Compliance Archives - INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE

The hidden cost of poor lab data integrity … and how to eliminate it

Sharon Williams — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 14:56:59 +0000

In modern research, clinical, agricultural and biobanking laboratories, data is no longer merely a by‑product of experiments, it’s a strategic asset. Yet many labs still depend on manual records, spreadsheets or siloed systems that introduce hidden risks and mounting costs. The question isn’t whether poor data management costs laboratories – it’s how much it’s already costing you. The four hidden costs of poor data integrity undermining your laboratory Regulatory risks: Fragmented data management in laboratory settings leads to a range of serious consequences. From a regulatory standpoint, labs that rely on inconsistent record keeping, lack complete laboratory audit trails or operate with unclear consent management and documentation face significant risks. These include non-compliance with MHRA or HTA standards, failed inspections, licence suspensions, and potentially severe reputational damage. Operational inefficiencies: Operationally, poor data management leads to both time and personnel inefficiencies. Time is lost as staff manually search for samples, verify metadata, or attempt to reconstruct sample histories across disconnected systems. This not only slows down workflows but also pulls skilled personnel away from high-value scientific work. Financial consequences: The financial impact can be equally as damaging, with factors such as: Wasted consumables from sample mix-ups, Project delays that jeopardize funding timelines, […]

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The importance of configurable workflows in your LIMS

Sharon Williams — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 11:18:15 +0000

In today’s fast-evolving laboratory landscape, no two labs are identical. Each has its unique goals, methods, data requirements, technologies, and outputs. How your lab operates plays a critical role in delivering accurate results, maintaining efficiency, and ensuring quality and compliance. This is where workflows and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) integrated into a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) become essential tools for laboratory teams. While some LIMS come with pre-configured workflows, these may not always align with your lab’s unique processes. Rigid systems can force teams to work around them, leading to inefficiencies and, in the worst scenario, a reversion to paper-based methods. A flexible LIMS with configurable workflows allows your lab to meet its bespoke requirements, without compromise. The role of workflows in LIMS Workflows in a LIMS play a pivotal role in ensuring laboratory processes are streamlined, repeatable, and compliant. They deliver this in a number of ways: Increased efficiency: Configurable workflows allow automation of repetitive tasks, reducing manual data entry and minimising errors. This boosts productivity by freeing up staff to focus on other, more important activities. User support: Workflows guide new team members through unfamiliar processes and help experienced staff navigate seldom-used procedures, ensuring consistency in execution. […]

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Webinar: Using a LIMS to Support MHRA and HTA Auditing

Sharon Williams — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 11:38:25 +0000

We are delighted to be hosting a live webinar on the 20th October from 2.30 – 3.30pm for Laboratory and Biobank Managers and professionals who would like to understand more about using LIMS to support MHRA and HTA auditing. The agenda: An introduction to Interactive Software LIMS for auditing and quality compliance Client case study The team at Interactive Software will talk and guide you through how a laboratory information management system (LIMS) can help support your lab processes to meet the requirements for regulatory compliance with the MHRA and the Human Tissue Act (HTA). Compliance is all about quality. By improving your data quality through use of timely capture, management, validation and formatting of sample information, a well-designed LIMS will give you complete traceability for compliance and quality assurance. Interactive Software are well placed to offer advice and assistance. As developers of the Achiever Medical web-based, laboratory information management system, our software is trusted by Biobanks, pharma, research labs and biorepositories to manage, analyse and process laboratory data accurately and securely. It is designed to instil good laboratory practice and automate lab workflows to increase efficiency and productivity. To register your interest for the webinar visit Webinar: Using a […]

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Modern challenges for Laboratory Managers

Sharon Williams — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 15:51:53 +0000

Modern working practises, coupled with the ongoing threat of cyber-attacks and the increased pressure placed on laboratory professionals and biobank mangers to comply with industry regulations such as the Human Tissue Act (HTA) and MHRA have placed the onus of responsibility on LIMS software developers to ensure their systems provide complete peace of mind for their service users. As part of our ongoing development programme, the team here at Interactive Software have recently introduced Modern Authentication for our current Achiever Medical LIMS customers. Modern authentication is also included in Achiever Medical LIMS 5.6, due for release later this year. This software development is designed to enhance and strengthen our existing system access and provide additional security features to safeguard and protect data. Modern Working The recent pandemic has changed how and where people work. The Office of National Statistics published an article in May 2022 titled: “Is hybrid working here to stay?” The article stated that the proportion of people hybrid working rose in 2022. In spring of this year, when guidance to work from home because of the pandemic was no longer in place in the UK, 38% of working adults reported having worked from home at some point […]

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Advantages of Using a LIMS to Support Laboratory Consumable Management

Sharon Williams — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 12:23:26 +0000

Consumables are essential to the operation of modern laboratories. Consumable quality or absence can cause risk, delays and inefficiencies that can impact outcomes as well as reputation. This is especially significant for those carrying out time-critical processes in forensic, testing and research labs. Using a laboratory information management system (LIMS) to manage and track your consumables reduces the likelihood of absent and invalid consumables. Helping improve your lab’s efficiency and productivity. Improve efficiency for time-sensitive laboratory tests and research Rapid turnaround times are vital in testing and forensic labs. Any delays can result in potential risks to public health, impact individuals’ lives and safety as well as lead to increased costs and consequences for stakeholders, customers, and suppliers. Likewise, delays to personalised medicine research could negatively affect patient care and outcomes. Identifying missing or expired consumables at the point when you need them is too late, resulting in the postponement of work until you can reorder them. What’s more, you may need to validate consumables before you can use them – which means more time lost. By using a LIMS system to manage your consumables including stock levels you can make sure you have the quantity available to complete your […]

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LIMS CAPA Management for Process Quality Control and Improvement

Gary Rooksby — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 08:00:04 +0000

Efficient and standardised business processes are fundamental to the effective running of a lab or biobank. That’s why it’s so important to have clearly documented Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Hopefully your SOPs closely match your business requirements and everything’s nice and rosy. But what if they don’t? Or if your business needs change? In that case you need to update your SOPs. This might include documenting the issue or change as well as noting any corrective and preventative actions (CAPA). You want to be able to handle these updates efficiently. After all, you’ve all got your day job to be getting on with. Could a laboratory information management system (LIMS) help you manage such SOP changes along with any associated CAPA? Audits to the rescue So, how do you ensure that your SOPs are still working effectively? Well, an audit works well. But the mere mention of an audit can strike fear into the hearts of many. Done badly they can be really intrusive and disruptive to the normal work processes and that’s counterproductive. If the act of reviewing a process causes that process to change then it’s not capturing a true result. Really effective audits need to be light […]

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Biobanking Systems and LIMS Supporting Regulatory Compliance Changes

Gary Rooksby — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 09:12:26 +0000

Legislation in any well-functioning industry evolves over time. Life sciences and clinical research are no exception. Becoming aware of those changes in good time to meet regulatory compliance is your first issue. However, regulatory bodies such as the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) issue advanced notifications about proposed changes to the licensees. So, you should have a “heads up”. Now, you’ll have to consider whether the change is relevant to you. Plus, you’ll need to consider whether you need to change your Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to comply. If your Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) is supporting regulatory compliance you’ll also need to think about what changes you’ll need to make to the software. Do you need to change anything to maintain compliance? You’ll need to review the legislative changes and decide whether they affect your lab operations. It might be that a clarification has been issued about processing donated tissues from a deceased donor. If your lab never processes tissues from the deceased then there will be no impact on you. However, even if a change doesn’t apply you still need to give it due consideration. And it’s worthwhile formally documenting the consideration, even if it results in no SOP changes. […]

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Using Biobanking software for compliance peace of mind

Sharon Williams — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 16:25:11 +0000

Two key challenges facing your lab or Biobank are quality and efficiency. You may introduce and follow a set of standard processes to address these. And, to be successful, everyone in your lab or Biobank must follow these processes too. These processes may form your Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). You may have chosen them from your own best-practices or legislation such as the Human Tissue Act (HTA) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Or you may have chosen to follow industry-standard best-practices such as those outlined by the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) or ISO. Whatever processes you decide to use to improve quality and efficiency, how do you know that everyone is following them? And, importantly, if they’re working? If you can’t answer this, you may want to think about using Biobanking software for compliance management and tracking. Enforcing processes through your Biobanking software for compliance Advanced Biobanking software allows you to map your workflows and processes into the system. And some Biobanking software already has key processes built-in as part of the standard ‘out-of-the-box’ system. Achiever Medical, for example, has workflows to manage your sample receipts, storage, processing, and shipping – amongst […]

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Building proactive lab auditing into your daily routine

Gary Rooksby — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 15:51:19 +0000

The thought of a lab audit might be enough to bring you out in a cold sweat. The dread of an audit for some is akin to a phobia. Desensitisation is said to be the most effective cure for a phobia – would this approach work for audits, too? Making lab auditing a part of your daily routine so it becomes habit might sound difficult. If it’s built into your everyday processes – it no longer becomes something extra for you to think about. But where do you start? As the start of the well-known phrase goes ‘little and often…’ If you carry out a little audit work on a regular basis it quickly becomes a part of your weekly or daily routine. And you can do this without a major impact on your workload. You could schedule, say, an hour each Friday afternoon to spot-check your samples and processes carried out during the week. If you then log the results in a formal log, you will quickly build a body of testing evidence to show management and the external auditors when the time comes. It also means that you’ve got a good chance of spotting an error – and […]

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How Achiever Medical helps you meet the Caldicott principles

Gary Rooksby — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 10:33:44 +0000

The Caldicott Principles were introduced to make sure that patient information stored across the NHS is protected and information that could identify patients is only accessed when appropriate to do so. There are currently seven principles; six of these have been around since 1997 with the seventh added in 2013. They are all still very relevant today. Protecting patient identifiable information has been an important function within Achiever Medical since its creation. As such, adhering to the Caldicott Principles is something that we have striven to do within the product. Outlined below are some of the ways in which Achiever Medical helps you meet the Caldicott Principles. 1. Justify the purpose(s) of using confidential information Achiever Medical uses its system filters and data encryption tools to protect and strictly control your sensitive and confidential data. Through these, for example, only permitted users can see patient identifiable information. The software encrypts all patient identifiable data (PID) before it is saved into the database. You can only see patient identifiable information through the Achiever interface; even if you are a database administrator. A Security Officer grants you access to patient identifiable data within the software. You set up a Security Officer for each […]

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