Blazing Compliance Trails: Riding the AI-powered LIMS Wave to ISO 17025 Success

ISO 17025 accreditation ensures laboratories provide high-quality testing services. However, the path to achieving compliance could be riddled with challenges for new and established labs alike. A Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) is a strategic framework to seamlessly meet ISO 17025 standards, preventing operational and compliance gaps and setting labs up for success. Often labs use their LIMS for only a fraction of their accreditation activities. This presentation will identify specific LIMS capabilities that can save labs time and money, and help them maintain accreditation more easily. Mastering effective trend analysis is a common challenge for laboratories in relation to meeting clause 7.7.1 of ISO/IEC 17025:2017. With LIMS’ control charting feature, labs can adeptly analyze trends using statistical techniques and promptly identify process variations. Trend analysis charts enable labs to quickly identify random errors and also address less obvious requirements, such as monitoring the competence of staff (ISO/IEC 17025:2017 clause 6.2.5, part (f)). The Quality Control (QC) management functionality enables labs to verify test runs, by comparing the test results of QC samples to set criteria, greatly increasing confidence in data integrity. Furthermore, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered LIMS enables laboratories to make data-driven decisions and offers a proactive edge in issue identification and corrective action implementation. A LIMS also sends out maintenance or calibration alerts, ensuring timely equipment calibration and preventing failures. It also stores calibration and maintenance results for audits. This proactive approach enhances overall lab performance, reduces analytical errors, and results in significant time and cost savings.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Discuss what ISO 17025 accreditation is, and why it is important for cannabis testing labs.

2. Summarize how labs can fully utilize LIMS to bridge operational gaps and achieve or maintain ISO 17025 compliance.

3. Identify how AI-powered LIMS can boost lab performance and help proactively identify and correct issues, leading to significant savings.