Forensic Science, Qualtrax, and a Good Challenge
By on October 30, 2017
A good challenge. That has been the theme that has motivated Meggan Macomber since her middle school days. If you ask her about that one specific moment that she fell in love with science it doesn’t take her long to answer, “It was 6th grade. I had a really amazing science teacher who made science fun for the first time.”
By 8th grade, Meggan was adamant she would have a career as a forensic scientist—partially thanks to CSI. However, even after learning the realities of forensic science, she was still sold on this career path. Meggan said, “I was always really good at biology but chemistry was a challenge, so I went on to major in that.”
She forged ahead to pursue a bachelor’s of science in chemistry and a master’s degree in forensic science—pushing the boundaries academically and intellectually, leaving her craving for a challenge satisfied.
After completing her education, Meggan secured her dream job with the Nebraska State Patrol Crime Laboratory. This position paired her love for chemistry with the opportunity to move back west; it was the ideal situation.
The judicial system of Nebraska looks to Meggan, and other forensic scientists like her, to clarify litigated matters. Meggan summarized her role in one succinct sentence; “I analyze samples brought in by law enforcement to determine if a controlled substance is present.” While she can summarize her duties in one sentence, they are anything but simple. With synthetic drugs on the rise, Meggan is increasingly challenged day in and day out.
For scientists like Meggan, documentation is paramount and traceability within testing practices is a must. It is this aspect of her duties, and the compliance needs of forensic testing, that led to our story intersecting with Meggan’s.
Meggan has been a Qualtrax user for four years and is now a co-administrator of the system. When it comes to professional pursuits, Meggan’s first passion is chemistry and we will be bold enough to say that Qualtrax is a runner up.
Remember how she loves a challenge? Qualtrax equips her to solve the challenges posed to her by her coworkers when it comes to documentation and compliance. She maximizes on our software to solve their pressing problems with features like workflows and processes and is able to meet their complex needs.
Having a test site, or “sandbox” version of Qualtrax, allows Meggan to try out new ideas and solutions before implementing them in the live version. When her coworkers present her with the trickiest problems or complicated requests, she immerses herself in finding a solution. Meggan said, “I love being able to build a workflow or a test in the test site and assign it to different test people and log in and look at it from their perspective.”
There are, however, times in which Meggan runs into a Qualtrax challenge so steep that she needs to call in backup—that’s where our support team comes into play. Meggan said, “One of my favorite things about Qualtrax is when I reach out to support, I usually know the person–and they like a challenge too.” She continued, “I presented Patrick with a challenge today. He accepted it with a smile.”
Patrick may be smiling because he likes a good challenge—or because it is invested customers like Meggan that keep us passionate about our product. Meggan lets us celebrate the ways our product is easing her compliance burdens as a forensic scientist—and for us, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Categories: Community, Compliance Management, Forensic Labs
