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LABORATORY INFORMATICS g


LabLynx, a provider of cloud-hosted LIMS/LIS software recently announced that it had developed ‘the world’s first’ LIMS dedicated specifically to Covid-19 diagnostic testing. Called ‘COVIDLiMS’ - its main feature is the swift setup time which is estimated at around two to five days, including training, according to LabLynx president John H Jones. Horizon would like to streamline and digitise laboratory operations to accelerator sample testing- particularly in relation ot Covid-19. Horizon President Eric Dingfelder commented: ‘The virus situation has required all hands-on deck, so organisations and companies that typically have defined areas of responsibility are now blurring the lines and working in concert in ways outside of their normally individualised scopes. ‘We have worked with our laboratories to ensure that systems are equipped and ready for Covid-19 testing. Now, in concert with Halfpenny, we are further accelerating the testing process.’ Accumen operates secure cloud-


based networks across 48 states in the US, integrating with lab and hospital information systems. ‘The networks we’ve created can manage clinical data exchange across a large percentage of the US population,’ said Charles Halfpenny, Accumen’s chief technology officer and Halfpenny founder. ‘We deployed regional network hubs to facilitate Covid-19 test capacity tracing, order dispatching and results routing.’ Horizon and Halfpenny are working with multiple organisations sharing a common goal – the routing of orders to laboratories with capacity and rapid reporting of accurate tests results – to slow the spread of the virus and help people return to work as soon and as safely as possible,’ added Halfpenny. LabLynx COVIDLiMS has been recently


released which is something the company wanted to do as quickly as possible. ‘We have released it because we already had the platform in place, and so we used the platform to provide a low cost, turn-key LIMS for COVID-19 testing to address the demands of our existing clients and to address the real and urgent information management needed for the current crisis,’ stated Jones. ‘COVIDLiMS addresses the needs of


existing clients and of labs that need to perform Covid-19 testing but their existing LIMS is simply not set up to do it or they have no LIMS at all,’ said Jones. However similar to other LIMS providers


LabLynx wants this to be a long-term platform , and not just a publicity stunt. The aim is to develop a robust LIMS


18 Scientific Computing World Summer 2020


provider, patient, or public health authorities then it is a wasted effort,’ noted Krasovec. ‘Not to mention that the people you are testing are out there potentially not knowing that they are infected and continuing to infect others. Gabathuler added: ‘That is why we


have this enterprise laboratory platform because there are a lot of parts to it and they can all act up in a nice cohesive joined up way to help in lots of different areas. You have got a functional platform and then everything can be leveraged from that going forward.’ Rapid adoption of new technologies


“You have got a functional platform and then everything can be leveraged from that going forward”


platform that is quick to set up and can assist in the testing and management of data for all infectious diseases. ‘This is being released to provide a


quick, easy solution that can work without disrupting existing lab workflows, by having a LIMS devoted to infectious diseases that constitute a public health threat. We are making it so that both public and private health laboratories have a plug-and-play solution,’ said Jones. ‘While it may become adopted by labs to address this moment in time, it is actually a platform for comprehensive laboratory data management for the long term as well, with additional processes and tests – as well as departments and in fact other labs – able to be easily,’ Jones explained.


Maintaining interoperability However while developing new features and quickly reacting to world events can enable innovation LabWare’s Krasovec points out that there is no one system that can serve everyone - collaboration with the right partners is crucial. With new fields of data analytics and


artificial intelligence (AI) finding their way into many traditional laboratory workflows, new data sources and new ways of analysing data are becoming available. LIMS providers collect and store data for labropatirtes so it is crucial they play a role in working with specialised software partners to ensure interoperability. ‘Its not just about having an instrument


that can do the test. That is just one part of the process. If you cannot get that test where it needs to go, to the healthcare


requires LIMS providers to be agile in ensuring interoperability with kety software partners. This enables them to provide the infrastructure or platform that can not only interact with instruments and laboratory equipment but also data analytics or AI software frameworks. ‘There is a rapid adoption of new


technologies in the healthcare laboratory in terms of a genetic based testing platform which has spawned this order of magnitude difference in and that has to be managed,’ said Krasovec. ‘Quite often it involves specialised technologies to interpret that data.’ ‘As a LIMS provider, we are not a domain


expert in analysing genetic data so it is important that we are able to get data that may be captured from an instrument and interact with the software that is specialised to do that interpretation of these gigabytes of data that can be generated by sequencing processes,’ Krasovec added. ‘That is obviously very important because no one system is the be all and end all and they need to coexist and share information with other systems.’ ‘We manage the workflow process and


there may be data analytics that go along with it that could be done by specialised software and then we are responsible for distributing the final report to whoever it needs to go to. We have a role in the process and it is important that we are able to interact with the other systems as well,’ Krasovec continued. While this may not be challenging from


a technical perspective for experienced LIMS providers there is a lot of work that must go into the decision making process. Which partners should a company work with as each requires effort to ensure that the software can work together. ‘A lot of it comes down to finding the


right folks to interact with, that is usually the bigger part of the challenge,’ stated Krasovec. ‘Once you get what the other system needs in terms of the format of the information and the content of the message the rest of it is pretty easy.’


@scwmagazine | www.scientific-computing.com


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