March 22, 2017 - Keeping a LIMS up to date with State and Federal EPA regulations
A LIMS is a great and almost necessary tool in any modern day environmental laboratory, whether commercial, state or municipal. In a highly regulated community, the LIMS, like everything else in the laboratory, must evolve. Some evolutions are complex, however, 99% of them are very simple and in many ways, mostly a matter of proper record keeping.March 15, 2017 - LIMS in academics, then and now
I recently read, or I should say reread, an article written by Douglas Perry for the American Chemical Society in Today’s Chemist at Work titled “LIMS in the academic world” (https://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/archive/tcaw/11/i01/html/01comp.html). The article was published in January of 2002. Almost exactly fifteen years later, most of the well discussed points are still valid. LIMS has not truly found a home in academic settings despite the fact it is rare to see an operating commercial laboratory in any business sector without some sort of LIMS in place today.March 10, 2017 - Laboratory Informatics Implementation Planning – Don't Forget!
Strong project management is very important to the success of a laboratory informatics system deployment, but even the most experienced IT project managers can overlook tasks that are specific to laboratory informatics systems.March 1, 2017 - Economics and Sustainability in Biobanking – Dr. Jim Vaught
Biobanks come in many different sizes and serve various important purposes, including supporting basic, epidemiologic and clinical research. Biobanks are recognized as critical resources in the advancement of personalized or precision medicine.For complete article, please visit: https://cloudlims.com/blog/economics-and-sustainability-in-biobanking.html
February 28, 2017 - Overcome Validation Challenges through Proper Planning
Let’s face it, if we don’t know where we are going, then how will we know when we have arrived? The same concept applies to Computer System Validation.February 15, 2017 - Enhancing Laboratory Efficiency Using Cost Effective LIMS for Biobanks and Testing Laboratories
Modern day labs are under constant pressure to reduce expenses, improvise lab efficiency and constantly enhance the quality of results. To begin with, it is important to understand what lab efficiency exactly means. In simple terms, lab efficiency is all about how a lab effectively manages time and available resources to improvise data quality, eliminate manual errors, improve laboratory results turnaround time, and streamline lab operations. Many labs are interested in improvising their lab efficiency; however, are not keen to invest in cost-intensive Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to manage their laboratory data.February 15, 2017 - A hidden benefit within a LIMS: Human Resource information for laboratory personnel
Many of the broader laboratory based benefits of LIMS are well known: LIMS track samples from entry into the laboratory (in some cases even the field data and collection) to final analysis and disposal; LIMS track and document reagent and standards usage within the laboratory; LIMS generate reports and electronic data deliverables (EDDs). However, one important and often overlooked feature is that LIMS can also track and record human resource (HR) information.February 14, 2017 - 10 Ways LIMS Can Automate Your Lab
Increasing productivity and effectiveness can be addressed in a number of ways within a LIMS, the ability of the LIMS to automate manual processes, procedures, and tasks is by far the largest source of these improvements.January 31, 2017 - Clearing the Muddy Water: How LabWare Visual Workflows can Win Over Your Users
The difficulty and complexity of the LIMS interface can be so overwhelming that a user never gets to realize the amazing things a LIMS can do to make their work life easier.January 25, 2017 - SCIFIO: An extensible framework to support scientific image formats
In this short paper published in December 2016, Hiner et al. of the University of Wisconsin at Madison demonstrate their open-source library SCIFIO (SCientific Image Format Input and Output). Built on inspiration from the Bio-Formats library for microscopy image data, SCIFIO attempts to act as “a domain-independent image I/O framework enabling seamless and extensible translation between image metadata models.” Rather than fight with the difficulties of repeating experiments based on data in proprietary formats, SCIFIO’s open-source nature help with reproducibility of research results and proves “capable of adapting to the demands of scientific imaging analysis.”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.
