View source for LIMS Buyer’s Guide for Cannabis Testing Laboratories

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'''Title''': ''LIMS Buyer’s Guide for Cannabis Testing Laboratories''

'''Edition''': Summer 2021

'''Authors for citation''': Shawn E. Douglas, Alan Vaughan

'''License for content''': [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International]

'''Publication date''': August 2021

This guide recognizes the challenges of the current [[cannabis]] testing environment for [[Laboratory|laboratories]] and identifies the value of the [[laboratory information management system]] (LIMS) towards lessening the impact of those challenges on the cannabis testing lab. However, what makes for a quality LIMS that can have a positive impact on the lab, and what features are specifically required? How should the acquisition process be approached, and who are the key vendors selling such solutions? And what questions should labs be asking—perhaps as part of a request for information (RFI) process—of vendors to ensure they are actually going to get a LIMS that practically meets the lab's needs? This guide addresses these topics and more, and it provides additional resources at the end, which may be useful to not only LIMS acquisition but also developing analytical methods and maintaining regulatory compliance.

The table of contents for the ''LIMS Buyer’s Guide for Cannabis Testing Laboratories'' is as follows: 

1. [[LII:LIMS Buyer’s Guide for Cannabis Testing Laboratories/Cannabis testing and research: An overview|Cannabis testing and research: An overview]]

:1.1 Cannabis legalization, use, and research
::1.1.1 History and legalization
::1.1.2 Use
::1.1.3 Research and analysis
:1.2 Regulation and standardization of cannabis testing
:1.3 Why test?

2. [[LII:LIMS Buyer’s Guide for Cannabis Testing Laboratories/Laboratory testing of cannabis and its derivative products|Laboratory testing of cannabis and its derivative products]]

:2.1 Analytical aspects
::2.1.1 Cannabinoids
::2.1.2 Terpenes
::2.1.3 Contaminates
:2.2 Analytical methods and tools
::2.2.1 Sampling
::2.2.2 Cannabinoid testing
::2.2.3 Terpene testing
::2.2.4 Contaminate testing
:2.3 Cannabis testing laboratory workflow
::2.3.1 Differences beyond analyzing plant material
:2.4 Certification and reporting of results
::2.4.1 Certificates of analysis
::2.4.2 Track-and-trace and chain of custody

3. [[LII:LIMS Buyer’s Guide for Cannabis Testing Laboratories/LIMS, informatics, and cannabis testing|LIMS, informatics, and cannabis testing]]

:3.1 Informatics and automation in the cannabis testing lab
:3.2 LIMS flexibility for cannabis testing and other markets
:3.3 Cannabis LIMS considerations
:3.4 Data privacy and management
::3.4.1 Across the broad cannabis industry
::3.4.2 What this means for the lab

4. [[LII:LIMS Buyer’s Guide for Cannabis Testing Laboratories/LIMS acquisition, implementation, and support|LIMS acquisition, implementation, and support]]

:4.1 Business considerations
:4.2 Acquisition and licensing
:4.3 Implementation, maintenance, and warranty
:4.4 LIMS solutions for cannabis testing labs

5. [[LII:LIMS Buyer’s Guide for Cannabis Testing Laboratories/An RFI for evaluating cannabis testing LIMS vendors|An RFI for evaluating cannabis testing LIMS vendors]]

:RFI introduction
:Organization basics
:LIMS: Primary cannabis testing workflow
:LIMS: Workflow and operations maintenance and support
:LIMS: Interoperability and system performance
:LIMS: Software security, data integrity, and related policies
:Cloud infrastructure, security, and related policies
:Account management and support
:License agreements, service level agreements (SLAs), and contracts
:Service implementation
:Pricing

6. [[LII:LIMS Buyer’s Guide for Cannabis Testing Laboratories/Final thoughts and resources|Final thoughts and resources]]

:6.1 Final thoughts
:6.2 Key reading and reference material
:6.3 Consultancy and support services
:6.4 Additional resources

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[[Category:LII:Guides, white papers, and other publications]]