eLN


SUPPLEMENT


ELECTRONIC LAB NOTEBOOK (eLN):


Gerhard Noelken, Stan Piper and Rory Quinn Pfizer


For decades, the key currency of information resulting from Pharmaceutical R&D has been the paper laboratory notebook along with everything contained in its experimental write-ups. This includes: raw data, lab activities, observations, printed reports, results and contextual scientific content such as interpretations and conclusions. Shifting from this paper-based paradigm to an electronic environment sends scientists, IT professionals and software vendors onto a long and interesting journey.


This journey is considered successful if at the end, an organisation has the capability to not only replace paper with electronic, but truly move beyond ‘paper-on-glass’. This is done by linking, sharing and reusing electronic data whenever possible. Success comes from leveraging higher levels of data quality, alignment and standards. The Electronic Laboratory Notebook (eLN) sits in the middle of all of this, and its unique ability to act as both a producer and consumer along the organisation’s knowledge continuum is what truly defines the value of successful eLN initiatives1-3


.


The journey The eLN journey started in Pfizer Pharmaceutical Sciences as far back as 1998 where small pockets


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European Pharmaceutical Review Volume 16 | Issue 4 | 2011


like these evolved over time to include more features, but did not begin to penetrate further into the organisation until several years later. In 2009 and 2010, Analytical and Pharmaceutical


of scientists used eLN systems with specialised functionality. This was the case in our Chemical R&D organisation whose scientists used a system tailored for Process Chemistry. Products


Development organisations began using a new generation of eLN with enhanced core functionality as well as domain specific functions to accommodate a more diverse scientific need. The maturity of the eLN market as well


“The maturity of the eLN market as well as the adoption readiness of our scientific lines played a large role in our early


deployment planning”


as the adoption readiness of our scientific lines played a large role in our early deployment planning. In 2006, no single provider could deliver a solution meeting the needs of all of our scientific disciplines. Therefore, we needed to evaluate what scientific disciplines would see the greatest impact based on the available functionality from a chosen vendor. Early on, each discipline was dealt with as a


separate project, with great attention to the discipline specific requirements and workflows. This meant that subject matter experts from each discipline would be enlisted to develop and configure system objects such as forms and templates. A simultaneous cross-line effort to ensure consistency of those system objects began, and facilitated the convergence of all the scientific disciplines into the system we have today. Allowing each set of users to configure


A JOURNEY FROM CONCEPT, TO SOLITARY SYSTEM, TO FULLY INTEGRATED SOLUTION


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