Open Source MS Access LIMS?

[fseipel]

I'm presently in the process of building a relatively simple LIMS using MS Access. I have it printing bottle labels with barcodes, importing XML results from ChemStation, and exporting XML worklists to ChemStation. However, I was wondering if there are any free/open source MS Access based LIMS? Eventually I want to add electronic signatures/21 CFR Part 11 compliance as well. I still have a lot of work to go however. We want a system we can complete customize and tie-in to generation of certificates of analysis and inventory (supersack) control.

So far I've found only two Access-based LIMS, from Tribal Software and MSC, are there any others?

Also, is there anyway to specify front or back injector when importing an XML worklist into GC Chemstation? I've posed this question to Agilent but haven't heard back. My worklists come in but everything is on front injector. Unlike Import Sequence menu option, there is not a separate menu entry for Front/Back.

I may ask my employer for permission to post my work on this since it might be useful to others. Somebody ought to post something open-source to simply take results, parse them and insert them into a SQL table. It took me a while just to write that up.

Thanks much

Frank

[aceto_81]

I think you should move out of MS Access.
It is very limited in capacity and on some day will hit the ceiling!

We use MS Access as a front end, but use PostgreSQL as a back end to manage the database.
And I think it is easier to find open source LIMS with a open source backend as with MS Access.

Ace

[fseipel]

Ultimately I will move the DB itself to MSSQL or MySQL using linked tables; Access will simply be the front end. MSSQL Express will prove more than aequate for our needs.

I still haven't resolved the front/back injector issue.

[aceto_81]

Ultimately I will move the DB itself to MSSQL or MySQL using linked tables; Access will simply be the front end. ...

I still haven't resolved the front/back injector issue.

Why not first move to MySQL/MSSQL/postgreSQL/...?
That way you will have far more open source option for your LIMS!

For your front/back issues: did you manually opened an export file and searched for entries for front/back?

Ace

[fseipel]

Hi Ace,

When you say 'export', what is meant? I did not see any example XML tags in the XML guide to specify front or rear injector.

Thanks much,

Frank

[fseipel]

I'm responding to my own thread because Agilent was finally able to resolve the import issue. The version we are running does not support import front/rear injection, hence, it only shows import worklist on menu. They are sending us a newer version to resolve this issue.

Also, I'm still curious, what open source LIMS back ends are available?

[fseipel]

I'm responding again to this thread because I'm still interested in looking at other open source packages for ideas/inspiration to expand the system I've built thus far & thus might want to trade them. I'm an Engineer as opposed to a chemist, so I've been soliciting the lab techs for input. Backend is on MSSQL now. I have it printing barcode labels. I have implemented logins. I have integrated the scale PRINT button to input the sample and internal standard weights. The technician simply picks samples 'to be analyzed' and adds them to front or rear injector by clicking a button adjacent to each; # of injections, method, etc auto-populate based upon the samples 'Process Name' and 'Product Type' input when it is logged in, blank samples are injected into worklists where appropriate, etc. Results change color (red/green/yellow) based upon a table of specifications for each compound. I set up a GC macro to import both front/rear worklist with a menu. Results are imported back as XML. I just implemented simple plotting (control charts). Solution averages results over all injections & displays a matrix with individual injections & averages. I was wondering what other features are typically implemented? Most analyses are GC-based in our lab and we use ChemStation. I was also wondering if it might be better to have ChemStation directly write results to SQL server via macros/ODBC or do most of you do it that way?

[shfo]

It might be a little field-specific and I haven't used it, but the USGS LIMS for Isotopes is written in Access and they have example databases posted online.

[aceto_81]

fseipel,

we use a CSV file to import our data from our CDS to our LIMS.
One handy thing we implemented was a checkup to see if the data is OOS, but also if it's OOT.
And also statistical evaluation of the data / year, / product, /....

If you find other usefull ideas, please let us know

Ace

[fseipel]

One other follow-up question. I have our custom LIMS generating worklists for GC, and also importing all chromatogram results automatically from the XML files, averaging results between injections. I even have it set up to be able to view/print the PDF's from Access. I have checked the ChemStation boxes so it generates EMF (Chromatogram image) and PDF files for each injection. So technician can now view the chromatograms in MS Access. One question I had is what you do for zooming/cropping chromatograms within MS Access? Also is there a convenient way to overlay chromatograms in Access or an algorithm used to determine when RT's are wrong?

aceto81: Good idea on the out of spec, I set up a table with each process/product/compound and limits for red/yellow/green so Access color codes all the results. This seems to work well.

[DR]

Home-grown LIMS -consider your audience with respect to regulatory agencies. How much validation work will be required? Will you have to have source code access?

[fseipel]

That's a good question; our QC manager has set out certain requirements for backup of data and security. Some validation has been executed already in terms of testing. We are not an FDA regulated laboratory. We're hoping this will reduce errors in typing. Lab personnel like the sample/internal standard scale weight integration & ability to export worklist. Presently it is somewhat GC-centric (i.e. worklist with front/rear injector, methods fill automatically, # of injections), which is acceptable since this is our primary analysis. Present plan is to have Access check directory for new files every minute and import them into LIMS; I tested this today & it worked. There is still a good deal of work to do with Electronic Notebook to keep track of/calculate loss on drying and other special tests. I have not incorporated Electronic Signatures but there may be a desire to do so eventually. I have included passwords/logins so that operators can log in samples but not import results or generate worklists. We're trying to get away from old LIMS (QIS6) in which the software did not even have the ability to generate Certificates of Analysis, and personnel kept re-keying the data into Excel for summary reports, a very bad practice, especially considering all the QIS data could be read into Excel automatically via ODBC. I'm not sure what is meant by source code access?

[DR]

Some people (FDA) seem to think that software can't be truly validated unless you either own the current source code (or at least have access to it) or are willing to do a full revalidation after each and every change. The only other way is to proof all of a given software package's output.

Microsoft does not offer their source code to anyone, so guess what camp all of those Excel users working for FDA regulated labs are in...

[twranger]

We use Khemia Omega LIMS, which is Access based, though I'm not sure I would recommend it. We had alot of trouble setting it up.

[khemiasoftware]

Hey twranger,

We somehow managed to reach to this post of yours. We really appreciate that you are using Khemia Software's Omega 11 LIMS. We would like to share with you that we have installed this system for many of our clients and most of them are happy using it, Though there are some exceptions and we love to help them out. I would request you to please share your email address so that our professionals can get in touch with you.

Thank You,