Overview
Every day, thousands of healthcare providers depend on our lab client’s Test Directory to find the right test, specimen requirements, and ordering instructions. But the legacy search tool often returned irrelevant results, slowing down clinicians who needed fast answers. This lab client partnered with i-ology to reimagine search from the ground up.
The Challenge
Providers were losing valuable time navigating irrelevant or low-quality search results.
Poor search accuracy created friction in clinical workflows, impacting satisfaction and trust.
Manual or developer-dependent ranking adjustments created operational inefficiencies.
Leadership lacked behavioral analytics to understand what tests clinicians struggled to find.
SQL needed an extensible search foundation that could later support enterprise-wide search modernization.
The Approach
i-ology worked with Sonora Quest Laboratories to reimagine the Test Directory search experience, making it faster, more accurate, and clinically intuitive.
Discovery and Strategy
Conducted working sessions with providers, lab experts, and digital stakeholders to identify pain points in the existing search experience.
Analyzed common search queries, failure points, and behavioral patterns to understand where clinicians struggled.
Defined success criteria focused on speed, accuracy, discoverability, and long-term extensibility.
Relevance-Learning Search Engine
Implemented a modern search index that adapts based on user behavior, prioritizing tests most likely to be relevant.
Introduced logic to learn from click-through behavior, refinements, and frequency trends.
Enabled dynamic result ranking without requiring developer intervention.
Business-Controlled Search Governance
Built a control panel that empowers SQL content owners to manually promote, suppress, or recategorize search results.
Eliminated dependency on engineering for ranking adjustments, accelerating digital operations.
Ensured key assays or priority tests can be surfaced strategically.
Modernized User Interface and Interaction Design
Redesigned search results to display essential test details at a glance, reducing time spent clicking into individual tests.
Improved filtering, navigation, and mobile usability to enhance clinician experience.
Ensured design alignment with SQL brand and accessibility standards.
Analytics and Future-Focused Architecture
Implemented click-logging and search analytics to surface behavioral insights for continuous improvement.
Built an extensible architecture prepared for future MLR search and enterprise-wide search unification.
The Outcome
Dramatically improved search accuracy and speed.
Enhanced provider experience navigating the Test Directory.
Search governance through manual promotions/suppressions.
Analytics-enabled foundation for future search phases.
Technologies Used
.NET Core • Vue.js • Search Indexing Engine • Relevance-Learning Algorithm • Azure SQL • Analytic