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For those reading this article and wondering about a niche area that is in need of innovators: LIMS - Laboratory Information Management Systems. Here's the de
by dalacv 11y ago
For those reading this article and wondering about a niche area that is in need of innovators:
LIMS - Laboratory Information Management Systems.
Here's the deal. Most manufacturing companies (think Big Pharma, Petrochemical, Chemical, Widget manufacturing, anything really) measure quality. Those quality measurements are probably done in a laboratory. Every laboratory generates data. All that data needs to be managed well so that the laboratory can maintain its accredidation.
Basically, LIMS systems manage samples and lab result data. In addition, they probably integrate with Instruments and instrument software to automate some of that data entry.
Other industries besides manufacturing are Govt (waste and wastewater treatment labs), Third-party labs (labs that do testing for other companies), Healthcare (clinical labs), Forensic Labs, and more.
Bottom line, there are tons of laboratories and they all need to manage their data.
The players in this space are downright stuck in the last decade. There is so much opportunity here for a few new players.
- dejv 11y agoI am doing something like this (aimed to QA/contract laboratories), it is in pivot phase with first customer, replacing pen and paper system (for laboratory doing 500 samples a day). Let me know if you want to check it out.
- dalacv 11y agoThat is definitely the way to go. Get a real-live customer and build up the system for them.
- danieltillett 11y agoAs someone who has sells a LIMS module for DNA sequencing the problem is the people that run theses systems do not like change. You need a scientific background to run these labs, but the work is very routine. The personalities that gravitate towards being a lab manager are the personalities that really, really, really like systems to stay the same. It is a very tough sell to get them to use something new no matter how good.
- dalacv 11y agoYou are correct. Change is slower in this industry. That can be both a curse and a blessing. For validated environments (FDA-regulated industries such as Pharma), it can be downright glacial.
- danieltillett 11y agoIt is great once you get a sale since they will keep paying, but getting that sale is damn hard.
- giarc 11y agoI bet they love re-writing 600 SOPs when the software changes.
- doom2 11y agoInteresting. But is part of that also that many labs may be stuck on older gen operating systems that newer software would need to support? Thinking of a recent visit to a hospital that was running WinXP on their machines.
- danieltillett 11y agoI have to continue support of XP as more than half my customers are still running XP. This is not an industry where innovation is embraced.
- dalacv 11y agoHospitals run their own version of LIMS called LIS (Laboratory Information Systems - go figure). The common practice is to partition off your lab network behind a firewall. The reason is because many of the instrumentation vendors still run their instrument control software on legacy OS versions and cannot be upgraded, as well as the fact that the operation of these systems can be critical to the organization and there is usually little to no redundancy due to cost. That being said, there is no reason that a modern LIMS/LIS system cannot be integrated with these legacy systems. In fact, that is usually what happens: An organization's central IT group puts just enough money in the budget to upgrade to the latest version of the LIMS, but doesn't include any costs for upgrading of instrumentation control software.
- jtwaleson 11y agoThat's exactly what I am working on right now. Good to see someone having the same idea.
- dalacv 11y agoAdditional: Here is a great summary of LIMS High-level Requirements / Features: http://www.limswiki.org/index.php/LIMS_feature http://www.limswiki.org/index.php/LIMS_feature and here is a GREAT guide on Lab Information Management from an ISO point of view: https://www.unido.org/fileadmin/user_media/Publications/Pub_free/Complying_with_ISO_17025_A_practical_guidebook.pdf https://www.unido.org/fileadmin/user_media/Publications/Pub_...
- jtwaleson 11y agoThanks, that's really useful
- hyperliner 11y agoSpeaking of the "glacial pace" of change of people in this LIMS space (and other industries), as well as the comment that states that someone saw people still using Windows XP, I wonder if it is simply that these people have really no use in changing technology that really does not change their lives or their customers'. For example, why don't they change the Air conditioner in the building? Or the coffee machine? Well, maybe because it really does not make a difference which one you get. It's still just fine. So the issue is not replacing Windows XP with Linux or whatever or a better UI in Angular or [your favorite framework]. It is coming up with a better business process. But if the processes are restricted by regulation, then by definition then the process cannot change too fast in LIMS and other similar industries. Therefore, why replace Windows XP? However, what about "doing better Lab-ing"? Whatever that means. What about better Marketing for Labs? What about better analytics to track folks who should be getting their next labs but won't because they forgot to go to the doctor? What about helping these Labs with problems I cannot seem to comprehend because I am not in the Lab industry? Seems the issue is not in LIMS itself (the clinical aspects), but on what is around the problem of doing the business of Labs.
- tmosleyIII 11y agoWe're currently doing this internally for the dermatopathology lab that I work for
- turkishrevenge 11y agoTrue. Same thing with Velos. What a piece of shit that is