National Cancer Institute Taps LabAnswer Experts to Lead Seminar
HOUSTON, TEXAS — March 31, 2009 — LabAnswer was invited to conduct a series of seminars for the National Cancer Institute on February 24 and 25 focused on improving laboratory efficiency.
The sessions were led by Mark Everding and Bob Meyer, Executive Vice Presidents for LabAnswer, along with Mike Fedotowsky, Senior Consultant, and Adam Borenstein, Delivery Manager. Everding and Meyer have a combined twenty-five years of experience in laboratory informatics and Fedotowsky is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and the leader of the first U.S. organization to win the Deming Prize for Total Quality Management.
The seminar on LIMS Consolidation and Integration, presented by Everding, focused on lessons learned and strategies for consolidating and integrating LIMS in various distributed environments such as streamlining business processes and simplifying infrastructure – both of which reduce costs. The seminar also discussed the benefits of standardization and how to assess the LIMS consolidation and integration activity to determine an appropriate approach.
Meyer’s seminar covered the similarities, differences and overlapping functionality available in LIMS, ELN’s and Content Management Systems. Titled: STOP the Confusion! LIMS, ELN and/or Content Management Systems, the seminar also outlined approaches to defining requirements and applying these requirements to technologies currently available in the laboratory informatics marketplace. Example selection criteria and methodologies used to determine the ultimate solution were also presented.
“Lean” Thinking in Research and Laboratory Environments presented by Fedotowsky focused on Lean Six Sigma for research laboratories and provided information on real world examples of Lean Six Sigma and how it can be applied and improvements measured. The highlight of the seminar was discussions on how appropriately applying “Lean Thinking” to almost any research project can double the speed of the project.
The fourth seminar in the series, How to Keep a LIMS Project from Failing – Avoiding Pitfalls throughout the Project Lifecycle was presented by Borenstein. The purchase of a LIMS is a major investment, in terms of money and personnel required for any laboratory and the LIMS industry is fraught with horror stories of unsuccessful projects. This seminar focused on real world examples of what typically does and doesn’t work during the LIMS implementation process. The talk also outlined the major laboratory systems project work-streams and identified areas of risk, as well as mitigation strategies.
“We are ecstatic to have been able to provide this useful information to such an esteemed organization.” said Everding. “These seminars provided a framework for the NCI to begin the process of improving throughput and encouraging collaboration within the Institute’s research laboratories.”
About LabAnswer
LabAnswer is a laboratory informatics consultancy that has the people, processes and experience to handle enterprise informatics projects of any scale. With the largest team of informatics consultants in the nation, it worked on more than fifty laboratory informatics projects in 2008. Solutions can include single site implementations, global deployments and complete support outsourcing.
The LabAnswer team has a rare combination of laboratory science, IT, business and regulatory expertise. Its team of consultants is composed of multi-disciplined experts averaging more than ten years of experience. By focusing on how laboratory informatics supports the overall business objectives, LabAnswer leverages best practices to deliver improved efficiencies.
For more information about LabAnswer – LABORATORY INFORMATICS, please call 888-419-5222 or visit www.LabAnswer.com
