Biobank informatics enables investigators to track and report inventory and the chain of custody of biological samples, such as tissue and blood, used in basic, clinical, and translational research. The standard biospecimen information management system (BIMS) that the Institutional Biorepository Core has implemented is OpenSpecimen, which is available for individual studies and labs for a fee.
Combining electronic health record data with biospecimen data permits cohort discovery of potential participants with existing samples banked at the institution.