QDX has two parts in athenahealth: the ordering app, which opens from the chart's Apps tab, and results filed back into the chart as lab results. Both use apps QDX registers with athenahealth, so your practice registers nothing itself and has no client ID or secret to manage.
1. Where each part stands
Ordering from the Apps tab is in testing. Filing results into a live practice is coming.
2. The ordering app
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| App | QDX Lab Ordering: a provider app using athenahealth's certified APIs only, SMART App Launch from the chart's Apps tab |
| Launch URL | https://qdx.systems/app/launch.html. athenaOne adds the launch and iss parameters. |
| Sign-in | Your athenaOne sign-in (athenahealth's login widget). QDX is a public client using PKCE, and the code is exchanged by QDX's server. |
| What it reads | The signed-in user, the patient, the encounter and the chart's diagnoses: launch openid fhirUser user/Patient.r user/Practitioner.r user/Encounter.r user/Condition.r user/Condition.s |
| Framing | The app opens inside athenaOne. QDX allows only https://*.athenahealth.com to frame it. |
| Cookies and storage | QDX's pages use none, and each open chart gets its own session |
How QDX knows it is your practice: every athenahealth practice opens the same app at the same athenahealth address. After sign-in, athenahealth tells QDX which practice the chart belongs to, and QDX matches that practice ID to your QDX organization. That match counts only after QDX has confirmed with you that the practice ID is yours. So no other QDX customer can receive your clinicians' launches by entering your practice ID.
What the clinician sees:
- The patient's QDX orders from this chart, with their status.
- An order screen with the patient's demographics from the chart. The clinician fills in only what the chart lacks; the lab requires a phone number and an address.
- The encounter's diagnoses as ICD-10 codes, which the clinician can add with one click. Problems coded only in SNOMED CT are not offered. In athenahealth's sandbox, problem-list entries carried only SNOMED CT codes, while some encounter diagnoses carried ICD-10.
- The estimated cost before the order is placed; the requisition, the patient's hold letter and the report in a viewer inside the app.
Clinicians and NPIs. Orders are placed under a clinician your organization has verified in QDX. The first time each athenaOne user opens QDX, they choose which of your clinicians they are, unless athenahealth gives QDX their NPI. QDX remembers the choice, and your administrator can undo it under Settings > EMR connections.
3. Results back into the chart
When an order placed from a patient's chart is resulted, QDX files it in that patient's chart as a lab result document, in the patient's department. It goes to the clinical inbox for review. Your QDX administrator chooses one of two forms:
| Form | What is filed |
|---|---|
| Lab result with each value and the report | Each value as a lab analyte, with its units, reference range, flag (high, low, critical or abnormal) and LOINC code where the lab gives one, plus the lab's report as a PDF. The QDX order reference is the accession ID, and the lab's requisition is in the internal note. |
| Lab result with the report | The same document with the PDF report only |
Measured in athenahealth's sandbox on 2026-09-29: a four-value lipid panel was filed with status REVIEW, the report as its page, and each value with its LOINC code and the high flag on LDL. The result then read back through athenaOne's API and through athenahealth's FHIR API (a DiagnosticReport with four Observations).
A result in test mode is marked TEST MODE on every value and in the note.
4. What your practice does
| Step | Who and where |
|---|---|
| Turn QDX on for your practice | Your athenaOne administrator enables QDX Lab Ordering, and chooses who sees it on the Apps tab: all users, or chosen users, departments or provider groups. athenahealth support can help. |
| Connect it in QDX | Your QDX administrator adds the connection under Settings > EMR connections. Choose athenahealth as the EMR, set the FHIR base URL to https://api.platform.athenahealth.com/fhir/r4 (or https://api.preview.platform.athenahealth.com/fhir/r4 for athenahealth's Preview environment), and enter your practice ID and test or live mode. No client ID is needed. |
| Confirm the practice ID | QDX writes to your administrator to confirm the practice ID before any launch connects |
| Results (optional) | In the same place, choose how results are filed |
| Test | With the connection in test mode, orders are simulated and never sent to the lab, and a simulated result is filed marked TEST MODE |
5. Results by fax, for any practice
Until results are filed into your chart (or alongside it), QDX can fax each result report to your EMR's fax inbox. See Results into any EMR by fax.
6. Questions
Write to ops@qdx.systems. Include your practice ID, the environment and the time of the launch.