Pharmaceutical


ecently, while attending my company’s booth at the Pittcon® Laboratory Prod- ucts Exhibition, a visiting lab manager began a conversation with me by stating: “The whole world is going mobile.” He went on to ask, “What can you do for my laboratory in this regard?” While answering his specific questions, I realized that the use of mobile devices in the laboratory is a hot topic, with questions being asked again and again in the laboratory world. This is especially true for LIMS users seeking dependable mobile func- tionality for remote data retrieval as well as for other tasks.


The consumerization of information technol- ogy, defined as the growing tendency for new information technology to emerge first in the consumer market and then spread into business and government organizations, is changing the face of business IT. Large business and government organizations dominated the early decades of computer usage and develop- ment. The emergence of consumer markets as the primary driver of information technology innovation is being seen as a major IT industry shift. There is also a rapidly expanding trend for connecting personal mobile devices to corporate networks, the so-called BYOD (bring your own device) initiative.


According to industry estimates, some 65% of corporate networks permit connections with smartphones and tablet devices, with the devices themselves frequently being employee-owned. Laboratories serving re- search and manufacturing organizations are evaluating the abilities of their LIMS to allow tasks to be performed on mobile devices, such as tablet computers and smartphones.


Clearly, the next generation of LIMS products needs to have robust and easily adaptable mobile applications. The days of being teth- ered to a desktop in order to interface with the LIMS are over. Mobility rules and will drive the future of LIMS product development and user acceptance. The guiding principle should


LIMS Mobility: The New Frontier R


by Elian Winstanley


be whether your LIMS enables you to use the right screen—desktop, laptop, smartphone, or tablet—for each task.


Selecting the right screen for the task enables lab managers to view laboratory key perfor- mance indicators remotely or to authorize and release urgent results. Laboratory clients can view sample status and available results in real time for samples they have submitted for test- ing, without having to call busy laboratory staff for the information. Laboratory personnel can record observations during laboratory tours or field inspections. The use of mobile devices also minimizes the potential for transcription errors and other mistakes associated with entering data that were collected elsewhere to a desktop in the core lab.


Let’s look at some of these examples in more detail. Modern pharmaceutical laboratory managers are busy, with pressure to do more with less. They may be frequently out of the laboratory, attending meetings in other parts of the plant or at a different site altogether. Frequently, they need to access historical LIMS data during these meetings, and mobile ac- cess to the LIMS would be very advantageous. The chemistry lab manager may also need to check lab key performance indicators, either for peace of mind that the work is progressing satisfactorily or to quickly identify bottlenecks and take appropriate action. It may be that pro- duction is demanding that a newly delivered raw material be released from quarantine, or the shipping department urgently requires a batch of final product and no delegate is available. In each of these cases, the ability to remotely release urgent batches or samples would be invaluable.


In the microbiological laboratory, staff can use a tablet-based pick list to retrieve media or plates, quickly view observations, or reconcile inventory location and status using bar-code scanning capabilities. Samplers who tour the facility taking swabs or air samples for environmental analysis would benefit from a


AMERICAN LABORATORY • 26 • JUNE/JULY 2013


mobile application that would guide their route and allow them to record observations and print sample labels in each sampling lo- cation. Generally, in many laboratories of all types, there are occasions when analysts need to perform a task in a location where there is no immediate LIMS access and it would be of great benefit for them to be able to use a mobile device to administer that task.


Within a given organization, many non-labora- tory staff must interact with information held within the laboratory system. For example, production managers may need to access laboratory information. Laboratory clients generally have a need to remotely view sample status and download reports. Because of the diverse nature of these tasks, the LIMS should have the ability to easily transfer tasks to a mobile device as appropriate.


It sounds like it should be a simple task to en- gineer apps for LIMS that will satisfy increasing demand for robust mobile functionality—you just navigate to your LIMS web portal from the mobile device browser. However, you cannot just port existing LIMS applications to a mo- bile device. Why? People use mobile devices very differently from desktop computers or laptops. The compact screen size requires a minimal feature set optimized for common use cases. The ability to see only one screen at a time means features must be progres- sively displayed. Large buttons must be used to make interactions actionable (important for capacitive screens). The commonality of the mobile form factor means users expect adherence to mobile design conventions— interactions should be conventional and consistent. Limited content real estate means help text creates unnecessary clutter—the in- terface should be simple and intuitive so that the user requires little instruction.


Generally, users have different expectations for the mobile experience and often use their devices in environments filled with distrac- tions. They want to open the app, use it briefly,


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