Improving Efficiency in Delivering Clinical Laboratory Results Using a Cloud-based LIMS

Topic: Improving Efficiency in Delivering Clinical Laboratory Results Using a Cloud-based LIMS

Introduction: The move from strictly paper-based processes in the clinical research laboratory to processes that are more automated and paperless has been ongoing for several decades. Driving this change has been the promise of greater laboratory efficiency and more time for laboratorians to focus on other aspects of the lab. This move from paper to electronic information management has required a solid in-house information technology (IT) foundation that includes investment in hardware, data management software like a laboratory information management system (LIMS), middleware, and IT personnel to manage it all.

However, clinical research and testing laboratories have seen a fundamental shift in analytical tools and knowledge, which in turn has increased the variety, velocity, and volume of data being created. High-throughput sequencing and more federated methods of integrating real-world data sources create new “big data” challenges for these laboratories. Whole gene sequencing has become easier and more cost-effective to implement in the laboratory thanks to advances in technology and greater competition. Patients participating in clinical trials today may now wear mobile, network-connected health devices that can be monitored over the cloud, adding even further to the data deluge. This requires an improved, more holistic approach to data management, one that draws both from the sample-based approach typically associated with a LIMS and the patient-based focus of a laboratory information system (LIS). Additionally, as the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model has matured, a cloud-based clinical LIMS that is scalable, portable, and cost-effective, while further improving laboratory efficiency, has becomes more realistic and appealing.