PLA 3.0 extends its functionality with add-ons. You can use our Data Acquisition Modules to populate the data tables of a document directly from external systems. A typical example would be Data Acquisition Modules for plate readers. A plate reader provides a stream of measurement values that need to be imported into the data table of a specific document. Of course, this has to happen in a GLP/GMP compliant way.
Each Data Acquisition Module is specific to the external data format it supports. They are not specific to the target document type. In case you want to import data from two different sources, you would need one specific Data Acquisition Module for each. One exception: for importing data from different text-based sources, you only need one license for the Text Data Acquisition Module.
With PLA, you are always free to choose the supplier of your lab equipment. PLA is able to connect with virtually any data acquisition system. All you need is a small add-on: a data acquisition module. We currently provide data acquisition modules for many reader systems and file formats. They enable you to work with a completely compliant data acquisition process.
Every single data value imported through one of our data acquisition modules is fitted with full traceability information:
You may configure this data traceability according to your needs. The modules allow you to implement data traceability policies as well, defining what can be changed and optionally requiring electronic signatures for authorization. With PLA, you will never lose track of your data's source.
Because PLA 3.0 is a very versatile platform, you can use it in a lot of different scenarios. Some of them include bioassay software from other sources or programs such as a laboratory information management system. For those users, we developed modules for importing and exporting documents from / to other programs.
In contrast to Data Acquisition Modules, you would use Document Import Modules to generate fully specified documents of a specific type. Document Import Modules are useful when an external format contains every information required to create a specific document. For example, if a third party program deals with biological assays, you can set up a Document Import Module in a way that it delivers a completely specified Quantitative Response Assay. Here, the Document Import Module converts all settings and creates the appropriate PLA 3.0 document.
Document Import Modules are licensed per external file format and target document type. For example, some users relied on CombiStats™ for their bioassay analysis. If you are one of them and would like to use PLA from now on, you can get our CombiStats Import Module and import your CombiStats documents into PLA 3.0.
Right now, we provide Document Import Modules for these import sources:
We will develop Document Import Modules for other source programs on demand.
An import feature for PLA 2.x documents is already included in PLA 3.0, so in case you would like to switch from 2.x to 3.0, you can take your documents along with you. Or even better, use the PLA Migration & Archiving Toolkit to move all your PLA 2.x assays to PLA 3.0. This toolkit also provides some additional features that you'll find very helpful.