Supply and Maintenance of a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust requires a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) which would be installed on the Trust’s network ready for use by biorepository labs within Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

The purpose of procuring a LIMS is to:

• Ensure that the biorepositories within CUH and the BRC are compliant with HTA (Human Tissue Authority), ISO15189 and other current regulations. • Ensure the ethical handling of all human tissue samples. • Increase the efficiency in sample management and tracking. • Facilitate researcher access to samples for ethics-approved studies by developing an interface between the LIMS and other hospital systems.

The current plan is for the LIMS to be implemented in 3 different labs namely;

• Cancer Molecular Diagnostic Lab (CMDL), • CUH Tissue Bank • Cambridge Translational Genomics Lab (CATGO).

The requirement is to have two different solutions on a single LIMS hence, the LIMS will need to be able to be customised to meet the requirements of the different labs with each lab having the ability to standalone within the LIMS.

LIMS Implementation:

The LIMS will be implemented in two phases.

Phase 1 - Implementation of the LIMS in CMDL with ALL (or as many as possible where such functionality exists) of the high priority requirements in the specification document by 20th March 2017.

Phase 2 - Implementation of the LIMS in Tissue Bank and CATGO in the next financial year.

The overall solution should be fit for purpose, supported and maintained for not less than three years and options for site-wide license would be explored.