Labs and research facilities accumulate large amounts of data every day — a continuing problem is what to do with all that information while maintaining data integrity. A Scientific Data Management System, or SDMS, is a type of document management system software that helps manage data generated by lab instruments, electronic laboratory notebooks (ELN), chromatography data systems (CMS), and laboratory information management systems (LIMS) using a single integrated platform.
An SDMS is used to archive and store all the data produced by instruments and equipment in a scientific lab. By having this solution in place, organizations have peace of mind regarding data reprocessing including avoiding transcription errors, simplifying data archiving and version control of processed data. Additionally, data integrity – one of the most important topics in the regulated space, can be ensured through audit trails.
Starlims SDMS helps coordinate data within your own lab and encourages collaboration between labs around the globe. Food & beverage safety, public health, pharmaceutical & biotech, general manufacturing, clinical research, petrochemical & refining, and environmental sciences are just a few of the many industries that would benefit from an enterprise wide Starlims system including a SDMS or standalone SDMS.
Easy Solutions for Sharing Data
As mentioned earlier, labs use different software systems such as LIMS, ELN, and CDS for organizing data entry, sharing files, and long-term data storage. An SDMS can help create workflows, improve turnaround time, interface with different instruments, view, and access data from a centralized location, and provide easy storage and retrieval while offering noticeable cost savings.
The primary benefits of an SDMS include:
- Supporting data to be imported and exported
- Integrating with LIMS and other systems
- Interacting with lab equipment, instruments, and databases
- Analyzing and reporting on all lab data and activities
- Managing, capturing, and storing a variety of data formats
- Efficiently handling unstructured data
The main application of a scientific data management system is to automate file processing, reduce cycle times, extract valuable scientific data, eliminate disparate data sources, promote collaboration, and ensure compliance.
Let’s take a further look at how to determine the value of an SDMS for your lab’s specific and unique needs.
Where Does an SDMS Fit into Your Lab?
An SDMS automates the management of all your documents and ensures data and processes for collecting and storing data comply with regulatory requirements. A great system will provide a single seamless solution that integrates with your existing software and files, including spreadsheets, images, instrument data, and PDF files.
Before requisitioning a purchase order for an SDMS, spend some time evaluating how your lab would benefit from this solution[1]. You need to determine your data storage needs and anticipate what software programs you’ll need. Perform an audit of the current instruments you are using along with any anticipated future purchases.
Once you’ve gathered all this information, try to identify potential data accessibility and storage gaps where an SDMS could help streamline processes.
Starlims SDMS Offerings
Starlims offers a variety of solutions for managing your unstructured and structured data, including our standalone SDMS.
Manually processing all of this data is a burdensome task, time-consuming, and often results in errors. Our SDMS offerings allows you to access data quickly and easily from scientific documents and coordinate data from all of your equipment and lab instruments.
Case Study
In search of optimization and standardization of instrument data, results, and file storage, Sai Life wanted a comprehensive and centralized data management tool to work together with their existing systems without the need of replacing them, including their document management system. They thoroughly researched and evaluated various SDMS solutions in the market.
Sai Life selected the Starlims SDMS Standalone solution based on a comprehensive set of standards. This choice was motivated by a high level of flexibility and adaptability of the Starlims SDMS solution to the business needs; the global deployment capacity of Starlims SDMS technology; implementation expertise and excellent customer support from the Starlims team.
When you have multiple application software where reporting templates are different, capturing those data in a harmonized way and pushing data into a LIMS should be customized. How easy it is to customize is a game-changer for the implementation timeline. Starlims brought us a very good system and helped us to customize the reports easily.
Dr. M. Damodharan
Chief Quality Officer & Head of Global Quality and Regulatory Affairs
[1] https://www.csolsinc.com/blog/practical-applications-of-an-sdms/