by species and sometimes by breed or age. Some submissions come with strict regulatory deadlines.

The platform lets labs create templates that fit each situation. Extra fields can capture things like microchip numbers, vaccination status, or herd exposure details. Radiology pictures or ultrasound clips drop right into the case next to the histology images.

Reports come out looking professional whether they’re headed to a small animal clinic, a large production animal vet, or a state diagnostic lab. Turnaround stays fast even on urgent submissions, and analytics can flag patterns that might point to an emerging problem.

Smaller regional veterinary labs and university services get the same reliable tools as big commercial operations without needing a full IT crew on staff.

Getting Digital Pathology Right

More labs are moving to whole-slide imaging—scanning glass slides into high-resolution digital files. It solves a bunch of problems at once: no more broken or faded slides, unlimited storage, easy second opinions from anywhere.

The tricky part is making the switch feel helpful instead of cumbersome. Some systems force pathologists to close their main program, open a separate viewer, find the right scan, and try to keep the clinical details in mind while flipping back and forth.

NovoPath keeps the digital slide inside the laboratory information system. Everything stays in one place: history, gross photos, stains, and now the full scanned slide. Zooming, annotating, measuring—it all happens without leaving the window the pathologist is already using.

That single change makes a huge difference in how quickly modern lab operations take place. People actually use the scans because it doesn’t add extra steps; it removes them.

Bringing AI Into the Mix the Smart Way

Everyone in pathology is talking about artificial intelligence these days, and some of the applications are genuinely useful. Algorithms can spot areas that deserve a closer look, count cells reliably, or pull up similar past cases for comparison.

The catch is that AI only works well when it gets consistent, clean data to learn from. If information is scattered across different programs and entered in different ways, the results stay shaky.

NovoPath’s strength is keeping the whole workflow in one place. Every annotation, every measurement, every final diagnosis gets recorded the same way every time. That steady stream of structured data gives AI something solid to build on.

When AI tools do get added, they show up right where the pathologist is already working. A subtle highlight here, a quick count there—helpful nudges that save time on straightforward parts of the slide so the pathologist can spend more attention on the parts that really need human judgment.

It works the same way for veterinary cases, where some conditions show up less often and patterns can be harder to spot.

The goal isn’t to replace pathologists or promise miracles overnight. It’s to make the current workload more manageable and set labs up for whatever comes next.

What It All Adds Up To

Labs today need systems that can grow with them, handle both human and animal work when required, stay secure and compliant, and not create new headaches while solving old ones.

NovoPath delivers on those needs with a platform that’s been refined over decades of real lab feedback. Implementation teams know the difference between grossing and embedding, between CAP inspections and USDA requirements. Updates roll out quietly in the background. Support answers come from people who understand the work, not just the code.

The payoff shows up in faster turnaround, fewer errors, happier staff, and the ability to take on more cases without burning everyone out.

Doctors get reports sooner. Treatments start earlier. Pet owners find out what’s wrong with their animals more quickly. Behind those better outcomes are laboratories running a little smoother, thanks in part to focused software from a New Jersey company that’s spent thirty years paying attention to the details that matter most.

That kind of steady, practical progress is exactly what diagnostic labs need right now.