Efficient Lab Productivity

In today’s laboratory, most analysts spend much of their time manually accessing and updating information from the following diverse systems on a daily basis:

• Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to generate a worklist,
• Document Management System (DMS) to confirm standard operating procedures,
• Instrument Calibration Manager (ICM) to determine if the instruments are calibrated according to schedule,
• Training records to ensure that they remain qualified to perform specific tests,
• The Inventory Management System needs to be updated every time analysts use a chemical, solution or reagent,
• Recording the results manually in LIMS, and
• Archiving raw data in the enterprise content management (ECM). (*Sheila, this is the closest I could figure out what ECM is; hope I’m right!)

Time can be saved if the laboratory eliminates these manual tasks and reduces the daily workload for the analysts by automatically collecting and combining information from all of the different sources and integrating it into every aspect of a laboratory’s daily routine.

Instead of having to search through separate, isolated applications, analysts could automatically access the information they need, when they need it – right at the point of analysis.

When all of the laboratory informatics systems are communicating with one another to create an ’integrated laboratory‘, analysts do not need to spend time looking for information in a variety of different applications. All the information they need could be automatically delivered to them as part of the analytical procedure – maximizing resource utilization, minimizing management overheads, and automatically ensuring adherence to standard operating procedures (Figure 1).

In the fully integrated laboratory, the information that analysts need is made available to them as they carry out their analyses:

• Connect electronic worksheets with a Chemical Inventory Manager (CIM) to automatically check expiry dates on chemicals as they are used,
• Connect an Instrument Calibration Manager with an electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) to ensure that instruments are always successfully calibrated before being used in an analysis,
• Scan the bar code on a reagent and have it automatically confirmed that the reagent used is the right one for the analysis,
• Connect Solution Lot Numbers with worksheets in a searchable database to find instantly all of the worksheets and batches that use a solution that has been identified as potentially problematic,
• Connect a balance to an ELN and a (CIM) to automatically record weights in an electronic worksheet and automatically deduct chemicals from inventory as they are being used, and
• Connect all instruments and instrument data systems with existing enterprise systems such as LIMS, ELN, Document Management Systems and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).

Nexxis iLAB, from Labtronics, helps laboratories achieve this level of integration with a collection of application modules that communicate with each other and with existing laboratory systems, in real time, simplifying the sharing and delivery of information.

With this level of integration, information from such diverse applications as LIMS, inventory control, instrument calibration and even training records becomes fully integrated into daily laboratory procedures and activities.

Productivity and efficiency improve because analysts have direct access to the information they need, when they need it.