Written by Robert Benz, Sales & Marketing Director at Khemia Software

Proper quality control is critical for the production of any valid laboratory data, whether regulatory or research. However, how this quality control is applied may vary greatly depending upon the application. In the regulated environmental community, set rules are applied to the type, limits of and number of quality control samples. These rules are well established and published by various organizations (www.nelac-institute.org; www.epa.gov; www.iso.org).

Within academia, the set rules of the regulated community do not always apply. In many cases, even the simple batching methodology used within regulatory compliance does not smoothly fit. While anyone with laboratory experience will vouch for need of proper quality control, how and how often may vary greatly depending on the research being performed.

The use of COTS (configurable, off the shelf) LIMS by academia is often made possible through the ability to turn on/off various QA/QC criteria, as well as adjust holding time acceptability, minimum/maximum temperature allowances, etc. The configurability in a particular COTS LIMS can be key.

Upon occasion, the typical QA/QC processes used in regulatory laboratories may be overkill for a certain project. In other cases, especially if there exist potential for matrix interference, the quality control may go extremely in the other direction with virtually every sample matrix spiked. It is definitely not a case of one size fits all. The end user must have the flexibility required to adjust QA/QC to the appropriate levels for a given project even if it varies between multiple projects.

For any additional information or questions regarding the article, please contact Robert Benz (rbenz@khemia.com) at Khemia Software, Inc. (www.khemia.com).