The OpenELIS Foundation has undergone a significant expansion over the past 18 months and is excited to report our staff now includes seven full-time members. For many years the Development Team at the Iowa State Hygienic Laboratory solely provided support to our clients. However, no public health entity was spared the far-reaching effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting strain on public health laboratories and their IT staff was monumental. In the midst of the pandemic, the OpenELIS Foundation was fortunate to receive funding to expand OpenELIS functionality as several of our clients received federal funding for LIMS enhancement/expansion through the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Grant. The OpenELIS Foundation hired additional team members to work on the newly requested projects including instrument interfacing and further development of the inventory module.
The OpenELIS Foundation is also partnering with Guam Public Health Laboratory in coordination with Inductive Health to implement OpenELIS for COVID-19 testing. During the pandemic, Guam’s Public Health Laboratory was inundated with COVID-19 samples and their need for a Laboratory Information Management System became apparent. While Guam’s implementation of OpenELIS is currently only for COVID-19, plans are in place to expand OpenELIS to additional testing areas within the lab.
The last year and a half have provided the Foundation with exciting opportunities for growth and we are eager to continue collaboration with all our Public Health partners as we further develop and expand our team and OpenELIS.