January 12, 2017 - Reducing the Unknowns: The Value of Lab Informatics Project Managers
On every project there are things that we know and things that we don’t know. It is the project manager’s responsibility to plan for and manage both the knowns and the unknowns in order to deliver the project on-time, within budget, and meeting specifications.December 19, 2016 - openBIS ELN-LIMS: An open-source database for academic laboratories
Scientific recording is an essential part of research, as progress in science depends among other factors on existing knowledge and reproducibility. Recording is the process by which the scientific question, the choice of an experimental procedure, materials and methods, data analysis and interpretation of the results are gathered. Traditionally, all these details were kept in paper notebooks.
December 16, 2016 - Onshore vs Offshore Informatics
It is common that a laboratory organization will supplement its internal resources with laboratory informatics subject matter experts (i.e. consultants) in order to fill their informatics project gaps while adhering to budgetary constraints, but sourcing the right resources can be challenging.December 14, 2016 - Enabling Product Quality Assurance via Effective Formulations Management
Are you in charge or involved with new product development within your organization? Are you looking for an easier way to develop and manage all your product formulations throughout their lifecycle? Then this white paper will provide you with an overview of how you can utilize the Formulations Management module within LabVantage’s latest LIMS platform to ensure efficiency in product development and lifecycle management. Adequate control, documentation and reuse of information will in turn ensure your product quality, effectiveness and safety.December 13, 2016 - Where is the LIMS industry headed?
Back in 2011, I started a discussion in the LIMS forum group asking the group for thoughts about where the LIMS industry was heading. The discussion had 38 responses. It is now coming up on 2017 and I think it is time to revisit this question. Here is the original discussion: /forum/where-is-the-lims-industry-headed/Visit the discussion and post your thoughts on the direction you would like LIMS applications to head.
December 7, 2016 - Bioinformatics workflow for clinical whole genome sequencing at Partners HealthCare Personalized Medicine
Genomic data is increasingly used to provide better, more focused clinical care. Or course, its associated datasets can be large, and it can take significant processing power to utilize and manage effectively. In this 2016 paper published in Journal of Personalized Medicine, Tsai et al. of Partners Healthcare describe their "bioinformatics strategy to efficiently process and deliver genomic data to geneticists for clinical interpretation." They conclude that with more research comes improved workflows and "filtrations that include larger portions of the non-coding regions as they start to have utility in the clinical setting, ultimately enabling the full utility of complete genome sequencing."December 7, 2016 - The Evolution of a COTS LIMS through One-Off Applications and Client Ideas
Like many laboratory products, LIMS change with evolving technology and regulations as well as client ideas. In the past, I’ve worked with a laboratory products manufacturer who made great profits off of client ideas for new products. There is nothing that rings the ear of a consumable products company owner like “I’d give a dollar each for…”December 7, 2016 - Making LIMS RFPs Effective
There are many places you can search to learn what should be included in a LIMS RFP, however, care must be taken to ensure that the requirements used in your LIMS RFP truly reflect your needs, processes, and priorities.December 1, 2016 - Comprehensive LIMS Glossary & Acronyms E-book
A comprehensive LIMS Glossary and Acronyms e-book with important definitions of Laboratory information management system (LIMS) & related terminologies.December 1, 2016 - Cloud Technology Maximizes ROI By Reducing TCO
LIMS whitepaper underlining the evolution of LIMS, different types of LIMS architecture, benefits and risks of cloud computing and how SaaS models leverage cloud technology to maximize ROI by minimizing TCO.November 30, 2016 - The impact of electronic health record (EHR) interoperability on immunization information system (IIS) data quality
Moving data between systems via an electronic exchange (interoperability) while keeping it clean is always a challenge. Data exchanged between electronic health records (EHR) and immunization information system (IIS) is no exception, as Woinarowicz and Howell demonstrate in this 2016 paper published in Online Journal of Public Health Informatics. Working for the North Dakota Department of Health, Division of Disease Control, the duo explain how setting up their IIS for interoperability with provider EHRs "has had an impact on NDIIS data quality." They conclude: "Timeliness of data entry has improved and overall doses administered have remained fairly consistent, as have the immunization rates ... [but more] will need to be done by NDIIS staff and its vendor to help reduce the negative impact of duplicate record creation, as well as data completeness."November 14, 2016 - What Does a LIMS Do?
A fundamental question that many people new to the informatics world ask is “What does a LIMS do?” The real answer is the answer given by Shrek who when asked about the nature of ogres replied “ogres are like onions, they have layers”. You read correctly, LIMS are like onions; they too have layers.November 9, 2016 - A benchmarking analysis of open-source business intelligence tools in healthcare environments
In recent years, a wide range of business intelligence (BI) technologies have been applied to different areas in order to support the decision-making process. BI enables the extraction of knowledge from the data stored. The healthcare industry is no exception, and so BI applications have been under investigation across multiple units of different institutions.November 9, 2016 - Historical Data and the New LIMS
I recently received a call from a very nice municipal laboratory director and the conversation regarding LIMS, LIMS implementation, good LIMS implementers turned towards historical data. I laughed and thanked her for the idea of this article. I really should have thought of it. With virtually every LIMS sale whether it be to a municipality, commercial laboratory or university, the issue of historical data comes up.Most laboratories purchasing a LIMS, if they are replacing an old LIMS or are buying their first, have been in operation for some time. As we are all aware, historical data generally must be kept on record for some period of time based on various regulations and is often wanted for general trending information. In many cases, that period of time is five years. So, now what?
November 2, 2016 - Biopharma QC LIMS: Extinction or Evolution
The future of Quality Control Labs and the Quality Control LIMS that automates and manages them has been a topic of debate in recent years. Why all this speculation?October 24, 2016 - LIMS – Going the Cloud Way
Leading IT technological innovations such as Software as a cloud storage and Service (SaaS) have revolutionized the operation of modern labs. Biobanks, CROs and research labs are fast-moving towards cloud technology, owing to excessive pressures of meeting deadlines and complexities associated with IT infrastructure and support. Why is cloud becoming the best choice for every lab, planning a LIMS implementation? This white paper is for those biobanks, clinical research and food & beverage testing labs which are incognizant of the benefits of cloud computing for managing laboratory operations.October 19, 2016 - Integrated systems for NGS data management and analysis: Open issues and available solutions
Integrated systems for NGS data management and analysis: Open issues and available solutions
This 2016 paper by Bianchi et al., published in Frontiers in Genetics, takes a closer look at the major issues concerning next-generations sequencing (NGS) technology. The group raises five main concerns than an NGS research group should be aware of before approaching NGS technologies and briefly states positives and negatives to the most current popular tools. The group concludes "[a]lthough larger groups with enough computational members may prefer to develop and maintain their own tailored frameworks, smaller laboratories would save resources and improve their results by adopting solutions developed by third parties," including open-source and cloud-based tools.
