LabLynx, Inc.
Type Incorporated
Industry Laboratory informatics
Founded July 24, 2000[1]
Founder(s) John H. Jones
Headquarters 2400 Lake Park Drive
Suite 435
Smyrna, Georgia 30080, U.S.
1-866-LABLYNX
Area served Worldwide
Products
Revenue ~ $2 million[2]
Employees 40+[2]
Website LabLynx.com
CannaQA.com
COVIDLiMS.com
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/lablynx-inc-/

LabLynx, Inc. is a privately owned, funded, and managed American corporation that develops, supports, and markets laboratory information management system (LIMS) solutions. Its most well-known product is webLIMS, a browser-based LIMS offered as a local installation or under a scalable, hosted "software as a service" (SaaS) delivery model. The company’s primary clients include laboratories in the agriculture, clinical, environmental, forensics, health care, and manufacturing industries, including government agencies. The company is known for introducing one of the first browser-based LIMS products in 1997[3][4] and being a long-term player in the laboratory informatics market.

History

Before LabLynx was a company, it was a LIMS product offered by Atlanta Systems Consultants, Inc. (ASC).[5][6] Formed in 1992,[7] ASC's LabLynx division later began work on a laboratory information management system designed specifically for a web browser. ASC demonstrated its new Internet Explorer-based LabLynx LIMS at Pittcon in 1997, among the first browser-based LIMS to appear at the time.[3][4] The company again showcased LabLynx at Pittcon in 1998[8] and soon after picked up a major LIMS-based contract with the U.S. Customs Service.[9]

LabLynx home office

By July 2000, the LabLynx division of ASC separated to become its own incorporated entity.[1] And while ASC eventually ceased to exist in 2005,[7] LabLynx, Inc. went on to diversify its offerings. LabLynx’s browser-based LIMS previously demonstrated at Pittcon in 1997 expanded to become ELab, which in 2001 took on an application service provider (ASP) model of distribution.[10] In 2004 LabLynx released a browser-based tool called openLIMS, which gave consultants and end-users the ability "to build custom LIMS solutions that are geared to the exact operational needs of many different laboratories."[11]

On June 19, 2006, LabLynx established the Laboratory Informatics Institute, an open membership group with the purpose of advancing the field of laboratory informatics and shaping the standards associated with it.[12] LabLynx made further moves to better its LIMS offerings in August 2008, renewing and expanding its contract with Nagarro, Inc., a U.S.-based technology consulting firm. The collaboration allowed LabLynx to upgrade its existing LIMS software to .NET architecture and expand its initiative to create and market a SaaS-based LIMS.[13] Less than a year after the announced renewed partnership, LabLynx revealed its redeveloped webLIMS product to the public, featuring ELab in a SaaS model and additional integration of developer tools to allow users to create and modify modules for the LIMS.[14][15] This move to a cloud-based SaaS model brought renewed interest in the company’s LIMS, with clients like the Georgia Department of Agriculture[16] and Cypress Bioscience[17][18] taking on the new LIMS.

In 2011, LabLynx was involved in an initiative to standardize and structure the transmission of laboratory data that first originates in a LIMS or LIS and then moves to a person's or population of people's electronic health records.[19] This laboratory results interface (LRI) pilot began in August 2011 and included collaborations with the supported open source project mdDigest and the U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).[20]

In February 2015, LabLynx announced the introduction of HealthCloudPOL, a cloud-based laboratory information system (LIS) for the physician office laboratory (POL), making the basic starter package free to users.[21][22] That product line soon after changed names, becoming sciCloud.net, though as of January 2018 that product line had not fully launched.

In the summer of 2019, LabLynx released its CannaQA LIMS software for the cannabis testing industry.[23]

In April 2020, LabLynx announced it had modified its existing LIMS platform to effectively manage COVID-19 workflows, and that its implementation could be deployed in two to five days.[24]

Community history

Since transitioning from Atlanta Systems Consultants, Inc. to LabLynx, Inc. in 2000, LabLynx has become increasingly active in the laboratory informatics community. Projects that LabLynx has started or been involved in within the community include:

  • the Laboratory Informatics Institute, an open trade association with the mission of educating, standardizing, and promoting the laboratory informatics industry[12]
  • LIMSfinder, an online interactive magazine released by the Laboratory Informatics Institute that aims to be "the best resource for information technology in the laboratory"[25]
  • LIMSbook, a LIMS buyer’s guide released by the Laboratory Informatics Institute[26]
  • LIMSforum, a LinkedIn discussion group created to facilitate the exchange of ideas and technical information across the fields of laboratory, science, and health informatics[27][28]; this later became a stand-alone community web portal.[29]
  • LIMSuniversity, an open-access learning resource released by the Laboratory Informatics Institute, targeted towards laboratories and the LIMS community[30]
  • LIMSwiki, a Creative Commons-licensed wiki with the goal of bringing related informatics communities together to maintain a repository of information about the industry[31]

Technology and products

ELab

ELab is a hosted software as a service (SaaS) laboratory information management system (LIMS) + laboratory information system (LIS). Introduced in 2009 as webLIMS[14], ELab "offers complete functionality for every type of lab - at a price that's affordable."[32] The software can be hosted in the cloud or self-hosted. In April 2020, a COVID-19 testing module was developed for ELab that extends its molecular diagnostics and other related COVID-19 workflows.[24][33]

CannaQA

CannaQA LIMS is cloud-based LIMS software designed specifically for the cannabis testing industry, with certificates of analysis, track-and-trace support, "and other aspects of data management required for successful, cost-effective operation in today's highly competitive and fast-growing cannabis testing market."[34]

LabVia

LabVia is a middleware hardware/software-based hub that "intelligently manages multiple data communications between all kinds of devices, services, systems or other sources."[35]

Product Features

Product: ELab
Sample, inventory, and data management
Sample login and management?Y[32]
Sample tracking?Y[32]
Sample and/or result batching?Y[32]
Task and event scheduling?Y[32]
Option for manual result entry?Y[32]
Multiple data viewing methods?Y[32]
Data and trend analysis?Y[32]
Data and equipment sharing?Y[32]
Customizable fields and/or interface?Y[32]
Query capability?Y[32]
Import data?Y[32]
Internal file or data linking?Y[32]
External file or data linking?Y[32]
ELN support or integration?Y[32]
Export data to MS Excel?Y[32]
Raw data management?Y[32]
Data warehouse?Y[32]
Deadline control?Y[32]
Production control?Y[32]
Project and/or task management?Y[32]
Inventory management?Y[32]
Document creation and/or management?Y[32]
Case management?Y[32]
Workflow management?Y[32]
Specification management?Y[32]
Customer and supplier management?Y[32]
Billing management?Y[32]
Quality, security, and compliance
Regulatory compliance?Y[32]
QA / QC functions?Y[32]
Performance evaluation?Y[32]
Audit trail?Y[32]
Chain of custody?Y[32]
Configurable roles and security?Y[32]
Data normalization?Y[32]
Data validation?Y[32]
Data encryption?Y[32]
Version control?Y[32]
Automatic data backup?Y[32]
Environmental monitoring?Y[32]
Reporting, barcoding, and printing
Custom reporting?Y[32]
Report printing?Y[32]
Label support?Y[32]
Barcode support?Y[32]
Export to PDF?Y[32]
Export to MS Word?Y[32]
Export to HTML and/or XML?Y[32]
Fax integration?Y[32]
Email integration?Y[32]
Base functionality
Administrator management?Y[32]
Modular?
Instrument interfacing and management?Y