Articles by Gloria Metrick

If standardization is such a key element to integration and the industry has been so interested in it for so long, one might ask, “Why don’t we have these standards in place?” Answer: “Because it’s really, really hard!”

Reporting from two recent laboratory informatics conferences, Gloria Metrick shares her insights into choosing the best informatics product to suit a particular labs needs and how some issues are evolving.

Whether youre looking at a LIMS, ELN or another system, ensuring data integrity is important in order to ensure that the data a researcher references is correct, satisfy outside stakeholders, and support other efforts, such as proving patents by providing the supporting data.

Two different laboratory software projects illustrate the tasks and issues involved in "going paperless."

LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) products have been around for decades. Like most products, they began with someone writing software to meet a company’s specific needs.

A quick snapshot of the latest offerings from the major LIMS vendors.

If you intend to purchase a major piece of software to service your entire division or organization, or a large laboratory, you need to follow a process to ensure that you make the right purchase for your situation.

With many companies merging with other companies and/or acquiring laboratories, many laboratories find themselves dealing with trying to get a variety of informatics solutions to work together. After the mergers or acquisitions are finalized, these labs are required to harmonize and share systems. 

As sites and tools for online networking and collaboration evolve, they are gaining a permanent place in most laboratories and businesses.