Share thisA recent study by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health calculated that the implementation of European Union’s REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemical) will serve to dramatically increase the number of studies and numbers of animals used each year.1 It was estimated that the number of animals used may increase by 20 times and the costs associated with these studies would increase six-fold over the next ten years in Europe alone.
Earlier this year the United States, European Union, Japan, and Canada signed a memorandum of cooperation2 seeking to reduce the number of animals used in regulatory health and safety assessments. This accord was only one of many steps in a movement by government, academia, and industry to reduce the number of animals used in product testing each year.
Additionally, research organizations all over the world acknowledge the importance of animal welfare and follow guidelines and regulations such as Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, NIH Publication 86-23, and USDA Welfare regulations 9 CFR. The pursuit of the 3Rs initiative (the replacement, reduction, and refinement of the use of animals inmedical research) has led scientists and organizations to constantly assess their strategies and explore alternatives.
In short, each research organization must test more compounds, use less animals, and make sure it maintains the welfare of each animal along the way. An arduous assignment to say the least. In order to succeed, each organization has to refine its procedures and strategies constantly in order to improve the efficiency of its personnel and optimize the data that is gained from each animal on each study.
Replacing Information Silos
Unfortunately, and all too commonly, the recordkeeping associated with the use of animals on studies is procedural and documented using paper, word processors, or spreadsheets which limit the analytical value of the data and allow for errors associated with manual documentation. The use of an automated data management system can maintain the integrity of the data, accelerate the summarization of the information, and improve the investigative value of the data. The various laboratories within a research organization such as the lab animal resources, toxicology, pharmacokinetics, clinical pathology, veterinary services, and experimental pharmacology may all be involved in the use of a single animal yet often record their results into disparate data management systems, each becoming a data silo. Each independent data silo serves its own purpose but the value of the data and its interrelation with data from other silos is limited (this limitation is a story for another day). The bigger concern for companies following the 3Rs initiative and their requirement to optimize the animals’ welfare is that disparate systems tend to let things fall through the cracks thus resulting in the less-than-optimal care of the animals and the less-than-optimal reduction of animals used each year.