Virology laboratory automation: a user friendly database

Sharing information among virology laboratories and between a virology laboratory and the clinical department where patients are treated offers significant advantages. Moreover, computer automation allows to store sample information and test results, to rapidly analyse data and to easily perform quality controls. A database system for the automation of a virological laboratory set up at the Molecular Virology Unit in the Advanced Biotechnology Center of Geneva is presented. The database has been set up in Access 97 under Windows 95 and is integrated with several automatic procedures for controlled data insertion and assisted data consultation. The database is being connected with another database for clinical practice which is present in the Department of Internal Medicine of the University of Geneva School of Medicine.