Thursday 21 June 2018

Understanding LIMS And How They Help Laboratories

By Andrew Thompson


Anyone who has ever worked in a lab is familiar with or has at least heard of an information system. They come in many forms and go by a number of different names, but no matter what they're called, they are always essential in order for the scientists to carry out the duties and for the lab to carry out all of its functions. LIMS stands for laboratory information management system, but some other popular titles for it are laboratory information system (LIS) and laboratory management system (LMS).

The reason why everyone in the scientific community has to know about these types of things is that it would be impossible to find a single working lab today that doesn't have one. The reason for this is that scientific research laboratories nowadays have to go through so much information that there is no possibility that all of the data would be able to be tracked properly without one. It's not just about making the life of the scientists easier; it's about reaching new heights of scientific understanding, to help mankind in all kinds of different ways.

One of the ways that an information system like this is extremely helpful is by keeping track of all the workflow that goes on in the facility. This is essential to fully understand the results of a research project, and it can be the difference between having a successful experiment and having compromised results. Knowing what happened and when is a big help.

What often happened before these types of advanced tools were possible is that some information was inevitably lost in the sea of chicken-scratch handwriting and mountains of files. No matter how diligent an organizer you are, there comes a point where manual data input has too much room for inaccuracy. Having something like this that puts all of the information automatically into the same place that is safe and secure has made accuracy in laboratories much higher.

Specialty labs are ones that focus on a specific type of science or experiments. In these cases, a tool that is customized to their purposes is often needed. This makes it so the somewhat different needs of these labs can be met more easily.

Information systems have changed a lot over the years. Mainly, they have become much more advanced. This is both due to the help of science and due to the advancing needs of scientists.

Tracking samples was the first use of these systems. Compared to how they'red used today, this might seem like a highly basic task. However, it was an essential system for scientists to have.

There can be no doubting that people come in many different varieties, and the same goes for scientists, scientific research facilities, and even the different branches of science itself. As such, many different scientists don't exactly agree on what makes a laboratory information system. There are a number of slightly different definitions, so if a person is about to start working in a new lab, a helpful thing to do is learn exactly what the scientists in this lab mean when they say LIS, LMS, LIMS, or whatever other acronyms they're using to mean the information system of the laboratory.




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