Why Machine Interfacing in LIMS is Important

As labs are updated and become more modern, better methods of data management and record-keeping may be necessary in order to maintain or improve efficiency.  Luckily, there is a means to achieve this: Laboratory Information Management Systems or LIMS.

With the increase in disease and the growth in the medical diagnosis sector, the number of samples collected is increasing day by day. With the help of Machine interfacing, labs can handle a large volume of samples easily, increasing the efficiency of sample processing and the quality of lab reports.

Types of Machine Interfacing in LIMS:

Uni-Directional Instruments:

Unidirectional instruments perform one-way communication between the samples and LIMS. Results will be stored in the LIMS after the completion of the rest. The technician has to perform sample placement manually and decide on what type of sampling to be done.

Bi-directional Instruments:

The bi-directional Instruments are more sophisticated and advanced as they can generate both output data reports and results while also having an Application Programming Interface (API) to import data, information, commands, functions, worklists, etc. into the system.

Our LIMS sends commands to the sampling unit on the type of sampling to be conducted with the given sample. After the testing is done by the LIMS command, the results are auto-fetched on the LIMS Server. The bi-directional instruments are interfaced with the LIMS system programmatically.

The need to Interface Instruments with LIMS:

There are a number of reasons why it is beneficiary to interface lab instruments with LIMS. Let us look into a few reasons here:

Increase in Productivity by Effective Machine Utilization:

Interfacing your instruments with your LIMS is a one-time investment of cost and work with a repetitive increase in lab productivity and effectiveness. Interfacing LIMS with your lab instruments removes many complexities like manual entering of data every time or referring data from other instruments to the LIMS. This altogether saves a lot of time and effort when done by a LIMS rather than manually, also avoiding any human errors during data entry.

Utilizing machines effectively can increase productivity drastically.  When the task is done manually, very fewer samples are completely analyzed in the given time period, but with MI they can perform many sample processing and that will increase machine utilization and increase revenue.

Increase in  Data Quality by Reducing Manual Errors:

The second best reason for interfacing your lab instruments with your LIMS is the increase in the data quality and integrity. As a human, we are eligible to commit human errors that might not be over-influential over the system as a whole, but might still be considered as an error. By removing human interference, these errors are avoided thereby guaranteeing better data transfer in the system.

Similarly, transcribing data into the system by people can also lead to common errors affecting the quality of data. Data integrity is considered a very important issue in laboratories. By interfacing your instruments with your LIMS, you will eliminate this issue.

Saves Time in output generation thereby satisfying the patients:

Machine Interfacing helps to analyze the given samples at a faster rate and generates quality results within a lesser duration of time. After the result processing is done, the report will be generated manually.

With the use of MI, ultimate patient satisfaction can be achieved by generating results in a quick manner with good quality.

Machine interfacing in laboratories is more of a comfort rather than a negative factor. What might be a one-time investment in your labs can save a lot of time and work when interfaced properly with your systems.