ABSTRACT

Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) are complex systems that integrate hardware, software, people, and procedures. It is easy to focus on the hardware and software aspects of an LIMS to the extent that the people and procedural aspects are often overlooked. The LIMS is how a laboratory tracks and manages its information resources, particularly the data that represent the laboratory’s product. Any change in the data-handling system, therefore, engenders some potentially traumatic changes in the way the laboratory operates. The laboratory staff is called upon to adopt new routines. The LIMS has to be compatible and integrated with the quality and business objectives of the laboratory.