What An LIMS Is And How It's Used

By Karen Smith


The main thing to understand when learning about this kind of thing is what the letters stand for. LIMS is a laboratory information management system. There are other cases in which it might be called a laboratory information system, abbreviated as LIS, or a laboratory management system, LMS, but they all refer to basically the same thing.

These information systems are types of software that are used in all modern laboratories around the world. In order to manage all of the data and information that these sophisticated and complex facilities go through on a daily basis, these systems play a crucial role. The job of software like this is to support all of the many different operations that the lab undergoes, making higher levels of research not only possible but also much easier.

Workflow is a big task that these programs are expected to take care of. There is also an incredible amount of data that goes into them which is used in a number of different ways. Depending on the type of lab, there are many other tasks that software like this might be used for.

Management systems have been around in many different forms over the years, but as science has become more advanced, so too have these systems. In the beginning, they were just used to track samples and not much else. Nowadays, the systems are used as highly advanced programs that can put huge amounts of data together at speeds people of yesteryear could only dream of.

Although there is a general consensus on what an information system for a laboratory is, people don't always agree on some of the finer aspects of what defines this type of program. People have to use their own interpretation to see what the definition means to them personally. It is important to know what a certain kind of laboratory defines as an information system as opposed to other kinds.

The different types of information management software sometimes are put into different categories, but all of them have served nearly identical functions over the years. Some systems are used more on the commercial and research side of things. Others are looking more on the forensic and clinical side, making their applications somewhat different.

As laboratory sciences have grown more advanced, the uses of information management systems have grown immensely since they were first used. One of the big ways it helps researchers is by bringing together the different core branches of science. Some of the ways that these systems' uses have become more advanced have caused the different types to become more similar in use.

When things had to be entered manually in a lab, there were many things that could go wrong. A single error in the transcription of data could be disastrous. This is why having things automatically recorded removes the potential for a huge amount of errors to be made.




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