State Hygienic Lab Program Lets Clients Collaborate

The University Hygienic Laboratory is in the midst of a groundbreaking collaboration of open source software and public health laboratories at the lab’s three Iowa locations. At the beginning of the January, the State Hygienic Laboratory launched OpenELIS — an open source database software that promises functionality, collaboration and adaptability — for the lab’s entire environmental health program, which collects and analyzes samples of anything from well water and soil to air particulates and herbicides.

Duriush Shirazi, IT director, said that as an open source program, OpenELIS basically allows users of the program to adapt the software to best fit their needs, which benefits themselves and shares the updates with other users. “It’s one of the first of its kind in the public health arena, that I know of,” Shirazi said.

Shirazi said the software will allow all clients of the laboratory to use the same system for all of their needs — whether tracking a particular sample through the testing process or getting quick results on a suspected contamination...