LIMS (laboratory information management systems), occasionally called LIS (laboratory information systems) or LMS (laboratory management systems), are software-based lab and data management systems that have features which support a modernized lab’s operations. Key features involve — but aren’t limited to — workflow and information tracking support, flexible architecture, as well as information exchange interfaces that completely support its use within regulated environments. The uses and features of an LIMS evolved over time from simplistic sample tracking to a business resource planning device which manages several components of lab informatics.
Definition of LIMS
The definition of LIMS Systems is controversial: LIMSs are dynamic due to the lab’s requirements quickly evolving and different laboratories often having various needs. Thereby, a working definition of LIMS depends ultimately upon the interpretation by the groups or individuals included. Doctor Alan McLelland of Institute of Biochemistry highlighted this issue in the 1990s by discussing how an LIMS is imagined by a lab manager, an analyst, an accountant, and an information systems manager, “all of them right, but all of them restricted by a users’ perceptions.”
History of LIMS
Historically the PDES (process development execution system) LIS, and LIMS, all have done similar functions. The word “LIMS” usually referred to informatics systems that were targeted for research, commercial, or environmental analysis like petrochemical or pharmaceutical work. “LIS” usually referred to lab informatics systems within the clinical and forensics markets that often required specialized case management instruments. “PDES” generally has applied to a broader scope, which includes, for instance, virtual manufacturing techniques, whereby not necessarily integrating with lab equipment.
LIMS functionality, in recent years, spread even farther beyond its initial sample management purpose. Data mining, assay data management, ELN (Electronic Laboratory Notebook), and data analysis integration were added to several LIMS, allowing the realization of translational medicine fully inside one software solution. Also, the distinction between LIS and LIMS blurred, as many LIMS also now completely support comprehensive case centric clinical information.
Some LIMS Systems, as of 2012, added extra characteristics which continually shape how LIMSs are defined. Additions involve ELN (Electronic Laboratory Notebook) functionality, clinical functionality, and increase in the SaaS (software as a service) distribution model.