Bard1 Accelerates Pace of Research with Labviva
BARD1 Life Sciences is a medical diagnostic organization that specializes in bringing life-saving cancer-detecting products to market. At the forefront of innovation, the company’s programs are focused on rapid testing for ovarian, breast, lung, prostate, bladder, and pancreatic cancers. Headquartered in Australia, Bard1 also operates in Switzerland and the United States.
To integrate with their existing electronic lab notebook system, update the procurement process, and provide better access to supplies for research scientists, Bard1 chose Labviva.
When Luke Morton joined the BARD1 as a research and development scientist, he led an initiative to implement the electronic notebook solution SciNote. This allowed better consistency with records than BARD1’s paper-based system of the past, and it also improved collaboration, especially important in an international setting. As they moved forward with the adoption of SciNote, Morton saw an opportunity to improve other processes as well. The Labviva integration offered a lab management option that enabled BARD1 to address their procurement challenges without slowing down their other projects.
Labviva integrates with existing procurement solutions and supports the purchasing rules that an organization may already have in place. As a SaaS offering, it reduces the technical burden on IT staff, and positions labs to be ahead of the curve when it comes to modernization.
Additional Support with Suppliers
BARD1’s flagship product isolates exosomes from biological fluids and passes those bio-markers through an Exonet, a propriety medium that isolates elements in the fluid for diagnostic purposes. This allows results to be displayed in often fewer than 15 minutes, as opposed to industry protocols of four to five hours. With this technology, academic research organizations and hospitals treating patients can spend less time waiting for results and more time engaged with study or treatment.
Yet, as a growing organization, BARD1 sometimes struggled to get the basic laboratory supplies needed to advance their research. Some of their established suppliers would reserve stock for larger facilities, and searching for new suppliers was time consuming and not always effective.
“Labviva was able to connect us with vendors that were specifically able to get us the products we needed, quickly,” said Morton. “Solving for our supply chain challenges has helped us reduce research delays.”
Automation and Future Planning
Labviva gives organizations like BARD1 access to a private marketplace of suppliers and manufacturers who participate in the ecosystem—regardless of size. Instead of having to individually onboard vendors, Morton and other BARD1 researchers can use Labviva’s intuitive search to find the supplies they need, and easily procure those supplies from the source, based on price and availability, whether BARD1 has a contract with them or not. This allows laboratories to diversify their purchasing while connecting suppliers and manufacturers with new customers.
Through the Labviva interface, laboratories can also better manage their spending by accessing their current and historic purchasing data. Displayed in a graphical interface, users can choose from pre-built reports, or create their own custom charts.
“Using Labviva, I was able to establish a working inventory and set up recurring orders for the supplies we use commonly,” said Morton. “This has saved a great deal of time.”
As Bard1 looks toward the future, Morton anticipates bringing multiple products to market, with the team collaborating on Research and Development. Knowing that he can continue to procure supplies without being locked in by the legacy processes and systems means that he can focus on more important work, like cancer diagnostics.
“Labviva has gone above and beyond in terms of getting us set up and keeping our lab stocked,” said Morton. “Paired with our electronic notebook system, we now have a laboratory that is running more securely, more efficiently, and because of SciNote and Labviva, our research is being accelerated.”