LIMS Blog

Summary CAP/CLIA laboratories follow United States federal regulatory standards set by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA). This applies to laboratories performing diagnostic tests on human samples in the United States. European laboratories often follow ISO15189, which incorporates several elements of CAP/CLIA but is not a substitute. This...

Summary An NGS laboratory has unique needs for LIMS integration. Here, we discuss how a modern NGS LIMS meets those requirements – and note which integrations are useful in NGS lab scenarios and workflows.  Lockbox LIMS integration features facilitate communication between Lockbox, lab instruments, and third-party applications. We’ll review printer integrations, automatic sample sheet generation,...

Summary There are many options when integrating business applications and devices with Lockbox LIMS. Options include simple configuration to cross-cloud software development tooling for more sophisticated integrations.  Organizations with custom, non-standard software can use Lockbox custom APIs (Application Programming Interface) to connect to specialized software and hardware. Lockbox can be configured to use other APIs,...

When working with clinical laboratories that must follow healthcare compliance and public health regulations, lab managers and laboratory operations experts often ask us if Lockbox LIMS can meet the stringent requirements of their laboratory compliance programs. What you will learn: How Lockbox meets regulatory compliance standards To which privacy standards does Lockbox adhere Audit preparation...

Over the past few years, we’ve all seen data breaches with significant operational, financial, and legal impacts on organizations, and these adverse events are only increasing. The risks to data security are particularly onerous for labs that use outdated lab data management software or software solutions that don’t meet the strict requirements of clinical and...

Running a laboratory is a considerable challenge simply because there is so much information to track. That is why many labs use a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). This lab management tool helps organize all the samples, equipment, reagents, and workflows in your lab. Lockbox LIMS by Third Wave Analytics is one of the highest...

Watch now: What is a LIMS? Let’s start by answering the question, ‘What is a LIMS?’ and then dive into its core functions. LIMS stands for Laboratory Information Management System. Often called a ‘LIMS System’ or ‘LIMS software,’ it functions similarly to other data management systems used throughout the business world. These software applications are...

Organized, efficient lab management is crucial to success in scientific research labs and diagnostics industries, which require modern workflow automation to keep up with real-time sample tracking and data management. The Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) (also called a laboratory information system (LIS), lab management system (LMS), or LIMS software), centralizes and streamlines multiple aspects...

In our work with core labs performing next-generation sequencing (NGS), we’ve seen consistent trends regarding the challenges related to lab management, sample management, data management, sequencing workflows, quality control, automation, data analysis, traceability, and the specific functionality needed for life sciences and genomics research and applications. Because NGS labs perform high-throughput sequencing for the simultaneous...

Most labs don’t have a day go by without labeling a tube or hundreds or thousands of tubes.  However, many labs still don’t have a laboratory information management system (LIMS) that works seamlessly to help lab professionals manage sample tracking and print labels for those tubes.  When laboratories first consider how much time and effort...