From Data to Decisions: Informatics Support for Wastewater Surveillance Programs

Understanding the Challenges

Wastewater surveillance has emerged as a powerful public health tool, providing early indicators of disease activity before clinical cases are detected. However, wastewater testing presents unique challenges that make data management and reporting far more complex than traditional laboratory testing. 

Laboratories must navigate variability in sampling approaches, concentration and extraction methods, normalization techniques, and analytical workflows. Compounding these challenges is a fragmented regulatory landscape with limited standardization across jurisdictions. As a result, laboratories often develop unique workflows that can make data comparison, reporting, and quality management difficult. 

Why Informatics Matters

As wastewater surveillance programs expand, laboratories need systems that can manage growing volumes of data while maintaining quality, traceability, and compliance. Informatics solutions, including Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), serve as the foundation for:

• Sample and chain-of-custody tracking

• Instrument and analytical data integration

• Quality control management

• Regulatory reporting and data exchange

• Data integrity and audit readiness

• Public health reporting and decision support

  
  

Effective informatics infrastructure allows organizations to move beyond data collection and transform laboratory results into actionable public health intelligence.

How JMC Supports Wastewater LIMS Implementations

J Michael Consulting (JMC) helps public health agencies and laboratories successfully implement and optimize laboratory informatics solutions. Drawing on experience supporting laboratory and public health systems, JMC can serve as an implementation partner throughout the LIMS lifecycle. 

JMC provides services including:

• Implementation Project Management: Provide leadership, governance, coordination, quality assurance, risk mitigation, and project management services throughout implementations.

• Current-state Workflow Analysis: Documenting current workflows systems, data flows, reporting requirements, pain points, and future-state needs.

• Procurement Support: Developing requirements, procurement strategies, and vendor evaluations for the informatics solution that best meets your organization's needs.

• System Configuration & Testing: Supporting workflow configuration, requirements traceability, testing, and validation activities.

• Instrument Integration Support: Assisting with integration implementation, data mapping, and interface testing between laboratory instruments and LIMS platforms.

• User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Developing test scenarios, facilitating testing sessions, managing issue resolution, and documenting acceptance activities. 

• Training & Change Management: Delivering role-based training and knowledge transfer activities to support user adoption. 

• Ongoing Support & Optimization: Helping organizations establish governance processes, manage enhancements, and coordinate long-term support activities. 

Partnering with JMC

The future of wastewater surveillance depends on the ability to collect, manage, and act on increasingly complex laboratory data. JMC combines laboratory, public health, and informatics expertise to help organizations evaluate systems, modernize operations, and successfully implement technology solutions that support surveillance and regulatory objectives. 

Whether your organization is evaluating a new LIMS, integrating laboratory instruments, or improving data management and reporting processes, JMC can help make the journey EASI. 

Case Study: Philadelphia Department of Public Health

We provided comprehensive technical and scientific support to Philadelphia's wastewater surveillance program, including the optimization and standardization of laboratory SOPs for sample concentration, extraction, ddPCR testing, sequencing preparation, and data analysis. Our team assisted in the development of bioinformatics workflows and validation protocols covering quality control, precision, accuracy, and limit of detection (LOD) assessments, while also improving analytical code and reporting practices to enhance data quality and communication. Through active engagement with the broader public health laboratory community and direct collaboration across jurisdictions, we facilitated knowledge sharing, aligned laboratory practices, and advised on laboratory design, workflow efficiency, and sample processing operations.

Author: Elena Jordanov, MPH, PMP