Quality management in experimental research: A new software to coordinate the timing, the completeness and the plausibility of data collection

In medical research laboratories, computers and computer-based data collection have become more and more important. For the setup of new experimental studies, the accuracy of preparations and the timely recording of data are crucial for quality management. Because of the manifold tasks during an experiment, it is often necessary to find additional capacities to manage the workload or even to restrict the extent of the experiment. Especially the recording of different data at the same time is tremendously time-consuming, hampers expansions on new developments of the experiment, and may even represent a source of error. We present a newly developed relational database (Sunwork® Medimouse) that can manage the requirements addressed above, is easy to operate without the need of special computer knowledge, and therefore serves as a tool for quality management in experimental animal research.