Design and application of an intelligent laboratory medicine teaching management system based on smart spreadsheets

Clinical laboratory medicine education involves multiple instructors, repeated small-group teaching activities, attendance tracking, formative evaluation, workload calculation, and timely feedback. Conventional learning management systems may require substantial customization to accommodate these locally specific workflows. This study describes the implementation of a smart spreadsheet-based teaching management system and evaluates its preliminary use and outcomes in a clinical laboratory medicine teaching setting. A single-center implementation study was conducted in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital from September 2024 to August 2025. The system integrated teaching-plan management, activity documentation, QR code-based attendance, structured teaching evaluation, feedback collection, workload aggregation, and data visualization. System-use records, task-completion times, aggregated administrative processing times, instructor satisfaction, and trainee feedback were analyzed descriptively. The system recorded 208 teaching activities delivered by 51 instructors, representing 218.32 teaching hours. Sixty-five trainees submitted 1,211 teaching-evaluation questionnaires and 141 free-text comments. The median time required to complete a system-related recording task was 2.47 min for instructors (interquartile range, 1.43–3.56) and 1.07 min for trainees (interquartile range, 0.73–1.53). In a descriptive comparison based on aggregated departmental estimates, the monthly time required to compile teaching-workload statistics decreased from approximately 2 h before implementation to 0.17 h after implementation. The instructor questionnaire demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.982), with preliminary evidence supporting the usability evaluation of the system. The smart spreadsheet-based system was feasible to implement and supported structured documentation, automated data aggregation, and feedback collection in this single-center setting. Its use was associated with shorter administrative processing time and favorable instructor feedback.