Based in Milan, Italy, the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) is using Thermo Scientific LIMS (laboratory information management system) to process more than 4,000 biospecimens annually, including liquids, solids and DNA/RNA. IEO’s previous data management solution did not allow integration across multiple platforms, so information remained in silos or needed to be combined manually. Using the new LIMS, sample data is integrated across multiple systems including WHospital, a management system of medical records that contains demographic information, administrative episodes and patient informed consent; Armonia, which contains all diagnostic pathological results; and Banca Anagrafica Centrale (BAC), the IEO central registry.
‘Thermo Scientific LIMS is a phenomenal platform for automating and streamlining IEO’s biobanking workflows,’ said Giuseppina Bonizzi, IEO Biobank and Biomolecular Resource Infrastructure (IBBRI) coordinator. ‘The software is specifically designed to simplify the tracking and management of our biosamples and biospecimen collection, including localisation and patient demographics. Its ability to aggregate information from multiple existing software systems allows us to automatically integrate samples with a patient’s clinical and pathological data.’
Thermo Scientific LIMS for biobanks addresses the challenges of managing biospecimen collection, location, online requests (including consent management and request management), chain of custody, data compliance and security, instrument integration and automation and client billing.
