Oh yes, it is! We thought it’s about time for us to write a series of informative articles to help you choose a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). Choosing a LIMS can be a minefield. With several systems and vendors out there, how do you choose the LIMS that’s right for you? If you’re a research lab, biorepository, Biobank or pharmaceutical organisation that’s tracking and processing samples, then a LIMS can help you. And they’re not just for managing human biological samples either.
Introduction to the ‘Guide to Choosing a LIMS’ series
We wanted to take a different, though no less insightful, approach to this blog series. Hopefully, it will help prepare you for your LIMS selection and implementation journey and help you get to where you want to be as quickly as possible.
Selecting and implementing a LIMS is definitely a journey. And contrary to popular belief is not just about installing, or, if you’ve chosen a hosted system, logging in to some new software. Like any journey, how successful it is depends on whether you know where you’re going and if you’ve chosen the appropriate carriage.
Some LIMS journeys can, depending on who and what you choose, feel like those long car trips you took with your parents where you’re just constantly asking ‘are we nearly there yet?’. We’ve known some competitor LIMS projects take more than 5 years to go live. During which time many processes, and people, have moved on. We want to try and make you as prepared as possible so you can start reaping the many benefits a LIMS can give you. And go live within as short a timeframe as possible. But it all starts at the beginning by making sure you have the right questions and tools to help you choose the LIMS that’s right for you.
What we’re covering in our ‘Guide to Choosing a LIMS’ blog series
We wanted to delve into some areas that aren’t usually explored. So, our blog series will include topics such as:
- Are you using the right criteria when choosing a LIMS? Identifying what is really important to you in a LIMS so you can get those benefits – and quickly!
- Don’t believe the hype! The pros and cons of recommendations and how to get the most from them
- Believing that tomorrow can be better than today. When choosing a LIMS don’t choose a system solely based on what you do now or how you do it
- Protecting what’s important. Protecting patient identifiable data while allowing researchers to do their jobs
- What’s in a name? The difference between Laboratory Information Management (LIMS) and Sample Management software
- Building on the right foundation. The importance of the underpinning technology
- Not all data migration services are created equally. Understanding what assistance your LIMS vendor can give you with your data migration
Can’t wait to get started? …
We’ve got a couple of guides to get you thinking. Our ‘7-step guide to successful data migration’ offers helpful hints and practical advice to get you thinking about how you can improve your data quality and consistency.
And if meeting compliance is one of your absolute ‘must have’ criteria for your LIMS then our ‘5-step guide to laboratory sample compliance’ and guide on ‘How Achiever Medical helps you comply with the Human Tissue Act (HTA)’ are a good place to begin.
To read more go to ‘Things to consider when choosing a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)‘.