2020-06-05 Use Labii Scheduling Widget To Maintain Social Distancing While Performing Research

2020-06-05

Starting in December 2019, a novel coronavirus (also known as COVID-19 or 2019-nCOV) swept across Asia, spreading to the United States by early 2020. By June 2020, nearly 2 million Americans had been infected and at least 100,000 coronavirus-related deaths had been reported. As orders to stay at home and close schools and restaurants spread, many research labs were also forced to halt their experiments and cease field work to protect scientists and follow local and state rules.

But the world’s efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 appear to have worked. Data collected by Johns Hopkins shows that worldwide there are fewer and fewer cases confirmed daily. The question now becomes how to safely return to the workplace, especially to confined, enclosed places like research labs.

According to the Center for Disease Control, one of the best ways to prevent further spread of COVID-19 is to stay at least 6 ft from other people, also known as social distancing. But social or physical distancing can be extremely difficult to maintain in small research labs, where several people may need to share the same equipment, or at least be near each other, to continue their work.

To meet this need, Labii Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) and Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) has an embedded Scheduling widget that allows researchers to not only schedule use of specific equipment, but to also schedule routine equipment maintenance, calibration, or sanitization. The widget is not limited to just equipment use; it can be used to schedule specific times for researchers to be in buildings or rooms like a lab or greenhouse. Schedules can also be viewed by other researchers that have access to the lab, allowing users to select specific times to do their work while following social distancing guidelines. Calendars can be viewed by day, week, or month, and entries are easily edited or deleted when your plans change.

Most importantly, the Labii electronic notebook Scheduling widget allows you to continue important research while preventing the spread of COVID-19 and keeping your staff safe and informed.

To learn more, schedule a meeting with Labii representatives (https://call.skd.labii.com) or create an account (https://www.labii.com/signup/) to try it out yourself.

Natalie Burger