Reflecting on the little moments with greatest impact
The start of 2022 gave pause to reflect on the unique and unusual year we left behind and dream about what the new one will hold for us.
For me what continues to stand out is a recent conversation with a dear friend who recently lost their battle to cancer. The most charismatic man with a positive outlook on both life and his battle, he implored me to start to enjoy life AND make the time to enjoy it, reminding me that work will always be there.
He challenged me to list ways I could streamline or be more efficient at work to continue to achieve my professional goals and dreams, while also ensuring I do the same in my personal life.
Everyone says to be more efficient, but how does that translate in life?
So many of us struggle, including me, to stop thinking about work when heading home for the day. How do we streamline our day to achieve the week’s goals yet focus less on work and more on life moments — to be more present, be more efficient, be better work/life balanced?
This leads me to share a few tips you may not be aware of, to save you time when using the latest version release of Thermo Scientific™ Chromeleon™ 7.3.1 CDS.
Workflow efficiency — offering increased flexibility for ease of use
Lab Managers, technicians and quality assurance managers have access to a host of new features and enhancements, making it easier than ever to drive productivity, and maintain and demonstrate compliance.
Enhanced instrument overview means real-time status AND the ability to control instruments from one window where you can launch eWorkflows to get instruments running in TWO clicks. User access and controls offer new privileges so you can select which instruments are visible in this overview. Lab managers can simply oversee all lab operations while technicians can view instruments they are trained on.
- eWorkflow improvements allow lab analysts to save time by streamlining workflows to get from samples to results quickly and easily. Additional abilities to make edits in the sequence preview provide analysts with the option to add injection names, etc., without the need to open the sequence.
- eWorkflow procedures now offer dual-instrument support, allowing analysts to run two instruments (e.g., the front and back flow paths of a dual column GC) in one action! By linking instruments, you can simply run a sequence on one or both instruments with no need to change instrument configuration.
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AppsLab Library of Analytical Applications allows you to find a method, download the eWorkflow direct in one click and then run, process and report analysis in your lab.
A few additional helpful lab resources for future reading/watching:
- OnDemand Webinar: CDS Built for the Lab – Driving ease of use
- OnDemand Webinar: Built for the Lab – Using eWorkflows
- To learn more about how Chromeleon CDS is Built for the Lab
Spend less time on security reviews using Scheduler tool
Reviewing system access logs can be quite labor intensive, requiring the use of report filtering and the human eye to find specific events within the Administration Audit Trail, for example logon failures resulting in a locked account. This very search was discussed in the following blog post.
With the use of version 7.3.1 Administration Audit Trail Queries, searches for events have been simplified, accelerated, and because the query can be saved the process is repeatable.
MHRA Data Integrity Guidance and Definitions; Revision 1: March 2018
6.13. Audit Trail
”Audit trails may be reviewed as a list of relevant data, or by an ‘exception reporting’ process. An exception report is a validated search tool that identifies, and documents predetermined ‘abnormal’ data or actions, that require further attention or investigation by the data reviewer.”
PIC/S Good Guidance; July 2021
5.6.2 Data Governance System Review
”Self-inspection activities should be extended to: A risk-based sample of computerized system logs / audit trails to ensure that information of relevance to GMP/GDP activity is reported accurately. This is relevant to situations where routine computerized system data is reviewed manually or by a validated ‘exception report.’”
Think of queries as exception reports. In the example, the ”abnormal” action we are looking for is excessive account locks. The image shows a query that searched for user accounts locked in the last three months.
The search highlights exactly what you are looking for. The query ”hits” are the exceptions; you can even validate the query by ”seeding” the audit trail by deliberately locking accounts and proving the action is detected.
Queries can reduce the time taken to review audit trails for events such as account locks, from hours to seconds, and you can apply this to any ”abnormal” action or event you determine necessary to demonstrate control.
A few additional helpful IT and system administrator resources for future reading:
- Data integrity: audit trails with ease of review white paper
- OnDemand Built for IT webinar series covering remote working, backup and disaster recovery, total data life cycle and ease of compliance.
- To learn more about how Chromeleon CDS is Built for IT
For me, it’s about getting back into running along the water and finding the peaceful times. I have to challenge myself to look for ways to be more efficient during the workday, to allow more time for myself.
What are you going to do to ensure more work-life balance and enjoyment? I’d love to hear how you’re able to use Chromeleon CDS to streamline and find efficiencies, to free up more time for yourself.
Thermo Fisher Scientific
United States
