Custom Software for the Genomics Industry
If your lab is considering investing in a laboratory information management system (LIMS), you might be wondering what exactly the process looks like. Implementing a LIMS is a complex undertaking, but if you know what to expect from such a project, it makes tracking its progress and directing the entire process more manageable. While many consultants may follow a similar […]
Laboratories face frequent changes. Whether you’re implementing new workflows or updating an existing one, adding an instrument, iterating on a validated assay, or optimizing processes to keep up with market conditions or advances in technology, one thing is certain — change is inevitable. But that doesn’t make it easy. Humans naturally resist change. We prefer tasks that are comfortable and […]
Day-to-day lab operations rely on workflows to manage people, tasks, and systems so that work follows a consistent process every time. Defined workflows help ensure that all the steps are done in the correct order, are free from errors, and meet regulatory requirements. But, representing lab workflows can be difficult. Without careful definition, you might introduce inaccuracies — such as […]
The Bio-IT World Conference & Expo in Boston is a fantastic opportunity to learn about the latest research and how it can be brought into clinical practice to improve people’s everyday lives. Every time I attend this conference, I’m excited by the potential for applying scientific discoveries at scale. This year, the conference was the first many of us have […]
If you’re building custom lab software or a new integration, the first thing you need to do is gather a list of requirements. In our work with clinical NGS labs, we start every engagement with an assessment of the current state and gap analysis. It’s our role to help lab staff translate their knowledge of the lab and its processes […]
Sometimes, when you’re trying to come up with a better way to solve a challenge, it can help to step back and consider the situation from a new vantage point. We did this when we were building our new product — Labbit — an intelligent laboratory information management system (LIMS) designed with lab operations as the focus. We asked ourselves: […]
Barcoding is extremely useful in a lab environment. It lets you quickly and automatically identify and track items like samples, plates, and reagents. But implementing a lab barcode system is not as simple as charging up a scanner and getting to work. To be effective, the scanning solution should be integrated with your laboratory information management system (LIMS). That means […]
On the Semaphore Solutions blog, we’ve talked a lot about the importance of a lab’s software stack and strategies for managing multiple software components — some you’ve bought off-the-shelf, some that are fully custom, and some with varying degrees of customization. But one thing we haven’t dug into is version control. This is a key part of managing any complex […]
A surprising number of labs today still use pen and paper to manage lab samples, analysis, and reporting. But for forward-looking labs, a laboratory information management system (LIMS) offers a way to work more effectively through standardized workflows, tests, and procedures. That was the conclusion reached by the shareholders of an environmental contract lab. Recognizing that if they continued to […]
In a 2018 article in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics (JMD), the authors — Charles Myers, Matthew Swadley, and Alexis Carter — identified key gaps in functionality in laboratory information systems (LIS) for molecular labs. To continue the conversation, we collaborated with the Cleveland Clinic’s Molecular Pathology Section lab team on a response. In our article published on the JMD […]