ASTM E1578

ASTM E1578 (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 March 2019^[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 and instrumentation
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 and documentation secondarily related to laboratory informatics, including costing, 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), E1578-06 (2006), and E1578-13 (2013).^[2] The current standard E1578-18 was approved in mid-2018. The 2018 update added new insights into laboratory informatics tools and how to integrate them into workflow and with other hardware and software. And though relatively in their infancy in laboratory application, the revision added content about internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and smart objects.