Specimen Management Software: 3 Areas to Get Right

Proper specimen management is an essential aspect of efficient laboratory management. How biological specimens are managed can have a direct impact on the accuracy of data, efficiency lab operations and the speed of the larger research initiatives. In this blog post, we will discuss three key considerations for successful specimen management and how specimen management software can help. These areas include specimen tracking, storage management and regulatory compliance. By understanding these key areas of specimen management, you can pick the software that best fits the unique needs of your lab. 
 

The Three Pillars of Specimen Management

As sample volumes grow and studies get more complex, it’s harder to track every specimen, derivative, and aliquot. Spreadsheets and ad hoc tools that used to work fall apart fast, especially as teams change and projects scale.

Specimen management practices help labs keep accurate records, cut wasted effort, and protect valuable specimens over their full lifecycle. With the right processes and tools in place, teams can confidently answer three questions:

• What specimens do we have?
• Where are they stored?
• How have they been handled over time?

Below, we look at three core areas of specimen management: tracking, storage, and regulatory and privacy considerations, along with how software can help.

Specimen Tracking

Effective specimen tracking is essential to a well-run lab. Teams can track specimens with anything from spreadsheets to purpose-built specimen management software, which standardizes and simplifies the process while making sure critical data is captured and organized.

Strong specimen tracking practices typically include:

• Standardized identifiers for specimens and derivatives
• Defined specimen types and metadata (e.g., collection date, volume, source)
• Parent–child relationships between primary specimens and aliquots
• Recorded handling events such as processing, thaw/refreeze, and usage

With tracking in place, labs can quickly see which specimens are available, how they’ve been used, and whether they fit a given study or assay. That cuts search time and lowers the risk of misused or duplicated specimens.

Specimen management tools further support tracking by:

• Enforcing required fields for key data points
• Providing search and filter tools across studies or projects
• Recording who performed actions and when they occurred

 

Specimen Storage

Proper storage protects both specimen integrity and data accuracy. Different specimen types need specific conditions, like temperature or storage media, and staff need training on the right handling and storage guidelines for each. Specimen management software helps by standardizing freezer management processes, capturing all actions taken on specimens in an auditable log, assigning unique IDs, defining naming conventions, and supporting barcoding, so specimens stay traceable and easy to locate.

Effective storage management includes:

• Clear physical organization of freezers, shelves, racks, and boxes
• Documented storage maps that match the physical layout
• Consistent labeling and barcoding for specimens and containers
• Defined rules for placement, consolidation, and retirement of specimens

Without a system, staff end up relying on memory or local spreadsheets that quickly fall out of sync with reality, making it harder to onboard new team members, coordinate across locations, or recover after a freezer failure.

Specimen management software can help by:

• Providing virtual maps of storage locations
• Tracking specimen moves and location history
• Supporting barcode scanning for faster, more accurate placement and retrieval
• Offering inventory views by project, study, or specimen type

These capabilities reduce time spent searching for specimens and help ensure high-value samples aren’t lost or forgotten in storage.

Regulatory Compliance

Managing biological specimens comes with real regulatory weight. Labs have to comply with a range of regulations, including those from the FDA and NIH. Specimen management software can help by controlling access to sensitive data and logging every action taken in the system.

Key considerations include:

• Access control and permissions
  Ensuring only authorized personnel can view or edit sensitive specimen and subject data.
• Auditability
  Maintaining detailed records of data changes, specimen usage, and exports to support internal reviews and external audits.
• Data integrity and consistency
  Using validation rules, required fields, and controlled vocabularies to reduce errors and maintain high-quality data.
• Retention and disposal policies
  Tracking when specimens should be retained, transferred, or disposed of in line with protocols and regulations.

Specimen management tools support these practices with role-based access, audit logs, and structured data entry. Paired with clear SOPs and training, they make it easier to demonstrate control over specimen handling and data management.

 

How LabKey Sample Manager Helps With Specimen Management

LabKey Sample Manager is designed to help labs move beyond spreadsheets and ad hoc tools to a more reliable, scalable approach to specimen management.

With Sample Manager you can:

• Manage the receipt, storage and shipment of specimens
• Define samples types and sources with unique metadata
• Document experiments in an integrated Electronic Lab Notebook
• Use workflows to standardize lab procedures and data capture
• Unify specimens with their related experiment data
• Capture an audit-ready log of actions performed on each specimen
• Comply with HIPAA and CFR Part 11

Click Here to learn more about LabKey Sample Manager.

See How Our Clients Are Using Sample Manager

Contract ResearchCrux BiolabsReplaced shared spreadsheets with Sample Manager as clinical trial complexity outgrew manual tracking.Academic BiobankJohns HopkinsMigrated a 300,000-sample biorepository off aging software with zero downtime across 15 active studies.EQA ProviderGenQACut sample batch booking from a full day to about two minutes across 101 countries.