ASTM E1578

ASTM E1578-13 (titled Standard Guide for Laboratory Informatics) is an active standard developed by ASTM International, specifically Subcommittee E13.15 on Analytical Data. According to a 2012 press release from the committee, the standard exists primarily because "the use of electronic laboratory notebooks, cloud computing, and the adoption of lean principles has lead to an evolution in the use of LIMS and related analytics currently employed across laboratory environments."^[1]

As of December 2014^[update], seven goals are associates with the standard as it relates to laboratory information management systems and other laboratory informatics applications^[2]:

to provide educational material to those new to laboratory informatics
to provide educational material to those already applying laboratory informatics to laboratories and associated areas
to provide educational material to those who develop and distribute laboratory informatics applications
to describe and recommend a standardized body of terminology to both developers and users
to describe and recommend a body of requirements that are essential to system functions
to provide recommendations for tasks secondarily related to laboratory informatics, including implementation and training
to provide recommendations for integrating laboratory informatics applications and processes into workflow

History

The standard was previously released as E1578-93 (1993), E1578-93(1999) (1999), and E1578-06 (2006).^[2] The current standard was approved at the end of 2013.^[3]