I am the Project Manager for the IT team at UPMC which implemented StemLab several years ago. Recently I had the opportunity to attend the StemLab Users Groups session at ISCT in Philadelphia along with my Lab Supervisor. We found the meeting to be interesting and useful; it was very nice to see and talk with others who have experienced successes and frustrations regarding their implementation of a LIS such as StemLab (by the way, we have implemented other Lab Information Systems from other companies and they all have issues!).

The format of the Users Group meeting was productive, as one of STEMSOFT’s existing StemLab Users gave a presentation on their implementation of the system, as well, Geoff Browne (STEMSOFT’s Product Manager) spoke on the future StemLab redesign. It was exciting to hear that STEMSOFT has tripled their development staff and QA staff to help with this redesign - we are encouraged by this and look for good things down the road!

User Group Meetings, such as this, are very helpful and I encourage other Centers to join in, listen to others and share in their experiences. I also encourage everyone to take advantage of the bulletin boards that STEMSOFT have in place, as this is a good mechanism for people to ask questions and see what other centers have done to solve issues.

I look forward to taking part in future StemLab Users Group sessions and do hope we can arrange more time in these sessions for users to share their trials and tribulations on the software; as I know we each have great ideas to share.

STEMSOFT is looking to host a 2 days hands on StemLab Users Group session in June 2011 that would include a micro-audit of STEMSOFT’s facilities amongst structured discussions with other StemLab users to help further your use of the software. STEMSOFT will be looking to host this in conjunction with STEMCELL’s proficiency training session….would you be able to attend?

Since 2001 Christine Lam has been an integral member of the STEMSOFT team. Christine has led over 20 complicated and unique implementations around the world and has been commended by multiple clients for her great efforts. Ms. Lam’s 16 years of real-life laboratory experience and first-hand knowledge of StemLab offers our clients insightful and useful recommendations. Recently Christine was able to attend the ISCT Annual Meeting and StemLab Users Group Session in Philadelphia and reflects on the experience by saying “It is always wonderful to get out and meet our users face-to-face to learn more about their workflow issues and how our software can help.”