Using the App

Using the Virtual Labs and LIMS Simulations

Virtual Labs let you rehearse real laboratory workflows, from sample reception to result authorisation, in a safe environment built around NHS practice. They are Premium features.

The Virtual Laboratory

Open Your tools → Virtual laboratory on your home page, or go to /virtual-laboratory. Eleven laboratories are available:

• Haematology: Full Blood Count validation with the 9-step checklist (QC, sample quality, flags, delta checks, clinical review, critical values, blood film triggers, reflex testing, authorisation). Units are UK g/L.
• Biochemistry: analyser workflow, method validation and result interpretation with UK reference ranges

Full laboratory simulations

Twelve specialties have a dedicated full-screen laboratory that joins the worklist, the bench and the learning material into one place, and saves your progress so you can come back to it:

• The Haematology Laboratory — /haematology-lims — Worklist, Bench, Morphology, Interpret, Learn
• The Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory — /biochemistry-lims — Worklist, Bench, Interpret, Learn
• The Clinical Microbiology Laboratory — /microbiology-lims — Worklist, Bench, Interpret, Learn
• The Cellular Pathology Laboratory — /cellular-pathology-lims — Worklist, Bench, Report, Learn
• The Pre-Analytical Phase — /preanalytical-lims — Reception, Collection, Acceptance, Learn
• The Transfusion Laboratory — /transfusion-lims — Worklist, Bench, Issue, Learn
• The Virology Laboratory — /virology-lims — Worklist, Bench, Interpret, Learn
• The Genomics Laboratory — /genomics-lims — Worklist, Bench, Interpret, Learn
• The Coagulation Laboratory — /coagulation-lims — Worklist, Bench, Interpret, Learn
• The Immunology Laboratory — /immunology-lims — Worklist, Bench, Interpret, Learn
• The Andrology Laboratory — /andrology-lims — Worklist, Bench, Interpret, Learn
• The Quality Management System — /qms-application — Practice, Audit, Investigate, Measure, Learn

Each workspace records what you have done and maps it to IBMS Registration Training Portfolio modules, which you can copy out from the portfolio panel at the bottom of the page. You can reach all twelve from LIMS training or resume them from the Continue section of your learner home.

Where your laboratory progress appears

What you do in a laboratory is recorded against your account and shown in three places, so you do not have to remember which one you were in:

• Your dashboard — laboratories started, workspaces completed, your average where a workspace recorded a score, and what to pick up next
• Performance analysis — the same record beside your practice-test scores, so laboratory work and question practice sit together
• Training dashboard — a short version alongside your training modules

Since the effort-record audit, the record also carries the decisions themselves: in the laboratories, whether your release or hold call agreed with the validation engine's verdict for the same patient, and which way a disagreement went. A mistake that recurs is the one to take to a training officer.

Two things there are worth more than the percentage. First-attempt accuracy counts what you got right without a second go, which is the honest measure of whether you are improving at something you are allowed to retry. And what to work on names the specific mistakes you have made more than once — "offered retraining as a corrective action", "released a run that should have been held" — rather than averaging them into a score.

A workspace you opened and did not attempt records no score. It does not record zero: not started and scored nothing are different things, and showing them the same way would be misleading.

• Microbiology: organism identification, sensitivity testing and reporting
• Blood Transfusion: group and screen, crossmatch, antibody panel, cold chain, and the equipment failure simulator on its Workflows tab
• Histology / Cellular Pathology: specimen tracking through cut-up, staining and immunohistochemistry to report authorisation
• Coagulation, Immunology, Virology: specialty-specific workflows
• Andrology: semen analysis from receipt through concentration, four-grade motility, strict morphology and vitality, plus post-vasectomy analysis, cryopreservation and preparation for assisted conception
• Genomics: the NHS genomics enhancement suite, 16 modules covering sequencing, variant interpretation and MDT simulation, aligned with Genomics England standards and ISO 15189:2022
• Biomedical Sciences: a cross-discipline laboratory

LIMS Training

Open Your tools → LIMS training or go to /lims-training. There are eleven laboratory information system modules, one per specialty, each walking through the worklist, validation and authorisation steps a Biomedical Scientist performs in the system every day.

Starting a simulation

Pick a laboratory or LIMS module, choose the patient case or worklist, and work through each station. Your actions are checked against the expected decision path and you get feedback as you go.

Scoring and evidence

Virtual Laboratory and LIMS sessions give you feedback on screen but are not written to your CPD log automatically; use Add activity on the log to record the time you spent, and it will appear in the HCPC-style CPD record export. The Virtual Laboratory and LIMS modules do not issue certificates; the modules that do are listed in Training simulators. Cite your simulation work in your IBMS portfolio reflections.

Access

Virtual Lab and LIMS modules are Premium. NHS trusts and universities on an organisation plan have access for all their members. If you see a padlock on a module, your current tier does not include it; see Premium features, pricing and how to upgrade or contact [email protected].