Laboratory cost management.

Laboratory cost management deals with the economical use of laboratory resources such as capital, equipment and manpower. Cost analysis is a tool for cost management, by means of which the laboratory manager can properly set priorities, choose appropriate test procedures, set personnel policies and make better investments of his resources. This article sets out some important aspects of cost analysis, such as the construction of cost curves, the factors that enter into cost analysis, the context in which cost analysis is used, and the limitations of this type of analysis.     

Implementation of the quality management system at the Laboratory of Radiological Protection and Safety (LPSR) in Portugal

The paper describes the activities carried out for the implementation of the quality management system (QMS) at the Laboratory of Radiological Protection and Safety (LPSR) in Portugal in order to achieve the management and technical requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 and to get the accreditation for ten tests. The implementation of the QMS based on this international standard allowed LPSR to improve the methods, to identify problems, to implement preventive and corrective actions, to generate valid results and to achieve a stable level of high-quality output recognized by an independent body in the scope of waters, metrology, radiation and radiochemistry.     

Laboratory quality assurance — A rationale for credibility

Laboratory quality assurance provides a rationale for laboratory credibility and reliability of results if quality assurance principles are applied and the procedures for implementation and assessment are documented.     

Trends in laboratory information management systems

Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) are an outgrowth of laboratory automation, the increasing workload in most laboratories, and the success that Information Management Systems have shown in enhancing productivity in a wide variety of activities. One current need is a model for constructing a local area network for the LIMS.     

Tautomerism in chemical information management systems

Tautomerism has an impact on many of the processes in chemical information management systems including novelty checking during registration into chemical structure databases; storage of structures; exact and substructure searching in chemical structure databases; and depiction of structures retrieved by a search. The approaches taken by 27 different software vendors and database producers are compared. It is hoped that this comparison will act as a discussion document that could ultimately improve databases and software for researchers in the future.     

Total quality management in hematology

 Healthcare is changing and clinical laboratory testing must change with it. In no discipline is this change more profound than in hematology. The principles of total quality management (TQM) including continuous quality improvement, reengineering and strategic planning can facilitate these changes. In the past, hematology has often been exlcuded from these processes due to its many manual procedures and the degree of expertise and skill needed to perform the testing. As automated technology continues to evolve, hematology testing, like other testing, will become integrated into the core, clinical laboratory. We suggest TQM can, and should, guide the way. Received: 15 April 2000 · Accepted: 19 April 2000     

A pharmaceutical information manager's viewpoint on R & D information resource management

An overview of the environment (from my perspective) related to information resource management in pharmaceutical R & D has been presented. Some notions of organizational preference (functional), employee selection (chemist turned information scientist), automation (user friendly, cost effective), and the value of project teams (information transfer) have been noted. Difficulties associated with keeping our innovative tools sharp were observed. Finally, we noted that our bottom line--productivity--should first consider what is useful (effectiveness) and then learn how to do it well--efficiency. Success in the management of information resources depends on the proactive delivery of information packets which find their way into problem solving and decision support for scientists or line managers.     

Need for quality management in research and development

 There is growing interest in setting up a general concept for quality management and quality control in research and development, which in this case means, for example, research in the fields of medicine and social sciences. This article is a strong plea for a quality management system in all fields of research and development and will probably initiate broad discussion on this delicate topic. Received: 28 June 1998 · Accepted: 13 July 1998     

The human factor in quality management

 "Quality management is not just a strategy. It must be a new style of working, even a new style of thinking. A dedication to quality and excellence is more than good business. It is a way of life, giving something back to society, offering your best to others" (George Bush 1991). From this statement it becomes immediately clear that the human factor plays an eminent role in quality management. Therefore, some important relevant aspects of quality management are highlighted which are not so frequently discussed elsewhere. Various definitions and statements on quality lead to the fact that quality depends essentially on people. Some thoughts are developed on the Japanese quality culture which contributed essential impulses to the evolution of certain quality installations such as quality circles. The Japanese also developed a philosophy of quality, Kaizen, which is significantly different from Western industrial quality concepts. Kaizen works well in a slow growth economy, contrary to Western innovation which is more suited to the fast growth economy of the past. Some ideas on the quality control of top management as well as on the quality control of ourselves are expressed and it is shown how this is related to ethical principles. Every human society is as successful as: its intrinsic degree of honesty and righteousness, its degree of prevention of corruption and nepotism, and its readiness to work hard for personal advancement and for the sake of the community. Leadership, political or economic, is a special cultural effort – or at least it should be. But the striving for quality must be everybody's business in a company. It is the old 'pride of workmanship' which is greatly lost in today's industrial structures, and which is so absolutely important to again find satisfaction and contentment in our work. It is shown that the human factor in quality management, apart from all the necessary formal and institutional regulations, is of major importance, but very often neglected, especially in the present situation of over-rationalization. It is shown that dynamic equilibria do not only regulate chemical and biological systems but also operate in our psychic world. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to unhealthy extremes in the latter, e.g. to workaholics or neo-capitalism. Installations of total quality management such as systems, procedural and product audits are important facets of modern quality assurance. They are again closely related to human behaviour, as well as the procedure of company and laboratory accreditation. Finally the "Codex Hammurabi" shows that product liability was a clearly regulated issue in ancient Babylon, 2200 BC. This may be indicative of the fact that many new trends propagated by management gurus usually stem from a very old part of the wisdom of mankind but they are newly decorated and formed to modern slogans. Received: 11 May 1999 / Accepted: 24 September 1999     

小型化学实验室信息管理系统设计

一个实验室每时每刻都会产生大量的复杂信息,这些信息主要是一些测量、分析的数据,以及许多维持实验室运行管理的数据。每一个实验室为维护这些数据需要大量的人力和物力,而且效率低下,容易出错,不利于数据的快速科学分析。大规模实验室的管理则头绪繁多。解决这类问题的有效办法,就是引入LIMS-实验室信息管理系统。     

Global technical information management in thermal hazard evaluation

One of the critical aspects of an effective reactive chemicals program in the chemical processing industries is the management of our technical and project information. With the continuing evolution of electronic tools for the generation, storage, and retrieval of this technical information, we have new opportunities to improve management of process safety information. New approaches in the documentation of reactive chemicals information are described. The documentation method is based upon a ‘living’ project file organized along process unit operations. The project file captures the project safety information in an ‘information mapped’ format. The format provides a simple means to document issue definition, relevant data and information, application of information to resolve the issue, and lines of defense and prevention.     

Benchmarking and quality management indicators in three medical laboratories

The aim of this study was to calculate various annual quality management indicators and implement them as a management tool in laboratories. The study was performed in three laboratories over five years, from 2000 to 2004. These laboratories are part of the XHUP (Public Hospital Network in Catalonia). We collected 20 annual items over five years and calculated 20 annual indicators. The Laboratory Manual Index Program from the College of American Pathologists was used as a reference. We also compared an analytical quality indicator versus productivity and calculated annual budget laboratory deviation. The information obtained from these indicators provides laboratories with a useful benchmarking tool to determine the results of management change and understand the real situation in laboratories. We found a lack of standardisation in management data. A future area of work could involve unifying some of the different characteristics. Presented at the Conference Quality in the Spotlight, March 2006, Antwerp, Belgium.     

IUCLID: an information management tool for existing chemicals and biocides

Because of the large number of chemicals to be risk assessed within the European Union, an electronic data reporting and management tool, IUCLID, was developed supporting all three steps of the risk assessment process, namely data collection, priority-setting, and risk assessment. This paper gives an overview of the IUCLID software, which has been updated and adapted to also be used for the notification phase of the Biocides Program of the European Commission.     

Total quality management of cobalt-60 sources

Total Quality Management of Cobalt-60 sources by a supplier requires a life cycle approach to source management. This covers various aspects, including design, manufacturing, installation, field inspection, source surveillance and return of cobalt-60 sources at the end of their useful life. The Total Quality Management approach demonstrates a strong industry commitment to the beneficial use of gamma technology for industrial irradiation applications in both developed nations and in those nations who are developing their infrastructure and techniques for the beneficial use of this technology. MDS Nordion continues to demonstrate its support and commitment to the industry by developing and implementing state-of-the-art standards for the safe use of cobalt-60 sources.     

Support vector machines in water quality management

Support vector classification (SVC) and regression (SVR) models were constructed and applied to the surface water quality data to optimize the monitoring program. The data set comprised of 1500 water samples representing 10 different sites monitored for 15 years. The objectives of the study were to classify the sampling sites (spatial) and months (temporal) to group the similar ones in terms of water quality with a view to reduce their number; and to develop a suitable SVR model for predicting the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of water using a set of variables. The spatial and temporal SVC models rendered grouping of 10 monitoring sites and 12 sampling months into the clusters of 3 each with misclassification rates of 12.39% and 17.61% in training, 17.70% and 26.38% in validation, and 14.86% and 31.41% in test sets, respectively. The SVR model predicted water BOD values in training, validation, and test sets with reasonably high correlation (0.952, 0.909, and 0.907) with the measured values, and low root mean squared errors of 1.53, 1.44, and 1.32, respectively. The values of the performance criteria parameters suggested for the adequacy of the constructed models and their good predictive capabilities. The SVC model achieved a data reduction of 92.5% for redesigning the future monitoring program and the SVR model provided a tool for the prediction of the water BOD using set of a few measurable variables. The performance of the nonlinear models (SVM, KDA, KPLS) was comparable and these performed relatively better than the corresponding linear methods (DA, PLS) of classification and regression modeling.     

Tracking and controlling everything that affects quality is the key to a quality management system

Every laboratory has a need to track and control the variables that drive the quality of the results. However, each laboratory is unique and what one organization deems to be a critical process to track and control will likely differ from other organizations. Furthermore, there is more than just the end product or result that needs to be tracked and controlled. All of the intermediate products and resources play a significant role in producing the final product and each of these needs to be included in the LIMS. At a high level, this article will present ideas and opinions on the following topics in relation to implementing a LIMS process tracking and control system in a laboratory: The difference between tracking and controlling processes; What to track and control in the lab; The "product" of the laboratory; Preventing mistakes in a laboratory; Comprehensive software platform options; The value of seeing a system as opposed to imagining it; The use of barcodes in the laboratory; and an assessment on using the Risk Based Approach in deciding what to include in the tracking system.     

Chemical separation activities in environmental management at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

Besides a brief review of the INEEL, examples of chemical separation activities in environmental management are presented in this paper. Under development at the INEEL are separation technologies for the treatment of radioactive wastes, including highly radioactive liquid wastes, solid calcined wastes and mixed wastes, as well as contaminated groundwater and soils. An overview of these technologies, specific applications of the technologies, and the benefits from their use are discussed.     

Process-driven information management system at a biotech company: concept and implementation

While established pharmaceutical companies have chemical information systems in place to manage their compounds and the associated data, new startup companies need to implement these systems from scratch. Decisions made early in the design phase usually have long lasting effects on the expandability, maintenance effort, and costs associated with the information management system. Careful analysis of work and data flows, both inter- and intradepartmental, and identification of existing dependencies between activities are important. This knowledge is required to implement an information management system, which enables the research community to work efficiently by avoiding redundant registration and processing of data and by timely provision of the data whenever needed. This paper first presents the workflows existing at Anadys, then ARISE, the research information management system developed in-house at Anadys. ARISE was designed to support the preclinical drug discovery process and covers compound registration, analytical quality control, inventory management, high-throughput screening, lower throughput screening, and data reporting.