INFORMATICS: NO LONGER SIMPLY SAMPLE-TRACKING

摘要

In laboratory informatics, as in computing more generally, the hot topic of the year has been 'the cloud'. Several companies are now offering 'software as a service' - laboratory informatics over the cloud. Usually, these appear to be smaller, start-up companies, such as Core Informatics and Golnformatics, although several of the larger, longer-established informatics vendors are also now claiming to offer a cloud option. It remains to be seen how quickly the newcomers will grow and whether the cloud will indeed become a 'disruptive technology' in laboratory informatics. But more profound, though less visible, is a longer-term development in laboratory informatics whereby more and more functionality has been integrated with the original software to add value to the system. Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) were created to meet the need to track samples as they moved round the laboratory, and to correlate each test result correctly with the sample being tested. But now vendors are trying to enhance the value of what they provide to their customers by linking together every activity in the laboratory - from sample submission to laboratory execution methods, results review, software integration, laboratory inventories, stability testing, cheminformatics and bioinformatics through to data analysis. Ultimately the goal is also to link the laboratory's software suite to the IT that underpins wider business operations within the company or organisation.