Connection of older instruments to a laboratory data system

The validated online connection of measuring instruments to an existent laboratory information and management system is of increasing importance for pharmaceutical companies. Automatisation in the laboratory not only raises productivity, but it also supports quality assurance measures by rendering the ability to trace back all analysis results and their complete documentation and archivation. Nearly all laboratories use older as well as newer analysis equipment. All modern lab instruments have already been prepared for internal and external communication, while a lot of the older instruments can not satisfy today's needs of data transfer. Using an older filter photometer as an example, a universal concept for a practice-satisfying link of a measuring instrument to a laboratory information and management system will be introduced in this article. This concept can be uniformly applied to most cases of old and modern equipment. The solution complies in all regards with the requirements and with the available data system. It allows method dependent calculation of analysis results and it can be validated. Its implementation was feasible with limited human resources available in the laboratory and in the computing department. For the laboratory it represents a handy and acceptable product. It was produced paying attention to the criteria of ISO 9000 and at work it corresponds to GMP.