Laboratory Information Management Systems: Role in Veterinary Activities

Laboratory Information Management Systems: Role in Veterinary Activities

Patrizia Colangeli, Fabrizio De Massis, Francesca Cito, Maria Teresa Mercante, Lucilla Ricci
Copyright: © 2017 |Pages: 14
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1674-3.ch015
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Abstract

The Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) is recognized as a powerful tool to improve laboratory data management and to report human health as well as veterinary public health. LIMS plays an essential role in public health surveillance, outbreak investigations, and pandemic preparedness. The chapter aims is to provide an overview of LIMS use in veterinary fields as well as to report 20 years of experience of a Veterinary Public Institute in working with LIMS, illustrating the features of the LIMS currently in use in the institute and highlighting the different aspects that should be considered when evaluating, choosing, and implementing a LIMS. In depth, the chapter illustrates how LIMS simplifies the accreditation path according to ISO IEC 17025 and the role in the epidemiology and veterinary public health. For this aspect, it is very important to collect clear data, and for this reason, a LIMS has to activate formal checks and controls on business rules. To facilitate this issue, an interconnection between LIMS and other applications (internal or external to laboratory) could be improved to allow automatic data exchange. At the same time, the unique data encoding at national/international level should be used.
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Background

Veterinary services are essential to assure the health and welfare of both human and animal populations, as well as an optimal relationship between humans, animals and environment.

The slogan is ONE HEALTH - ONE MEDICINE. This approach recognized, already in the middle of the XX Century, that human and animals health are ONE and that it is more effective and efficient to prevent human disease working on animal population medicine. Moreover, it also led to the understanding that man and animals shared the same world and had a mutual influence with the environment they lived in (ONE PLANET).

The main missions of Veterinary services are to fight animal disease, including zoonosis, and to assure food security and safety worldwide with positive cost-benefit ratio for the international community, in particular:

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    To reach the absence of diseases, including zoonosis, as well as food security and food safety, as primary factors for the welfare of human beings.

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    To increase the availability and the quality of proteins for the human population and help to decrease crop waste.

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    To prevent human affections.

Health and welfare of both humans and animals are closely interrelated. In Italy, the role of veterinary medicine in food security, food safety and prevention of human diseases, has been recognized since 1888 through first “Health Code” (Act December 22, 1888, n. 5849), establishing the role of the provincial veterinarian, in the context of public health. Since 1946 the General Directorate for veterinary services was included in the Ministry of Health.

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