qualioo

Menu
Request Demo

Healthcare Industry

Healthcare business graph data and growth, Insurance Healthcare. Doctor analyzing medical of business report and medical examination with network connection on laptop screen.

The healthcare industry is an ever-evolving industry. There are lot of challenges that arise and the solutions for it. One of the solutions is the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). Let us discuss what is LIMS and some of its essential features for selecting a LIMS system.

 

LIMS is a software-based solution that is used in labs for data management and to process  large number of lab samples to manage laboratory workflow. It is used to help lab faculty members in collecting samples, processing and delivering reports to patients. It acts as an interface between the lab faculties and the database where all the information and necessary details are stored.

 

LIMS has become an essential system in today’s world and to be specific in the healthcare industry. LIMS helps in the running the lab operations efficiently. It saves time by reducing manual data entry, automating repetitive tasks, linking with other systems and providing the information at your command. There has been drastic improvement in LIMS over the years. LIMS can easily integrate with different types of instruments, applications, databases and enterprise systems and can manage multiple aspects of operations in different kinds of laboratories.

 

There are lot of LIMS vendor available in the market now and selecting the best LIMS has become more difficult than ever. As an organization, the focus should be on selecting the LIMS that is best suited for your laboratory.

Essential Features When Selecting a LIMS

Selecting the best LIMS system for your laboratory and your organization depends on various factors as per the Business requirement. Some of these essential factors include:

  1. Your IT Infrastructure

    One of the key factors when selecting LIMS is the way your IT infrastructure is defined. There are a variety of architectures supported by commercial LIMS today (thin client, thick client, cloud-based), each of which has its pros and cons. For e.g. if your organization has implemented a strong firewall for security purposes and all application use is limited within it, selecting a SaaS cloud-based LIMS would probably not make sense. On the other hand, if your organization has decided to go for cloud-based lab applications, a LIMS that can only function as a thick and/or thin client makes no sense. 

    With everyone moving towards Cloud based SaaS, below options are preferred by many organization

    • A cloud– based system that requires minimum resources to install and maintain.

    • A Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) system with extensive functionality already configured.
    • A specialty LIMS tailor- made to your industry and lab type, thereby taking lower configuration.                                                                                                  
  2. Cost of ownership                                                                                              Overall implementation cost of a LIMS system is and important factor when making your LIMS selection. Before going for a system, one should perform analysis depending on the number of licenses required, pre-defined functionality, any customization required and annual maintenance cost and so on.                                             
  3. Usability (ease of use)                                                                                      Another factor to consider is the ease at which the faculty members can operate a LIMS system. You should question yourself few key points before making a decision. Is the software intuitive? use of features should be self-evident. Support by vendor is quick and provides a resource for technical questions or issues that arise. Training the users is not a tedious job and users should be able to extract the maximum software benefit. Is the terminology used in the system easy to understand for a regular user? And so on.                                                                                                                                                                                  
  4. Features & Functionality                                                                        Understanding the requirements of your laboratory systems cannot be explained enough as the utmost important feature for choosing the right type of LIMS.LIMS system to be selected should meet the compliance of regulatory bodies. Is the LIMS compatible with regular use products such as Excel, Outlook etc. and other integrating systems? Does the LIMS system have easy Report generation, Reports dashboard are easily available? Laboratory BI is at fingertips and can monitor laboratory in real time. etc. According to the features and functionality required, a LIMS system should be selected.Some of the functional conditions that need to be checked in a LIMS are:
  5. Security
  6. Your Industry.