Hello everyone! As a new contributor to The Integrated Lab and my first time ever writing a blog entry, I was wondering how I would start contributing to the site and also how do you blog?
John’s earlier post “Tales from the Crypt” gave me that answer: Document Management. Having done some projects related to document management, I thought I could contribute with what I know.
A good example supporting John’s point (and I’m sure it happened to others out there!) is when the lab I worked in at the time (around 1997-98) decided to upgrade our old HPLC’s controlled by PC’s with Windows 3.1 and the Chromatography software installed. All instrument and software validation had gone well and we were up and running on the new systems when came the day where we had to review and reprint some older data. Oops, we couldn’t retrieve the old data on the newer software. Fortunately, we had kept the PC’s aside just for that.
A laboratory, or any organization for that matter, can store all the information it wants but if there’s no way to read that data at a later point in time, storing that data is useless. Organizations need a well-defined strategy for managing their documents and electronic records.
