LIMS 'continue to integrate functionality'

The functionality required to carry out statistical analysis of experiments continues to be integrated into laboratory information management systems (LIMS), according to a Scientific Computing contributor.

Dr John Joyce notes that both LIMS and some chromatography data systems have increased in terms of their integrated functionality to some extent in recent years.

Similarly, chemometric functionality is being incorporated into systems such as those intended to analyse data collected through Raman spectrometry.

"The integration of functions currently handled by discrete packages will continue to accelerate," he predicts.

His comments come in response to a previous Scientific Computing column by Dr John Wass, who set out the reasons why this trend is taking place.

From the early days of using pen and paper to calculate laboratory results, he noted the introduction of desktop calculators and, later, desktop computers, with tailored software packages now able to fulfil the statistical analysis needs of researchers.

However, he warned that computer professionals, statisticians and scientists could benefit from collaborating more closely in order to each become aware of the issues faced by the others.