Creating a Lab Test

A lab test is a reusable set of markers for a specific partner laboratory and collection method. Create a lab test when you expect to order the same group of markers more than once. For one-off selections, you can instead choose markers à la carte when creating an order.

Before you create a lab test

Your lab test must include:

One or more active, orderable markers from the same partner laboratory.
One collection method supported by that laboratory: testkit, walk_in_test, at_home_phlebotomy, or on_site_collection.
Either Junction marker_ids or the laboratory’s provider_ids. Do not provide both.

We recommend using provider_ids when the laboratory supplies them because they are shared across environments. Otherwise, use marker_ids.

Contact the Junction team if you need help confirming your panel requirements.

Approval status

The status in the create response determines whether the lab test can be ordered. Only lab tests with a status of active can be used in an order. In production, the initial status depends on the collection method and marker configuration:

Collection method	Status after creation
`at_home_phlebotomy`	`pending_approval`. Mobile phlebotomy lab tests currently require review because of panel constraints from our phlebotomy provider, even when every marker is enabled for à-la-carte ordering.
`testkit`	`pending_approval`. Test kit lab tests require review.
`walk_in_test`	`active` when every marker is enabled for à-la-carte ordering; otherwise `pending_approval`.
`on_site_collection`	`active` when every marker is enabled for à-la-carte ordering; otherwise `pending_approval`.

For teams using a delegated lab account, walk-in and on-site lab tests are created as active regardless of the markers’ à-la-carte settings. If a production lab test is created with pending_approval, Junction reviews the panel before changing its status to active. You can check the current status using the List Lab Tests endpoint.

In Sandbox, newly created lab tests are active immediately. Production approval rules are not applied in Sandbox.

Copying and promoting panels in the dashboard

You can reuse a panel across environments from Lab Testing → Your Panels in the dashboard. Both actions create a new panel for the same team in the other environment, with a new lab test ID. Use the destination panel’s ID when creating orders there.

Copy from production and Promote to Production are enabled separately for your team. If an action is unavailable, contact Junction support.

Copy production panels into sandbox

Select Sandbox in the dashboard and open Lab Testing → Your Panels.
Click Copy from production.
Search for active production panels available to your team, including shared and default panels. Select up to 25 panels; selections are retained as you search and move between pages.
Click Copy selected and review the success or error shown for each panel.

Successful copies appear in sandbox and can be used for sandbox ordering and simulation. If a panel name is already in use, the copy gets a Production copy suffix, with a number when needed. Panels already copied into sandbox are marked Already in sandbox and cannot be selected again. A production panel created by promoting a sandbox panel is also marked Already in sandbox, because its original sandbox panel already exists.

Promote sandbox panels to production

Select Sandbox in the dashboard and open Lab Testing → Your Panels.
For one eligible panel, open its actions menu and choose Promote to Production. To promote several, select up to 25 panels across pages and use the promotion action.
Confirm Promote to Production. For a batch, review the success or error shown for each panel.
Open Production → Lab Testing → Your Panels to find the new panels. A successful single-panel promotion opens the production panel list automatically.

Only active, customer-created sandbox panels can be promoted. Default and automatically generated panels are ineligible. Panels marked Copied from Production cannot be promoted back as new production panels. An already-promoted panel cannot be promoted a second time, even if its production panel has been archived. Production marker availability and the production approval rules apply. A promotion can succeed with a status of pending_approval; the production panel can be ordered only when its status becomes active.

What carries over

Both actions preserve the panel’s name, description, partner laboratory, markers, collection method, and fasting requirement. The destination resolves its own marker IDs, pricing, approval status, and operational settings. Production pricing and settings are not copied into sandbox. The panels remain independent: editing or archiving one does not update the other. These actions create new panels; they do not synchronize changes or update an existing destination panel. Archiving a destination panel does not allow its source panel to be copied or promoted again.

Errors and partial results

A panel cannot be copied or promoted if its laboratory or required markers are unavailable in the destination, or its markers lack laboratory provider IDs. A failed panel is not partially created. Other panels in the same batch can still succeed; use the per-panel results to identify failures before trying again. If the dashboard cannot check whether panels were already copied or promoted, the action is disabled until that check succeeds. Refresh the page and contact support if the error persists.

1. Find markers

Use GET /v3/lab_tests/markers to find the markers available for the partner laboratory. The response indicates whether each marker supports à-la-carte ordering.

Get all markers

{
  "markers": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "name": "17-OH Progesterone LCMS",
      "slug": "17-oh-progesterone-lcms",
      "description": "17-OH Progesterone LCMS",
      "lab_id": 1,
      "provider_id": "070085",
      "type": null,
      "unit": null,
      "price": "N/A",
      "a_la_carte_enabled": true
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "name": "ABO Grouping",
      "slug": "abo-grouping",
      "description": "ABO Grouping",
      "lab_id": 1,
      "provider_id": "006056",
      "type": null,
      "unit": null,
      "price": "N/A",
      "a_la_carte_enabled": true
    }
  ],
  "total": 2,
  "page": 1,
  "size": 2
}

You can set the a_la_carte_enabled query parameter to true to return only markers that support à-la-carte ordering.

2. Create the lab test

Use POST /v3/lab_tests with the selected marker or provider IDs. The following Sandbox example creates a Labcorp walk-in test from provider IDs:

Create a lab test

from junction import Junction, LabTestCollectionMethod
from junction.environment import JunctionEnvironment

client = Junction(
    api_key="YOUR_API_KEY",
    environment=JunctionEnvironment.SANDBOX,
)

lab_test = client.lab_tests.create(
    name="Example test",
    description="Example test",
    method=LabTestCollectionMethod.WALK_IN_TEST,
    provider_ids=["006056", "070085"],
)

The response contains the new lab test and its current status:

{
  "id": "2e82a1d4-e2e6-421c-9c54-2210d667ce48",
  "slug": "a94e3005-example-test",
  "name": "Example test",
  "sample_type": "serum",
  "method": "walk_in_test",
  "price": 0,
  "is_active": true,
  "status": "active",
  "fasting": false,
  "lab": {
    "id": 1,
    "slug": "labcorp",
    "name": "Labcorp"
  },
  "markers": [
    {
      "id": 2,
      "name": "ABO Grouping",
      "slug": "abo-grouping",
      "description": "ABO Grouping",
      "lab_id": 1,
      "provider_id": "006056",
      "a_la_carte_enabled": true
    },
    {
      "id": 1,
      "name": "17-OH Progesterone LCMS",
      "slug": "17-oh-progesterone-lcms",
      "description": "17-OH Progesterone LCMS",
      "lab_id": 1,
      "provider_id": "070085",
      "a_la_carte_enabled": true
    }
  ],
  "is_delegated": false,
  "auto_generated": false
}

The deprecated is_active field mirrors whether status is active. Use status in new integrations.

Getting Started

Ordering Workflows

Walk-in (Patient Service Center) Orders

Mobile Phlebotomy Orders

At-Home Test Kit Orders

On-site Collection Orders

Results and Follow-up

Lab Report Parsing

Creating a Lab Test

Before you create a lab test

Approval status

Copying and promoting panels in the dashboard

Copy production panels into sandbox

Promote sandbox panels to production

What carries over

Errors and partial results

1. Find markers

2. Create the lab test

​Before you create a lab test

​Approval status

​Copying and promoting panels in the dashboard

​Copy production panels into sandbox

​Promote sandbox panels to production

​What carries over

​Errors and partial results

​1. Find markers

​2. Create the lab test

Before you create a lab test

Approval status

Copying and promoting panels in the dashboard

Copy production panels into sandbox

Promote sandbox panels to production

What carries over

Errors and partial results

1. Find markers

2. Create the lab test