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| Workshop, Friday, 09.00-12.30, 7 July 2006, Oxford University |
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Effective Deployment Strategies for Electronic Laboratory Notebooks
Led by John Trigg, phaseFour Informatics
Recording, processing and managing data, information and knowledge has always been a fundamental requirement of the R&D laboratory. From our very first experience of conducting an experiment in a junior school laboratory, to working in modern, sophisticated laboratories, the basic process of record-keeping has never changed. We record what we intended to do, how we did it, what the results were, and what our conclusions were. For centuries, the tools that we used to accomplish this were paper and pen, with a bit of help from scissors and glue. But within a short period of time, information technology has driven, and continues to drive fundamental changes to our toolkit. Hardly any aspect of experimentation is now untouched by computers. Yet we often find it difficult to accommodate the changes that computers bring to life in the laboratory. Constant changes in the underlying technologies complicate the decision making about purchase and implementation of laboratory systems. The laboratory does not operate in isolation; what happens in the laboratory is just part of a broader business process, and the IT technologies used to manage laboratory information need to integrate with other business systems to satisfy the organisation’s IP management. Implementing an Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) can therefore bring fundamental change to a number of different parts of the organisation and it is essential that the objectives, justification and planning are comprehensively understood and effectively managed.
The workshop will look at the role an Electronic Laboratory Notebook can play in the organisation, addressing issues such as the relationship between the ELN and other laboratory systems, the functionalities needed to support different scientific disciplines and the organisational needs related to IP and Knowledge Management. It will also look at financial considerations associated with an ELN project, will examine user requirements in the light of cultural and behavioural change and will raise issues related to technology choices. Finally, it will outline a strategic approach to successful implementation.
Agenda
1. What is an ELN and what benefits could it deliver?
* What are the different types of ELN and how do they align to corporate and departmental functionality requirements?
* Where does an ELN fit in the laboratory information hierarchy and how does it differ from a LIMS?
* What should be included in the scope of an ELN project, and what should be excluded?
2. Business Case issues:
* Can an ELN be used for patent evidence creation?
* What are the regulatory implications of using an ELN?
* What are the financial consequences of replacing paper lab notebooks with an ELN?
* Where does an ELN fit in a Knowledge Management strategy?
3. User Requirements:
* What is the right approach to gathering and understanding user needs?
* What is an effective way to deal with technology adoption issues and change management?
4. Technology issues:
* What are the right technology decisions to ensure long term preservation of vital data and information?
* What hardware will best support user requirements?
5. Defining an approach to successful implementation
* What methodology will ensure a successful, on-time and on-budget implementation of an ELN?
* What is the best way to avoid common Project management pitfalls?
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John Trigg, Director, phaseFour Informatics. Until recently, John was IT Manager for Kodak’s European Research Laboratories. John has over 20 years’ experience of working in the field of R&D data, information and knowledge management, including 10 years experience of the world’s first enterprise level implementation of an Electronic Lab Notebook in the Eastman Kodak Company. John is author of a number of publications on Electronic Laboratory Notebooks and Knowledge Management in the Laboratory, and has presented papers and run workshops at conferences in the UK, Ireland, Germany, USA and Australia.
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