A LIMS data model is the shape of the record: samples, tests, results, lots, instruments and people, and the links between them. The LIMS database is where that model lives, and LIMS data is everything in it, from the accession number to the reviewer's signature. LIMS configuration is the vendor's word for bending the model to the lab's workflow, and LIMS requirements are what the lab writes down before the demo so the bending is measured against something. This page is about all four for a small laboratory, and the free results review sheet on this site works one of the figures the model must produce, the review load, from the lab's own numbers with no account.
The LIMS database model, in six tables
Samples with their accession, receipt, location and status; tests with their method, analyst, instrument and lot; results with their value, review and release; reagent lots with their expiry; instruments with their calibration; people with their role. Every link between them is a question the lab asks: which lot was in this result, which instrument, who released it. A model with the six tables and the links is a LIMS database; one with results alone is not.
LIMS data and who owns it
The data is the lab's, and the requirement most demos skip is the export: every table, with the links, in a form the lab can read without the vendor. Write that requirement first. The second is the audit trail: every change to LIMS data with who and when, which is what a regulator reads and what Part 11 describes for electronic records.
Configuration against requirements
LIMS requirements for a small lab fit on a page: the six tables, the seven sample states, the export, the audit trail, and the figures the record must report, turnaround, utilization, QC share, storage, cost per test. Configuration is whatever it takes to meet that page; a product that meets it out of the box needs none. The sheets on this site are the figures line of that page, free.
Questions people ask about lims data model
What is a LIMS data model?
The shape of the record: samples, tests, results, lots, instruments and people, and the links between them. A LIMS database holds that model; the sheets on this site work the figures it must report.
What LIMS requirements should a small lab write?
The six tables, the sample states, the export, the audit trail and the reported figures, on one page. Limslane Pro keeps the tables and works the figures at one flat price.
What does LIMS configuration mean?
Bending the vendor's model to the lab's workflow; measured against a written requirements page, it is a cost line, not a feature.