January 23, 2019 - To be Paperless or Not to be? That is the Question for the Scientific Laboratory
“To be [paperless], or not to be, that is the question.”(Hamlet, Act III Scene 1)
Or at least it used to be the question. Today many labs are finding themselves obligated to move away from using paper in the lab, either for productivity enhancement purposes or just from the need to more easily adhere to regulations that apply to them. If you are working in one of the labs that is still clinging to a ton of paper and has not turned on the servers and gone electronic, the task of reducing paper is not as daunting as it sounds. Many organizations decide to take baby steps when addressing their paper reduction goals while others throw the whole kit and caboodle in and go entirely paperless all at once. But either way you decide, the most important part is starting the discussion.
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January 16, 2019 - CloudLIMS Version 1.80 Released!
January 9, 2019 - 5 Methods to Bring About Improvement in Clinical Laboratory Workflows
January 2, 2019 - FDA’s Guidance on Genetic Testing: What You Need to Know
In traditional medical care, diseases are typically detected via chemical changes associated with a particular condition and all patients receive a similar dose of a medication as treatment. While this one-size-fits-all approach has led to great advancements in medicine, it has by no means been successful for all patients.
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January 2, 2019 - Top Data Management Challenges in Genomics Research
With the successful completion of the Human Genome Project on April 14, 2003, the mapping of the human genome took approximately 13 years and 3 billion dollars to accomplish. Today, next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology allows a human genome to be sequenced in just a few days for a few hundred dollars.
While genomic research is paving the way for significant advances in healthcare, its practice has led to new challenges for biotechnology firms in terms of increasing data volume, variety and complexity.Given that the data representing a single human genome takes up to 100 gigabytes of storage space, biotech companies engaged in genomic research must develop the computing infrastructure and skills to manage, store, analyze and interpret massive quantities of highly complex data. In this blog, we will explore challenges and best practices involved in addressing data management challenges in genomics research.
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December 19, 2018 - How Much Does Not Having a LIMS Cost?
The topic of the “cost of LIMS” or the “true cost of LIMS” or “saving costs with LIMS”, have all been previously discussed in a number of forums and mediums (blogs, white papers, webinars, videos, etc.). Interestingly, these discussions tend to focus on hard costs and measurable cost savings with only the occasional reference to non-monetary costs or qualitative measures. What has not been fully explored is the converse of this concept of the cost of implementing a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). That is, what is the cost of notimplementing a LIMS in a lab organization?
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December 12, 2018 - Build vs. Buy LIMS
Post-genomic era led to a generation of large volumes of data, making it necessary for laboratories to modernize their approach for managing and tracking data. As a result, an increasing trend is observed in laboratories to switch their laboratory operations from paper records to a technologically powerful and secure Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS).
December 12, 2018 - Why System Requirements are an Essential Part of Your Informatics Project
Laboratory informatics projects can be extremely complex and costly. LIMS projects, for example, require large investments of money, resources and time – costing anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, while requiring hundreds to thousands of resource hours, to implement. Given the financial, regulatory and operational risk to your organization that a laboratory informatics project represents, it is imperative that you get the project right the first time.
One of the keys to a successful laboratory informatics project is the development of a comprehensive set of functional and technical requirements for the system in question. Properly developed requirements are critical to guide and inform many different aspects of a successful informatics project. Too often, companies fail to do the necessary work in this area and end up deploying a system that fails to realize the potential business benefits that served as motivation for the project in the first place.
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December 12, 2018 - Factors to Consider When Choosing Between an On-Premise, Managed Hosting, or SaaS LIMS
Laboratory information management systems (LIMS) capabilities have expanded dramatically in recent years in order to better serve scientific laboratories. As LIMS technology has changed, so has the number of factors that need to be considered when choosing the best LIMS for your laboratory.
A variety of different architectures are now available for modern LIMS, and these different architectures determine the way LIMS are installed, managed and utilized. Key factors to consider when selecting a LIMS is the type of architecture that is best aligned with your business goals, as well as the standards your organization’s IT group has established for IT architecture.
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December 12, 2018 - User Requirements Workshops Bring Added Benefits
Defining user requirements is not only one of the most important aspects of purchasing a LIMS but frequently one of the most challenging. If it is not dealt with in sufficient detail, it can impact the quoted costs and lead to complications and delays at the later stages of the project. Recognizing the importance of this, we have undertaken a number of user requirement workshops in recent months with prospective customers.
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December 5, 2018 - Common Mistakes in Computer System Validation
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December 5, 2018 - Top 4 Reasons to Implement a LIMS
Laboratory organizations have a myriad of reasons for choosing to implement a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). The key reasons can vary dramatically depending upon the industry and type of science being conducted in the laboratory as well as the type of laboratory to be automated and managed with the LIMS. That being said, we have compiled our top four reasons that drive organizations to implement a LIMS include.
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November 28, 2018 - What is a LIMS?
Introduction: So, what is a LIMS? A LIMS or Laboratory Information Management System is a software solution to address the data management, automation, and regulatory challenges of laboratories across the globe. As the name suggests, a LIMS is used to effectively manage laboratory samples and the associated data, thus standardizing operations by maintaining workflows, tests, and reporting procedures. With the growing needs of laboratories, the traditional LIMS too has evolved, with the system being able to do much more than just tracking samples.
November 28, 2018 - CloudLIMS Version 1.78.5 Released!
CloudLIMS, an advanced configurable cloud-based SaaS LIMS, accelerates biobanking, clinical research, and testing laboratory operations by efficiently managing laboratory data, following regulatory compliance, and automating laboratory workflows on a cloud platform.
November 28, 2018 - Importance of De-Identification and Anonymization of Patient Data in Clinical Research
Clinical trials and research play a pivotal role in highlighting the most suitable therapeutic strategies for the prevention and cure of a vast array of the novel or previously untreatable diseases. Clinical trials and research involve the collection of samples and associated patient data to test the safety and effectiveness of a novel drug or treatment to minimize detrimental effects, ensuring a more successful outcome.
November 28, 2018 - Highlights from the 2018 LabVantage Customer Training and Education Conference
We enjoyed meeting many of you over the course of the conference and appreciated the opportunity to share experiences and discuss strategies and challenges associated with optimizing the laboratory operating environment. Here are some of the highlights from this year’s conference.
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November 28, 2018 - LIMS + LES: A Winning Combination
Over the last several years a new trend has begun to take shape in the laboratory informatics market. I’m talking about the emergence and rapid acceptance of Laboratory Executions Systems (LES) for use in quality control labs and other standardized testing environments like contract or environmental testing labs. Interestingly, LES solutions are often integrated to a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) as opposed to being implemented as a standalone solution. Why is this the case? What makes the LIMS/LES solution so powerful? But before going too far down the path of exploring the LIMS/LES solution, let’s take a step back and explore LES and LIMS solutions, individually.
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November 14, 2018 - Expediting Veterinary Laboratory Testing
Mention the phrase ‘contract testing laboratories’ and many people would think of testing in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. However there is a very large number of veterinary laboratories that carry out contract testing. While the testing regimes may be very different from other industries, the basic laboratory processes are very similar and the use of LIMS can help improve service levels and keep costs down. Veterinary contract laboratories must offer a high quality service with a fast turnaround and competitive prices. There is also an increasing requirement to check if testing has been completed and to be able to access those test results remotely as soon as they are available.
November 7, 2018 - Highlights from the 2018 LabVantage Customer Training and Education Conference
Astrix Technology Group was pleased to be the Platinum sponsor for this year’s North American LabVantage Customer Training and Education Conference (CTEC) event on October 21st – 26th. This year’s conference was a great success, featuring a heavy concentration of customer presentations and customer-led panels, along with many different topics and hands-on training options. LabVantage is a leading LIMS solution and Astrix provides complete LabVantage consulting and training services.
We enjoyed meeting many of you over the course of the conference and appreciated the opportunity to share experiences and discuss strategies and challenges associated with optimizing the laboratory operating environment. Here are some of the highlights from this year’s conference.
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October 31, 2018 - How Business Process Analysis Can Benefit Your Lab Informatics Project
In a recent survey, over 50% of IT professionals revealed they had a project fail over the last year. Laboratory informatics projects can be especially challenging, considering the many different aspects of the enterprise that laboratory operations touch. Given this high failure rate, it is imperative that organizations adopt a proven methodology that guarantees success for their lab informatics projects.
Strategic planning is critical for any organization, but even more so for businesses involved in science and technology, as the dynamic nature of these industries requires companies to implement flexible, integrated solutions that can help meet both present and future business goals while remaining competitive in the face of rapidly-advancing innovations.
One of the major reasons laboratory informatics projects fail can be attributed to functional and strategic business needs not in alignment. Many organizations attempt to select and implement a system without first performing the due diligence required to align laboratory functional needs with the strategic needs of the business—an error that is magnified if more than one site is involved. There is also the phenomenon of large scientific enterprises embarking on a possibly multimillion-dollar initiative without capturing a baseline of laboratory productivity and efficiency.
Consequently, the first step in any laboratory informatics project should always be a thorough workflow and business analysis. In this blog, we will explore some best practice recommendations for Business Process Analysis (BPA) in the laboratory environment, along with some of the ways in which BPA can benefit your informatics project.
