Today many small and mid-sized analytical laboratories, with limited resources, are facing increasing challenges to cost effectively manage the growing volume of raw analytical data, procedural notes, and final reports along with related images and research materials. In addition, cost effective data archiving, fast access and secure sharing of data – both across the enterprise and across geographies—for scientific collaboration continues to be a growing and critical need. 

Further, making the growing volume of data accessible to the public has been mandated by the National Science Foundation. The requirement which went into effect in October 2010 says that all proposals for NSF funding must contain a data management plan. The data management plans must detail how the data generated from publically funded research will be made public. Having a scientific data management system that facilitates sharing data and collaborating on the findings of that data is imperative according to the NSF.

Cary Institute: Turning Data into knowledge for Environmental Reporting

The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (Cary Institute) is a world class non-profit ecological research institution that provides unbiased scientific information essential to the development of sound international environmental policy, management decisions, and end-education curricula. Central to the Institute's mission is the creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge about ecological systems and how they work.

A large majority of the Cary Institute’s scientists generate chemical data as part of their research programs.  This research involves careful long-term monitoring of aquatic food webs, invasive species, native animal populations, and environmental pollution.  In addition, many of the Cary Institute’s ecological research and monitoring projects span decades. Data integrity is critical to IES reporting results since analyzing long-term trends in data often generates questions regarding the consistency and robustness of instrument-generated data.

One of the hallmarks of Cary Institute is collaborative research with scientists at other institutions worldwide. The Cary Institute’s  Analytical Laboratory (the Rachel L. Carson Analytical Facility) is a nexus for generating data, and tens-of-thousands of analyses from dozens of independent projects are run in this laboratory on an annual basis.

Recognizing their need to maintain a high quality laboratory and to manage digital data, The Cary Institute obtained a grant from the National Science Foundation to purchase new analytical instrumentation and upgrade data handling. They needed a rugged, scalable data management system to provide their scientists with tools for powerful querying and analysis of both primary data and metadata. They also had to ensure that their data management system would track changes and provide the comprehensive audit trails necessary for qualified research reviews and regulatory compliance.

After a review of available products, they selected the Labcore SDMS (Scientific Data/Document Management System) for price, scalability, and support.

“Our goal was to implement a cost effective, reliable and scalable system for analytical data capture and reporting.  After careful consideration we selected Labcore both for its powerful centralized data management capability and ability to integrate with our current LIMS system with little or no downtime.” K.C. Weathers, Head of Laboratory Services, Institute of Ecosystem Studies

 To see how Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies implemented Labcore to address its scientific data management needs watch this  educational webinar or request the full Cary Institute case study at Case Studies.  The case study details the following features and benefits of the Labcore SDMS:

 Benefits of the Labcore Solution

With the addition of the Labcore data management system, The Cary Institute can now: 

1.   Automatically capture data/documents from a variety of sources across the laboratory including LIMS and     laboratory instruments.

2.   Store, manage and retrieve documents, such as SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures)

3.   Categorize documents by keywords

4.   Access documents via application such as Microsoft Office

5.   View and share instrument data without using the software that created it 

6.   Share common data formats (Publicly supported XML specifications) for Indexing/Searching and reporting

7.   Ensure data security (Electronic signature) and CFR 21 Part 11 Compliance

 “The Labcore Data Management System integrated seamlessly with our LIMS. We now have the capability for centralized data access and management, protocol verification, and long term data integrity”. Denise Schmidt, Manager of the Cary Institute Analytical Laboratory

There are a number of metrics that were captured in this initial phase of the Cary Institute project that centered around automation of time consuming paper processes such as data package management and creation, automation of capture and retrieving data and correlated documents, staff acceptance of old paper processes and new computerized process.  The illustration below cites how the Cary Institute improved their laboratories performance and the productivity of its researchers:

 

KPI	Pre- SDMS	Post - SDMS	Key Drivers
Retrieving Data and Correlated Documents	35 hour process per incident	Reduced process to 2 hours per incident (Significant gain in productivity)	* All data and correlated docs stored in searchable central repository
Automation of data and document capture	Each Lab tech spent at least 3.5 hours per week	Automated process = 0 hours = 10-15% time savings weekly	* Streamlined automated capture from lab instruments
Ease of Use/ Employee Acceptance	N/A	1-2 hours training for computer savvy lab technicians to max of 2 days for less savvy	* System very easy to learn and intuitive to the users
Access to Vital Data & Documents/ Collaboration	Limited access to docs/data; difficult collaboration/data sharing	Full access to data via web - Correlating docs are avail in native applications; sharing and collaboration easy	* Access through simple UI in web browser - "Everything in one place"