Collaborative Development of LIMS Logical Design

 

In 2002-2003, the Public Health Informatics Institute, the Association of Public Health Laboratories, the APHL Informatics Committee, and 16 designated state and local public health laboratories collaborated to identify and delineate 16 business processes of LIMS and specify requirements for LIMS. The project produced a LIMS requirements document that could be used by all public health laboratories and LIMS vendors.

After defining a set of requirements, 26 PHLs collaborated with the Institute to produce logical design specifications for the priority requirements. In the final phase of the project (July 2004-March 2005), 24 PHLs collaborated to complete the logical design document. Both the requirements document and the logical design are owned by APHL. Project documents for are available at www.aphl.org/programs/informatics.

In addition, the Institute presented APHL with a recommendation for a strategy that meets APHL’s national goals and assures sustainable, robust public health LIMS that are affordably priced. The strategy paper analyzed PHLs’ needs for LIMS in light of APHL’s long-term goals and the PHL environment, including the LIMS marketplace, forecasts for funding, and the availability of the LIMS requirements and logical design, which significantly reduces the risk of LIMS development. The paper recommends a two-component strategy: APHL support for 1) collaborative consortia of PHLs adopting commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) LIMS products, and 2) a collaborative consortium of PHLs to develop LIMS. The LIMS project was supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.