OpenSpecimen Highlights – OpenSpecimen https://www.openspecimen.org Biobank LIMS trusted by the leading research centers Wed, 26 Jul 2023 08:21:44 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.openspecimen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fevicon-ops.png OpenSpecimen Highlights – OpenSpecimen https://www.openspecimen.org 32 32 OpenSpecimen v10.2 released https://www.openspecimen.org/v10-2-released/ Wed, 26 Jul 2023 08:21:44 +0000 https://www.openspecimen.org/?p=20844 Read more

]]> We are pleased to announce that v10.2 is ready for download! This release includes new features, usability enhancements, and bug fixes requested by customers. 

New features include:

  • Participant: Soft warnings (Draft mode)
  • Query: Sequence for all specimens
  • Specimen print tokens for PV properties
  • Managing kits
  • ‘Workflow Plugin’ enhancements

Refer to the release notes for more details.

The demo site is updated with the latest release if you want to try out the new features!

Contact support@krishagni.com if you are interested in upgrading the OpenSpecimen instance at your site.

]]> OpenSpecimen v10.1 released https://www.openspecimen.org/v10-1-released/ Thu, 18 May 2023 07:22:43 +0000 https://www.openspecimen.org/?p=20150 Read more

]]> We are pleased to announce that v10.1 is ready for download! This release includes new features, usability enhancements, and bug fixes requested by customers.

New features include:

  • New tokens at the visit level
  • Specimen – Storage site-based specimen edit check access
  • Specimen – Check in check out
  • Specimen – Edit closed/disposed specimens
  • Workflows Plugin: List of tasks, form and table view with validations, navigation to the previous step

Please refer to the release notes for more details.

The demo site is updated with the latest release if you want to try out the new features!

Contact support@krishagni.com if you are interested in upgrading the OpenSpecimen instance at your site.

]]> OpenSpecimen’s SOC2 Certification Announcement https://www.openspecimen.org/soc2/ Sun, 02 Jan 2022 11:18:45 +0000 https://www.openspecimen.org/?p=13816 Read more

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OpenSpecimen, the globally adopted Biobanking LIMS, announced the successful completion of the Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type 1 audit. The audit conducted by Johanson LLP affirms that OpenSpecimen’s information security practices, policies, procedures, and operations meet the SOC 2 standards for security, availability, and confidentiality.

This is a significant achievement, requiring a substantial financial and internal resource commitment, that positions OpenSpecimen very well with large corporations and government bodies who need SOC2 compliance to do business with them. It is also a significant 3rd party validation of OpenSpecimen’s internal and external processes.

As companies increasingly use cloud services to perform core activities to their business operations and strategy, there is a need for more trust and transparency in cloud service providers’ operations, processes, and results.

OpenSpecimen’s SOC 2 report verifies the existence of internal controls designed and implemented to meet the requirements for the security principles outlined in the Trust Services Principles and Criteria for Security. It provides a thorough review of how OpenSpecimen’s internal controls affect the security, availability, and processing integrity of the systems it uses to process users’ data and the confidentiality and privacy of the information processed by these systems. This independent validation of security controls is crucial for customers in highly regulated industries.

Obtaining the SOC 2 Type 1 certification reinforces our ongoing commitment to the security, availability, and processing integrity of the OpenSpecimen platform.

Our customers can feel confident that we are making every investment to establish and maintain the highest level of security and compliance.

Passing the SOC 2 audit gives us a distinct competitive edge. We can assure our current and prospective customers in our pipeline that we have taken all necessary steps to keep their data safe, thereby protecting them from potential data breaches.

We will now work towards SOC2 Type 2 certification in the first half of 2022.

~Srikanth Adiga, CEO, OpenSpecimen

In addition to SOC 2 compliance, OpenSpecimen is making several enhancements to its infrastructure by adding additional layers of redundancy and increasing monitoring coverage of its platform.

]]> OpenSpecimen v8.1 Released https://www.openspecimen.org/openspecimen-v8-1-released/ Tue, 24 Aug 2021 07:21:01 +0000 https://www.openspecimen.org/?p=12929 Read more

]]> OpenSpecimen v8.1 has been released. Below are some of the enhancements included in the release:

  • Specimen Collection Workflow for Clinic Coordinators
  • Specimen Recieve workflow for lab staff
  • Configure screens based on role
  • Specimen collection & Distribution PDF manifests
  • User groups
  • Colour coding in container map view
  • New Field: Specimen availability status
  • Form: Edit control types
  • Audit Form edits
  • eConsents plugin enhancements
  • OpenClinica plugin enhancements
  • Project Tracker plugin enhancements

Refer to the release notes for more details.

The demo site is updated with the latest release if you want to try out the new features!

Contact support@krishagni.com if you are interested to upgrade the OpenSpecimen instance at your site.

]]> Biobanking as a Newsletter – May 2021 https://www.openspecimen.org/biobanking-as-a-newsletter-may-2021/ Mon, 10 May 2021 06:53:57 +0000 https://www.openspecimen.org/?p=9634 Read more

]]> Here is your monthly curated pick of biobanking news, jobs, and events from across the globe. We hope you will find this enriching and useful. Please do let us know your feedback on how we can improve this newsletter.

Webinar: OpenSpecimen Implementation at Johns Hopkins University

Register (click here) for our upcoming webinar, “Implementation at Johns Hopkins University,” on May 20th. Bob Lange, Project Leader, Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, will present how they use OpenSpecimen as their Enterprise Biobanking LIMS and integration with in-house pathology database and Epic (EMR).

As part of the webinar, Bob will also participate in a 20 min interview session to share their biobanking experiences.

For past webinars and interviews: click here. 

Fresh of the Biobanking Press

Recent Research Papers

Biobank Job Alerts

OpenSpecimen News

Feedback / Contribute

How did you like this edition? What else would you like to see? Do you have a story or a news item for the Biobanking community? Email us at contact@krishagni.com

]]> Biobanking as a Newsletter – April 2021 https://www.openspecimen.org/biobanking-as-a-newsletter-april-2021/ Fri, 02 Apr 2021 10:12:11 +0000 https://www.openspecimen.org/?p=9386 Read more

]]> Here is your monthly curated pick of biobanking news, jobs, and events from across the globe. We hope you will find this enriching and useful. Please do let us know your feedback on how we can improve this newsletter.

Interviews and webinars
We conducted very well-attended webinars with two of our favorite customers from across two continents. Here are the recordings:
OpenSpecimen Training Webinar
Register (click here) for the next webinar on “Creating Advanced Reports” in OpenSpecimen on April 21st. You can submit questions or reports that you would like us to cover in training.
For past webinars and interviews: click here.

Fresh of the Biobanking Press

Recent Research Papers

Biobank Job Alerts

OpenSpecimen News

Feedback / Contribute

How did you like this edition? What else would you like to see? Do you have a story or a news item for the Biobanking community? Email us at contact@krishagni.com

]]> University of Cape Town Adopts OpenSpecimen https://www.openspecimen.org/university-of-cape-town-biobanking-lims/ Thu, 25 Feb 2021 16:55:41 +0000 https://www.openspecimen.org/?p=9153 Read more

]]> The University of Cape Town adopts OpenSpecimen as their Biobanking LIMS to manage COVID specimens. This project is funded by Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) a Geneva-based NGO accelerating the development, evaluation, and delivery of high-quality, affordable diagnostic tests for poverty-related diseases.

UCT will integrate OpenSpecimen with OpenClinica to pull participant and specimen data. Read how FIND is successfully using OpenSpecimen since 2017 to manage their biospecimen data.

]]> International Livestock Research Institute Adopts OpenSpecimen https://www.openspecimen.org/ilri-biobanking-lims/ Mon, 08 Feb 2021 07:35:24 +0000 https://www.openspecimen.org/?p=8999 Read more

]]> International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), with offices across Asia and Africa, adopts OpenSpecimen to manage various multi-site animal collections (e.g. swabs, saliva, tissue, etc).

This is the second biobank after the University of California, Davis biobank that will be using OpenSpecimen to manage animal collections.

ILRI, a member of the CGIAR Consortium, works for better lives through livestock in developing countries. ILRI is co-hosted by Kenya and Ethiopia and employs some 700 staff with an annual budget of about USD80 million.

ILRI’s mission is to improve food and nutritional security and to reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe, and sustainable use of livestock.

]]> Oxford University selects OpenSpecimen as its Biobanking LIMS https://www.openspecimen.org/oxford-university-selects-openspecimen-biobanking-lims/ Tue, 07 Jul 2020 11:52:44 +0000 https://www.openspecimen.org/?p=7741 Read more

]]> #Exciting news! Oxford University selects OpenSpecimen as its Biobanking LIMS. This is all the more exciting since OpenSpecimen was selected via a competitive tender process after evaluating all major biobanking LIMS vendors’ proposals.

]]> OpenSpecimen and COVID19 https://www.openspecimen.org/covid19/ Mon, 20 Apr 2020 14:11:46 +0000 https://www.openspecimen.org/?p=7542 Read more

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“According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives, but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.” – Leon C. Megginson

The pandemic has forced us, humans, social creatures in happier days, to adapt to physical distancing. We in India are into phase 2 of nationwide lockdown to enforce this. This has made us all adjust to a weird environment—one where demand is unpredictable, and supply is slammed. One where the government is omnipotent and omnipresent. 

——

Even as the world was coming to terms with the 2008 global financial crisis, Rahm Emanuel—Barack Obama’s chief of staff at the time—said something that still holds true.

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."
That is a good segway to talk about a number of our old and new clients working on COVID studies and use OpenSpecimen to manage the specimens.
Columbia University Biobank (read more)
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, in partnership with New York-Presbyterian Hospital, has established a COVID-19 Biobank as a centralized resource to collect, store, and disseminate biological specimens and clinical data for researchers at Columbia University and elsewhere.

University of California Davis (read more)
The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Biorepository is managing specimens obtained from COVID-19 patients. These are all residual clinical specimens and include heparinized plasma, EDTA whole blood, nasopharyngeal swab specimens stored in universal transport media. There may be some bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), tracheal aspirate, and serum specimens. Data will also be banked under a School of Medicine sponsored institutional review board (IRB) approved protocol and be accessible for investigators requesting access. 

University of Western Australia (read more)
The aim of our WA COVID-19 Research Collaboration efforts is to study and minimize the health and other consequences of COVID-19, as well as providing the infrastructure required to enable these efforts. We have established distinct streams of work that allow researchers from across WA to contribute to this endeavor, whether that be through data and relevant specimen capture, supporting existing clinical trials, or initiating new clinical trials and studies to help mitigate the effects of the virus. 

University of Melbourne (read more)
The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity – a joint venture between the University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital – has been awarded AU$3.2 million (US$2.15 million) by the Jack Ma Foundation to expedite the creation of a vaccine against coronavirus (COVID-19).

 

Weill Cornell Medical Center (New York) (read more)

Weill Cornell Medicine recognizes the gravity of the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID19 disease. This infection reaches every aspect of our lives, and it has no borders. Our response at WCM, in the disease epicenter of New York City, will help define how our society changes for the better when the pandemic is over. Towards this WCMC Biorepository has started collecting COVID biospecimens and using OpenSpecimen to manage the data.

 

Cambridge University (London) (read more)

Many labs in the Haematology department in CU are doing COVID-related research. Krishagni has been providing priority support to ensure that the configuration of these studies and data collection is smooth and is done in a timely manner.

 

University of Cape Town (read more)

University of Cape Town adopted OpenSpecimen as their biobanking LIMS to manage COVID specimens. This project is funded by the Foundation of Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) a Geneva-based NGO accelerating the development, evaluation, delivery of high-quality, affordable diagnostics tests for poverty-related diseases. 

We are also in advanced talks with a couple of academic centers to help them accelerate their research by using OpenSpecimen.

 —-
 
Hoping that this will pass soon, and our best wishes to you and your family during these tough times.

Written by: Srikanth Adiga, CEO, Krishagni

For more details, email contact@krishagni.com

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