The PLA® Conference aims to provide the framework for discussions on how to best manage data, the golden oil of any laboratory. Therefore, the speakers of the first session dedicated to this important topic introduced and developed concepts such as FAIR, Data Stewardship and Master Data Design.

PLA2025EU Takeaway: Change Management isn’t just a buzzword

Surprisingly, the panel discussion was all about people and that change management isn’t just a buzzword; shift to digital mindset determine the success in a digital transformation journey. There is a real need for effective change management programmes. Firstly, employees at all levels of the organisation need to be educated about the importance of data and the importance of managing it correctly throughout its lifecycle.

While gaining a deeper understanding of the importance of data management, the need to focus on master data and develop new approaches and new skills, such as master data designers, data stewards, etc., becomes clear.

Data stewards should become the backbone of FAIR data and high-quality data, bridging IT and science.

Last but not least, there is a need for educational initiatives on data stewardship. Universities should consider including this topic in their programmes for future lab managers and analysts.

PLA2025EU Takeaway: Users experience matters

Fact is that solution providers from the lab informatics industry also have a role to play in facilitating the digital mindset shift. User experience matters and making the tools easier to use would lead to better adoption and impact. Machine learning could be applied in many areas of laboratory processes. And of course, AI in the lab is exciting, but trust, data quality and strong governance remain top priorities.

In the numerous interactive workshops organised by our premium and gold sponsors, the presentations ranged from introducing the AI revolution in the laboratory, sharing practical approaches to realising the digital lab of the future and demonstrating the accelerated introduction of digitalised processes to presenting new solution for scheduling and planning lab activities.

PLA2025EU Takeaway: Testimonials

The feedback on this special edition of PLA2025EUROPE has been remarkable and we wanted to share some of it with you to finalise this summary.

Still energized from last week’s PLA2025EUROPE in Milan! It was an incredible opportunity to dive deep into the latest trends in data management, digital transformation, and AI in the lab. From data strategy to stewardship, governance, and FAIR data, empowering modern data ecosystems to unlock real value.Marilyne  Labasque, Lead Consultant: R&D Data Steward Lead for the Pharma Industry @ ZONTAL

I had a great experience on the first day of the PLA2025 Europe! The sessions were not only highly informative but also engaging, offering deep insights into the latest advancements in paperless lab technologies. The speakers were truly inspiring, sharing their expertise and innovative ideas. The event was impeccably organized, with seamless transitions between sessions and ample opportunities for networking with industry professionals. The atmosphere was vibrant and collaborative, making it a perfect platform for learning and exchanging ideas. I’m eagerly looking forward to the rest of the conference and the valuable knowledge it will undoubtedly continue to provide! Quality Assurance Referent @ CURRENTA

PLA2025EUROPE what a conference! For me, the main takeaway: center your digitalization strategy around people. Opportunity to exchange thoughts, lessons learned and meet great people from industry who are driving digitalization. New ideas are on the way!Global Quality Control Improvements Manager at STADA Group

It was a pleasure to be presenter in the 2025 Paperless Laboratory Academy conference in Milano. Many interesting inputs and discussions in plenary sessions and workshops. SGS contributed with a new vision on Master Data Designer for IT Laboratory Solution and shared the experience on the SGS Global/Local Laboratory Digital Strategy. Alessio Tremolada, Global Laboratory Consulting & Innovation manager @ SGS

It was an absolute honour to deliver the closing remarks at the PLA2025Europe conference, wrapping up two days of discussions and demonstrations. The experience was both professionally rewarding and incredibly enjoyable, especially with the almost full attendance and active engagement even in the final session. It’s clear that master data migrations from legacy systems are a pressing concern across various industries. Thank you to PLA for the opportunity and to my colleagues to the great panel discussion.Gunnar Zoch, Global LIMS Master Data Lead @ LONZA

The final day of the PLA2025 Europe was absolutely amazing! It was so inspiring to see that, no matter where we are in the world or the size of our company, we all face the same challenges when it comes to digitalization: acceptance, cost-time factors, and the willingness to embrace change. The sessions were incredibly practical and provided some amazing solutions and strategies to tackle these issues, making them extremely relevant and valuable. The event was incredibly well-organised, and the collaborative atmosphere fostered some truly great discussions and networking opportunities. It was a fantastic conclusion to an excellent conference, and I’m excited to apply what I’ve learned. Quality Assurance Referent @ CURRENTA

Interested to know which are the next editions? Remain in the know by subscribing to our newsletters.

Next coming edition in 2025:

PLA2025USA | Orlando | October

PLA2025India | Hyderabad | November

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However, to create a truly digital lab, it is not enough to implement advanced technologies, but a thoughtful balance between the people, processes and systems that form the basis of lab operations is required.

This special session at the 12th edition of the PLA® Conference Europe (March, Milan) will address the many challenges encountered on the road to digitalisation. From user adoption and adapting organisational culture to rethinking processes for maximum efficiency and ensuring that systems, instruments and data streams— are seamlessly connected, every aspect is critical to success.

We would like to thank Bob McDowall, Christine Mladek and Jens Donath for leading this session with strong presentations, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Isabel Muñoz-Willery.

Digitalisation & Strategy for Interfacing

Christine Mladek, Head of Global QC Network Management at Boehringer Ingelheim will share her extensive experience about cooperating and collaborating for successful digitalisation projects.

The digitalisation of quality control laboratories requires effective communication and collaboration between IT, Quality Management and Users.  This collaborative approach ensures alignment on project timelines, optimises resource utilisation, minimises transition tome, streamlines implementation and promotes continual improvement. Key factors for success include adherence to lab equipment standards, process standardisation, user-adapted trainings, submission changes and behavioural transformation.  Support from management, process/system owners and a robust governance structure are essential for the successful transformation.

People at the Core: Overcoming challenges and unlocking opportunities in digital lab transformation

Jens Donath, Head Project Management Quality at Lonza will highlight the critical role of people in achieving a successful transition to a paperless lab. He will  emphasizes the importance of managing both end-users and technical project teams, addressing resistance to change, cultural shifts, and the need for skill development. Focus is given to ensuring collaboration between the operational and technical teams.

The impact of Regulations and Data Integrity guidance on process redesign

Bob McDowall, Director at R D McDowall Ltd, will focus his presentation on the regulatory compliance aspect of digitisation projects.

When digitalising a regulated laboratory, understanding and simplifying a process is key to unlocking business benefits. However, any redesigned process must ensure that applicable regulations and data integrity guidance documents are complid with. This starts with ensuring that each application selected has the functionality to automate the process and ensure integrity of the records acquired, processed and reported.

How to adopt new Technologies and remain Compliant

To conclude the three presentations, the panel discussion, moderated by Isabel Muñoz-Willery, Ph.D., Owner and Event Director of PLA® Conferences, will continue the discussion and engage with the audience on how to avoid being overwhelmed by compliance requirements while adopting the latest technologies.

Join us as we explore best practises, real-world case studies and actionable strategies for overcoming these hurdles. Whether you are just starting to digitise your lab or looking to refine and optimise your existing efforts, this session will provide valuable insights to help you drive transformation with confidence.

Let’s reinvent the future of labs together — where digitalisation is not a challenge, but an opportunity.

Follow us to stay informed about all the other sessions we are preparing with thought leaders from Roche Diagnostics, Lonza, Menarini, Esteve, Walloon Agricultural Research Centre and others.

Save your free place and register now!

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At the PLA® conference, we always endeavour to bring real-life examples to the stage, presented by their own project leader.

This year’s contribution by Mrs Silvia Primon, manager of Quality Control at the Zeta Farmaceutici Group, is something very special for us. She is keen to share her experiences, and, above all, the lessons learnt while introducing the digital transformation journey and strategy at Zeta.
As a leader, Mrs Primon has always been passionate about soft skills and true believer of the driving force that can impulse a team when used correctly.

Soft skills play a critical role in taking a team to the next level by fostering effective communication, collaboration, and overall team dynamics. Since the early stages of the New LIMS project, it has been crucial to utilise her leadership skills in this direction. As the title of her presentation suggests. Blue Sky Project: Soft skills to implement a lab software that “kills”

Blue Sky Project: Soft skills to implement a lab software that “kills”

Building the team’s confidence in a vision for the future and gaining their commitment to realising that vision, has empowered the team to proactively overcome any contretemps along the way. Comments Ms Primon to our event director.

When it comes to implementing software, where every stumbling block is an excuse to delay the project, lose confidence in the project and question the change, this refreshing true story will shed light on a brighter future to achieve fully paperless processes.

Our #PLA2024Europe program has been carefully crafted to discuss the most pressing challenges and exciting opportunities in the digital lab space. From insightful keynote addresses from industry leaders to interactive panel discussions, hands-on workshops from experts and thought-provoking presentations, the conference promises an immersive experience that transcends traditional boundaries.

As we navigate this digital landscape together, we encourage you to actively engage, ask questions and collaborate with fellow participants.

The Paperless Lab Academy® is not just a conference, but a dynamic platform for sharing knowledge, networking, and fostering the evolution of labs around the world.

Secure your free seat today!

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We are glad to propose a dedicated session to that important topic, our keynote speakers, two thought leaders in the industry will address the situation and give the industry food for thought for their digitization projects. Mr. Kamlesh Padiya, Director at SynVision Chem Pvt. Ltd and Mr. Chandra Sai Dusanapudi, Assistant General Manager at Aurobindo Pharma Ltd.

“The advantages of an electronic database system over a paper-based system are well known and accepted,” explains in our interview Mr. Kamlesh Padiya.

As such in this particular session, we will take this as a given and focus on why it is still so difficult to successfully implement those lab informatics systems.

Human factor is key for successful implementation

Presenting Mr. Kamlesh Padiya, Director at SynVision Chem Pvt. Ltd

With nearly 20 years of experience implementing ELN and LIMS, Kamlesh will share his matured reflexions and conclusions about what prevents companies from getting the most out of these implementations. Everyone uses barcode reading in every store these days to capture and pay for merchandise. So what’s holding analysts, back at work, from realizing the full potential of an ELN ?

Change management, the mindset challenge, the cultural shift, the user interface … or the need to properly involve all business experts in defining the new digital processes and configuring the systems?

A deep analysis that Kamlesh will share with PLA2023India attendees to make them think and bring it to your teams.

Approach “3A-3C” for better digital-GxP 4.0

Presenting: Chandra Sai Dusanapudi, Assistant General Manager at Aurobindo Pharma Ltd.

Chandra has recently published the 3A-3C approach to digital solutions in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector and will further develop the 3A3C concept during his presentation.

Chandra proposes a better approach to overcome the current challenges in the digitization of the Pharma sector

3C, the challenges:

• • • • Compliance
      • Cost-effective solution
      • Comfy to use by end users

3A, the key steps to achieve the 3C:

• • • • Analyze the requirements
      • Assess the best fit to purpose solution and vendor
      • Adopt the solution at its best

A recent survey conducted by Mr. Dusanapudi found that 75% of participating Indian companies are still in the process of implementing LIMS applications, but not only, but also QMS and DMS.

The largest companies implemented solutions 10 or even 20 years ago. They have acquired extensive knowledge about digital data management, process digitization, automation, system connectivity, data lakes and more……Nevertheless, they are in a very single position of dedicated teams for digital transformation and operational excellence.

Thousands of companies are still struggling with the very first steps of their digital journey. Some are simply forced to think about it because auditors are becoming more demanding when they do not see digital processes. Others because the pandemic period has awakened the reluctant CFO and empowered the CIO, still others because they see the need to remain competitive, efficient, productive and compliant in a fully digitized ecosystem, and so on and so forth

In India and the rest of the world, there is still a high percentage of companies that are still struggling to find the right solutions, even though they have been in the market for almost 40 years. So let´s stop thinking that this is because of the solution and start putting the right pieces of the puzzle together for a successful implementation project.

Chandra Sai Dusanapudi, Assistant General Manager at AurobindoPharma Ltd

Currently working as AGM in AurobindoPharma Ltd. Having 17 years of experience inthe GxP domain. worked in Digitalization, CSV,IT Compliance, Analytical R&D and Quality control. He also has Published different articles on Data integrity,CSV, GxP cloud and other topics.

Kamlesh Padiya, Director at SynVision Chem Pvt. Ltd.

A seasoned Chemistry professional with 20 years of experience in the entire drug discovery cycle, from target scouting to Process Development and cGMP manufacturing of drug substances. I have managed all aspects of the Research and Development R&D project from planning and budgeting to scale-up and production support. Proven record in leading, managing, and delivering projects in a global environment. An accomplished leader in the development of a sustainable process for the manufacture of KSM and API, and the digital transformation of drug discovery and process research laboratories.

Successfully, configured and implemented several digitization projects at various organizations:

1. E-Labnote book: Piramal Research Centre and Lupin Limited.
2. LIMS: Piramal Research Centre
3. CIMS (Chemical Inventory Management System); Nycomed Pharma
4. KRISCH (Compound Registration System): Nycomed Pharma
5. Spotfire (Data analytical tool): Lupin Limited.

In-house system developed and implemented

1. LInfoViz (Lupin Information Visualization): Lupin Limited
2. LuCIN (Lupin Chemical Inventory System): Lupin Limited
3. LuCAS (Lupin Compound Archiving System): Lupin Limited

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Program your own summer educational program

You are welcome to access to each and every session. The full list of available session from the academy are to be find at @academywebinarprogram.   Below examples of you can find in the Academy webinars program

Academy Webinar: Planning a Tomorrow-Ready QC Lab with Caliber Technologies 

This Academy Webinar from Caliber discusses the critical digital changes to be brought in to the QC lab to make it Tomorrow Ready. At present, Pharma companies follow a standard approach towards the tools they implement and envision for their lab. The focus is still limited to removing paper-related obstacles and reaping a finite number of short-term benefits. But there can be more to lab digitalisation. A paradigm shift in approach is needed to make lab digitalisation more sustainable by adopting futuristic tools for predictive analysis, ensuring that the lab meets quality and productivity KPIs and generate better return of investment recognition in a QC lab.

Academy Webinar: Lab Efficiency and Data Integrity with Empower PLUS Solutions with Waters Corporation

A presentation from Waters that demonstrate how much more you can do with the systems you already have and how to plan for phased implementations and incremental extensions to automate your laboratory workflow. Many companies are not using all of the available functionality in their existing systems and you may be able to do a lot more with what you already have in place, or with small incremental expansions. Many laboratories however may be working with a mixture of standalone workstation instrument PCs, paper lab books and small networks. A major new software implementation – for example, deploying a LIMS – would need:

• CRLF Significant time and effort from laboratory personnel while your analysts are busy trying to complete their routine tasks, sometimes with limited laboratory access,
• Tremendous IT support when most IT groups are busy managing remote access and overloaded VPNs, and
• Large capital investment at a time when many companies are struggling with much reduced revenues and reduced budgets

Academy Webinar: Digital Continuity from R&D to Manufacturing with Dassault Systèmes 

A Dassault Systèmes presentation about how BIOVIA solutions help CROs, CMOs and CDMOs achieve collaborative innovation & operational excellence through Digital Continuity. The presentation discuss the key that helps organisations attain Digital Continuity and transform:

• From Product to Experience, through multi-scale & multi-discipline support
• From document based and siloed designs to data-driven and model based approach
• From siloed organisations to Flexibility in a Global Company
• From Capacity Maximisation to Cycle Time Optimisation
• From process execution to real time business impact analysis
• From Transactional to more standardised regulatory dossiers & quality

Academy Webinar: Unleash your lab’s productivity with Merck 

Presentation from Merck about the opportunities to  improve productivity, compliance, and safety in laboratory management through digitalisation. 

• How many times have you tried pulling a chemical required for an experiment only to find that someone else from your lab has already taken it? Or that the chemical just expired and you now need to wait several days to receive a new supply?
• How much did you sweat in your last audit when the auditor asked about the documentation regarding  the usage of chemicals and reagents?
• Did you know that most laboratories spend 25% of their available working time on  the management and documentation of consumables, chemicals, reagents, and equipment?
• Why do we still accept compliance and safety risks by using paper or Excel-based data capture or data transfer?

In this session, you discover the opportunities to improve productivity, compliance, and safety in laboratory management through digitalisation.

Academy Webinar: Intelligent Automation in QC Management with Accenture

A presentation from Accenture about the new challenges faced in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Before the global pandemic, the industry was already facing problems of exploding drug development costs and increasingly complex supply chain and regulatory environments, as well as downward price pressure from generics, global health systems and outcome-based pricing models. The unprecedented challenges of the pandemic forcing remote work and demanding tests, vaccines and therapies at desperate speed, only add to the challenges. To date, Quality has throttled speed to market and been a necessary, but precious, cost. Today’s business cannot afford the reactive, manual and still largely paper-based Quality processes.

It is no longer enough to talk about digitalization and automation of antiquated Quality systems. It is now a business necessity to shift the Quality paradigm. Companies need to reduce the cost of Quality and increase the speed, efficiency, and reliability of our processes.

More recorded webinars are available at @academywebinarsprogram  

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Roberto Rollini and Barbara Pirola will share with us their experiences and lessons learned from a 2 year project that has brought the laboratory to a next level of efficiency and compliance.

Lean management imply efficiency by reviewing and limiting all non added value activities

Lean Management and Lean Lab imply optimized efficiency, concomitant with the minimization of any activities that do not add value: namely, of the 8 different types of waste that result in unplanned laboratory “DOWNTIME”:
Defects, Overproduction, Waiting time, Non-engagement of all employees, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Extra processing

Lean Laboratory is a management and organisational approach derived from the principles of Lean Manufacturing – essentially, process optimisation driven.

Laboratories have different challenges compared to manufacturing environments; while most of the key principles of traditional lean still apply, there are many unique points to be adopted in laboratories which can be measured accordingly to the Quality, Time & Resources triangle in which costs invested, quality claimed and time implies for it should be balanced for an optimal productive process.

Listening to the lab people: one of the key asset for successful change management

“This type of project can’t start without listening and observing how the laboratory is working and understanding the company business priorities” comments Barbara. Actually, Barbara is now looking for initiating a new lean lab project at Esseco, where she has recently incorporate as Director QA/QC.

In fact, Barbara first initial findings are that even if a lot learn at the pantheon project can be easily implemented, she still has to sure that everyone is on board, ready for the change. Barbara will show us the first steps that have already been done yet she’s been careful in avoiding assumptions that one fits all.

On the other hand, Roberto is sharing the results of a 2 years project and confess that the commitment from the lab people was surprisingly positive. As soon as they understood the principles of lean management they started to proactively propose alternative solutions that could improve their daily work.

Barbara Pirola, director QA/QC at Esseco. About  20 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical field, FDA regulated. 10 years in leadership roles: Quality assurance manager, Quality Compliance Manager, Quality Control Manager in the pharma services at Patheon and now at Esseco. Enthusiastic manager who is recognised leader in driving Quality Culture and motivate teams to be best in class.

Esseco is a supplier of sulphur-based chemicals and sulphur by-products offering high performance and safety levels, as ensured by certified processes, continuous plant innovation and a constant focus on market needs.

Roberto Rollini, Sr Manager Practical Process Improvement – Operational Excellence at Patheon. Roberto considers himself a modern leader able to connect and to everyone at different level of the organisation. Very determined in achieving a mature lean status where Continuous Improvement is part of site’s day life. He is promoting  the culture of continuous improvement into the site making the change sustainable and effective.

Patheon is now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific which has been recently recognised with Six CMO Leadership Awards, wining across all six categories: Capabilities, Compatibility, Expertise, Quality, Reliability and Service.

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The fifth Paperless Lab Academy (PLA), Europe’s leading laboratory automation event, will be held on 4 to 5 April 2017 in Barcelona, Spain, on the theme of 2020 Roadmap for digital convergence.

The two-day event, organized by Industrial Lab Automation and NL42 Consulting, brings partners and attendees together in an environment designed to promote mutual interaction and exchange of views during plenary sessions and topic-focused workshops.

The founder of the event, Peter Boogaard, CEO of Industrial Lab Automation, explained: ‘Over the past four years, the PLA has been raising awareness of “what works and what doesn’t”. At PLA2017, we’ll be investigating a roadmap for the next decade, and how the convergence of paper and digital is bringing a new dimension to laboratory informatics. The extensive use of data analytics and applying lessons learnt from other industries, such as adopting an Industry 4.0 mind-set, will accelerate and make easer the badly needed integration of scientific equipment with enterprise software, to ensure a cost effective and high quality contribution from the laboratory to the enterprise as a whole.’

Roberto Castelnovo and Isabel Muñoz-Willery, founders of NL42 Consulting, are to take over as new owners of the event, and have emphasized that they will maintain the unique concept of this annual conference.

Isabel said: ‘Under the new management, Peter will continue to play an important role as a member of the scientific committee.’ Roberto added: ‘We believe in the successful formula of the PLA which is based on three pillars: content-rich, non-commercial sessions; a showcase of informatics tools and methodologies available today, through interactive workshops hosted by leading suppliers; and free access to all industry delegates.’

About the Paperless Lab Academy

The PLA takes place annually and is aimed at directors and managers of research and development, IT and quality departments in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, biotechnological, petro-chemical and chemical markets. The event is focused on building the ideal learning platform for all organizations involved in running laboratories, and in consolidating, integrating or simplifying the data they generate.

Registration and programme are available at www.paperlesslabacademy.com

About NL42 Consulting

NL42 Consulting is a dynamic, free-thinking, independent management consultancy. Combining the flexibility and enthusiasm of a newly created company with the many decades of experience of its owners, NL42 provides services to support moving the laboratory to paperless processes. The expertise it offers is a powerful combination of technical know-how, profound managerial understanding of laboratories’ workflows, and international networking.

www.nl42.com

contact: Roberto Castelnovo, Email: Roberto.castelnovo@NL42.com, Phone: +39 340 456 3204

About Industrial Lab Automation

Industrial Lab Automation provides services to address harmonization, integration and consolidation of business processes in life-science development and manufacturing. Industrial Lab Automation enables cross-functional collaboration between research, development, quality assurance, and manufacturing corporations.

www.industriallabautomation.com

contact:Peter J. Boogaard, Email: peterboogaard@industriallabautomation.com, Phone +31 654 263516

The post PLA announces New Management yet same Objectives appeared first on .

written by Tom Wilkie, Published online at Scientific Computing World, April 2015.

The dominant theme at the Paperless Lab Academy in Barcelona on 14 and 15 April 2015, was the way in which the pharmaceutical industry was outsourcing so many of its operations – and the implications of this major change for informatics, as reported in Out with the old and out with the internal, the first article in this series. There are risks of Lost knowledge and dead data associated with this strategy, as recounted in the second article.

The issue of disruptive technologies – specifically the cloud and to a lesser extent, big data – was not quite so up-front during the PLA, but it kept breaking through. The two tended to be regarded as two sides of one coin — as if the cloud were the only technology capable of dealing with the challenges presented by big data. Curiously, mobile devices such as tablets and PDAs featured frequently; these appear to have become accepted as part of the laboratory landscape and are not regarded as disruptive.

Some delegates were clearly uneasy about hitching themselves to the cloud due to concerns over data security and the protection both of intellectual property and of personal information. But, as the PLA progressed, it became clear that, in a world of externalised pharma companies, the lack of standardisation of data formats means that even with current technologies companies are losing knowledge and are unable to extract the maximum value from their data.

The disparate threads of outsourcing, maintaining in-house knowledge and quality control, and disruptive technologies – both the cloud and big data – were brought together neatly in the presentation from Nicolas Goffard. He is bioinformatics platform manager for the French start-up biotechnology company Enterome Bioscience, which was spun out of Inria, the French public research agency dedicated to computational sciences, in 2012.

Enterome Bioscience is looking for bacterial genes specific to disease and is sorting through human faeces to find them. The aim is to improve treatment of chronic metabolic, gastrointestinal, and autoimmune diseases. Although patients may have a genetic susceptibility, the conditions are also triggered by environmental factors including an imbalance in the intestinal bacterial ecosystem.

But as a start-up, Enterome has to outsource its sample collection and analysis, and has to send data out for biostatistics and bioinformatics analysis. According to Goffard, however, it is still vital, under whatever ‘virtualisation’ model might be adopted, to keep quality standards high even despite the pressures of trying to achieve results rapidly. Enterome reached for a cloud solution in the form of Core Informatics’ LIMS to manage the data collection, the data generation, and the results of the data analysis. Enterome outsources the process of collecting the stool samples and then processing them to extract material suitable for analysis; the DNA extraction and sequencing is the next step; and the final, added-value step is the application of bioinformatics and biostatistics methods to analyse the data. It opted for the Core LIMS web-based product, together with Pipeline Pilot, he said, because the system had to be highly configurable to support new workflows and new partners.

For Goffard, concerns about data security in the cloud did not figure highly.‘We didn’t have any trouble using the cloud, Goffard said. ‘It’s secure.’

This is the final report from the Paperless Lab Academy that took place in Barcelona on 14 and 15 April. The first report Out with the old and out with the internal discussed the implications for the informatics industry of large LIMS systems coming to the end of their lifetimes and of the phamaceutical industry’s drive to outsource so much of its activity. The problems of Lost knowledge and dead data that can follow from this outsourcing were discussed in the second article in the series.

The post Disruptive technologies in informatics appeared first on .

written by Tom Wilkie, Published online at Scientific Computing World, April 2015.

The laboratory informatics industry is facing unprecedented change, both because the pharmaceutical industry is outsourcing more and more of its activities, and also because many large deployments of Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) are nearing the end of their lives but will not be replaced like-for-like.

According to Patrick Pijanowski, pharma and life-sciences partner at US-based consultancy LabAnswer, pharmaceutical companies and other informatics users are not willing to invest in a new LIMS simply to get an incremental upgrade. What they want is ‘transformational change’, he told the Paperless Lab Academy (PLA) in Barcelona, Spain, on 14 April 2015. What is happening is ‘different from what we have seen before. It’s different from what I’ve seen in 20 years in the business,’ he continued.

Not quite so fully articulated during the sessions at the PLA, but forming a pervasive undercurrent nonetheless, was the issue of disruptive technologies – specifically the cloud and to a lesser extent, big data. The two tended to be bracketed together as if the cloud was seen, albeit implicitly, as the only technology capable of dealing with the challenges presented by big data.

Concerns over data security and the protection of intellectual property and personal information continued to make some delegates uneasy about jumping immediately into the cloud. But, as the PLA progressed, it became clear that, in a world of externalised pharma companies, current technologies and processes are not performing well either.

In contrast, although mobile devices such as tablets and PDAs featured frequently, these appeared to be regarded not as disruptive but rather simply as continuing business more or less as usual.

Pharma outsourcing will force standards on informatics

The implications for informatics of the ‘externalisation’ of the pharmaceutical industry dominated the event. In his keynote address, Pijanowski told the meeting that ‘today, the pharmaceutical industry is outsourcing virtually every function,’ with the result that data integrity and system security were major concerns.

According to Rachel Uphill, pharmaceutical companies are outsourcing not just to contract research organisations (CROs) and contract manufacturing organisations but also to academics, making the need for common data formats and standards all the greater. Uphill is business consultant, early IP and data strategy, to the pharmaceutical giant GSK and is also an advisor to the Allotrope Foundation, which was set up by the pharmaceutical industry some three years ago to build a framework for open data standards.

In the absence of standards the situation today, she said, was one of incomplete, incompatible software; no standard data formats; and inconsistent metadata. It is hard for researchers to mine data for useful information, she pointed out, because the metadata is stored elsewhere and is often captured incompletely, inaccurately, or sometimes not at all due to free-text manual entry.

Allotrope’s goals, she said, were to create re-useable software components; an open document standard; and an open metadata repository. The outcome will be a software toolkit to allow developers to embed a set of standards for analytical data in software utilised throughout the whole of analytical chemistry on different instruments from different vendors.

The project has ambitious deadlines, with the first public release expected in 2016, only three years since software development started and only four years since the Foundation was set up. The hope is that eventually the ADF – the Allotrope Data Format – will be embedded in instrument and informatics vendors’ software. But as a temporary expedient, to promote the usefulness of ADF before 2016, converters are being developed to transform data to ADF as a separate step.

The progress is all the more remarkable since the Allotrope Foundation has to move carefully so as to conform at all times with US anti-trust legislation and avoid any suspicion that the pharmaceutical companies might be coming together in a cartel. Consequently, the secretariat for this highly technical exercise is provided by a team of Washington lawyers, while the technical work is being carried out by the German software company Osthus.

The place to feel the pulse of informatics

The Paperless Lab Academy continues to be possibly the most interesting and thought-provoking event dealing with laboratory informatics. Last year, Scientific Computing World reported not only on how Paperless laboratories do better sciencebut also on the disrupting effect that the cloud might have on traditional LIMS vendors and the impact of process analytic quality control on the traditional QC laboratory. By providing a synoptic overview of the informatics landscape and identifying trends and developments for the future, this year’s meeting of the PLA if anything surpassed the event in Amsterdam last year.

This is the first in a series of reports from the Paperless Lab Academy. The second article Lost knowledge and dead data  explores the issues surrounding outsourcing in more detail, while the third discusses Disruptive technologies in informatics.

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