Our intricate biobank comprises of heterogenous clinical, commercial and laboratory-derived samples from multiple internal and external collaborators. This poses unique challenges concerning data management.
We are creating an agile biobank which allows for bilateral flow of information with collaborators whilst maintaining the fidelity of confidential patient data.
The biobank currently houses samples for 7 clinical and 3 non-clinical studies with 3 additional studies in the pipeline. Of these 13 studies, 10 are internal and 3 are external or collaborations. Due to the nature of some of the data collected for the clinical specimens, security is major point that is handled by storing all LIMs data on an internal server.
The way our LIMs has been set up, gives us the ability to distinguish between the different projects, whether they be clinical or non-clinical. Each interface is specifically designed to collect/ record data that is unique for the projects. It is these interfaces that will help us to link with other databases, giving us the ability to populate them to avoid double entry.
To combat double entry of data into two separate databases, we are looking at linking the LIMS through API’s to another database that will house the majority of the clinical data. The question currently in scope is: Do we link it unidirectional or bidirectional? Both options are possible.
Our challenge going forward – integrating the LIMs with REDCap and ensuring a secure directional flow of highly sensitive data.