The specification describes a carrier for test tubes or other containers that will keep the specimen together with its identification from the time the specimen is taken until the final results are obtained. The carrier is adapted to be handled automatically in conjunction with an analytic instrument and to provide for readout of identification and results from the analytic instrument.
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 70,393, filed Sept. 8, 1970, now abandoned. su
HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM
The identification of specimens analyzed in clinical laboratories has for many years been one of the most time consuming and potentially dangerous operations in the laboratory. An error in the identification of a sample could easily result in either the wrong medication being applied to a patient, or no medication when medication is needed. Given the power and potency of today's modern drugs, the hazard of error is enormous.
A typical system used throughout most of the clinical laboratories in the country involves the following steps. First the sample is drawn and a requisition slip for the sample source identification is attached to the test tube with a rubber band. Upon arrival in the clinical laboratory, the requisition slip is detached from the sample tube, and a lab control number is attached to the tube and written on the requistion slip. For many of the tests, the sample tube is then placed in a centrifuge and spun, and then decanted by any one of several means into other test tubes. At this point the numbered label from the original bulk sample is transferred to the decanted sample or in some instances multiple lab control numbers are applied to the various tubes. At this point in the analysis, the analyzing procedure begins, and the test tube is either fed into a large automatic clinical analyzer, or it is manually given some chemical processing such as the adding of chemical reagents, shaking, heating, dialyzing, etc. In addition, certain portions of the bulk sample may be subejcted to detector tests using instruments such as a colorimeter, a spectrophotometer, a fluorometer, a flame photometer, a pH meter, cell counters, or a variety of manual techniques. After the various tests have been completed, the lab technician records the results and the lab control number on a worksheet in the laboratory. The data from the worksheet is then tanscribed back to the initial requisition form and the results sent back to the nursing station or doctor who requested the analysis. A charge for this service is then initiated by detaching one part of the requisition, entering the fee and forwarding to the business office.
Several designs presently utilized in the prior art attach a machine readable card to the specimen, using a rubber band. The card is unprotected and easily damaged in manipulations and then must be specially placed in the instrument in some fashion. For the few analytical instruments so configured, the specimen must be transferred to special containers that fit the specimen handling hardware and the identity cards must be separately handled. One prominent commercial analyzer for example, requires that when the specimen is transferred, the identification label must be separately transferred introducing a handling step which further multiplies the hazard of error.
The analytical instruments on the market today generally do not provide for discrete specimen identification or any machine reading of the specimen identification. In many automated instruments the sequence of results is used to assign the analyzed value to specimen. This rigidity necessary in maintaining a fixed sequence which may not be altered once the order of specimens is listed on the roster, compromises the ability to make changes necessitated by the arrival of specimens requiring high priority handling. Further, the hazard created by thhe assumption of a fixed sequence properly recorded, and the time lost in manually recording this sequence renders this a most unsatisfactory method.
As can be seen from the above description, there are many places for error in which the wrong number could be entered or the wrong results recorded between the patient and the final results.
The new automatic analytical instruments that have appeared in recent years have been a great boon to the technician insofar as the actual test is concerned. However, most of the efforts in this field have involved the performance and logging of tests in the usual fashion plus the addition job of card punching so that the results could be recorded in the computer memory. Clearly, these programs preserve all of the existing sources of error created by transcription and transposition mistakes. They have also added a new dimension requiring additional manpower and creating new hazards without any of the benefits of process control.
In addition to the possibly catastrophic effects resulting from a transposition error, the technician time in logging, calculating, recording, charging, and transcribing has grown to be especially significant. The clinical laboratory for one large metropolitan hospital logs several million test results in one year after examination of more than 250,000 specimens. Although many of the tests are performed on partially automated machines, the mathematical extrapolations, the recording and transcription of the numbers, were done by hand. Automation has emphasized analytical instrument design, which has reduced the technician's time in the actual performance of tests. While this has reduced the ratio of time spent on calculations and analysis, it has increased the portion of time spent on clerical duties as opposed to the technical work. At this time all of the testing, calculating, recording, and reporting is done by hand. The new automatic clinical analyzers have generated sufficient volume and variety that the workload can no longer be handled manually.
While virtually all of the automatic clinical analyzers have provided with them a specific carrier for the bulk sample, it is still necessary to decant portions of the original bulk sample from the original test tube into the machine's specimen carrier before the analysis is begun.
The current state of laboratory development is really mechanization rather than automation as it is so often called. In order to achieve the benefits of computers in the clinical laboratory, absolute accurate specimen identification is essential. For safety, efficiency and reliability, such identification must be applied at the time of collection and accompany the specimen through all manipulations to the analytical station. The carrier for the specimen's identification must allow visual identification and routing. The carrier must be adaptable to the variety of specimen containers used and be stable under refrigeration, incubation, autoclaving, and centrifugation.
OBJECTS OF INVENTION
It is an object of my invention to provide a method and means for identification of the bulk sample from the time the specimen is taken until after all of the analyzing steps are completed, and the report generated.
It is another object of my invention to permit discrete specimen identification providing machine as well as visual readable capability.
It is another object of my invention to provide a carrier with identification that can accompany the specimen through freezing, refrigeration, autoclaving, and centrifugation.
It is another object of my invention to provide a self-supporting carrier for a standard test tube or other container which may be utilized in the manual analysis of the specimen, or in an automatic clinical analyzer.
It is another object of my invention to provide a carrier adaptable to various common types of test tubes and other specimen containers.
It is another object of my invention to provide a carrier which will permit the formation of an endless chain of specimen carriers for use is an automatic clinical analyzer.
It is another object of my invention to provide a carrier which will permit the automatic elevation of the specimen container to permit the automatic sipping of a discrete specimen during automatic clinical analysis.
It is another object of my invention to provide an identification for a carrier which may be read visually, as well as mechanically, by means of optical scanning, magnetic readout, or a punch card station.
It is another object of my invention to provide a carrier which is dynamically and statically balanced about the three major axes for use in centrifugation.
It is another object of my invention to provide a test tube carrier with identification which will allow the automatic computer printout of test results, patient history, and billing when used in conjunction with an automatic clinical analyzer.
The object of the invention is a method for making a container for the identification of the samples whixh it contains, in which method the container is placed in a holder and the holder includes a memory unit into which the machine readable identification data for the identification of the container in the holder is stored. In addition, the object of the invention is an equipment for the application of the method. In order to improve the processing of the sample in the method according to the invention the identification data stored in the memory unit is read by the reading device of the handling equipment and by the instruments of the handling equipment the sample is processed in a predetermined way and the data concerning the processing is transfered into the memory unit. The handling equipment relating to the invention consists of a reading device for reading the identification data and the instruments for processing the sample.
A read-write head writes data relative to a patient in a magnetic tape disposed on a sample supply container and reads out the written data. The read data are displayed on a display device to check the data for correctness. The sample supply container in which the data have been written is delivered to a pipetting device, which distributes a sample in the sample supply container to a sample receptacle. At this time, the data stored in the magnetic tape of the sample supply container are read out by a magnetic head, and written in a magnetic tape attached to the sample receptacle. The data written in the magnetic tape of the sample receptacle are read out by a magnetic head, and compared with the data stored in the magnetic tape of the sample supply container, and then the sample is pipetted.
A process for performing sample analyses wherein reagents are filled portionwise into closed containers that comprise cells and carry codes identifying the reagent contained therein. Cells required for different analyses are placed in a rack together with a sample container containing the sample. A code identifying the sample is applied to the rack. The codes on the cells and the code on the rack are read with the same reading unit.
A guide rail or track system for guiding test tube holders or racks from one station to another, e.g., in a mono-channel analyzer, for presenting test tubes in such holders in sequence to one or more servicing operations at a plurality of stations. The rail system may comprise a main linear guide rail along which a holder having a row of test tubes supported therein is adapted to be moved longitudinally stepwise to present each test tube in the holder in sequence to a given station, or a given position therein, where an operation is to be carried out with respect to each test tube as it is presented in the station. Arranged at right angles to the main rail, one or more branch rails leading to or from other service stations are provided at spaced intervals and the main rail at each juncture or intersection of these rails is constructed to allow a lateral shift of the holder (also specially constructed to allow such shift) to or from the main rail respectively from or to the branch rail along which the holder moves laterally, i.e., the lengthwise dimension of the holder extends across the branch rail at right angles to it as the test tube holder moves along the branch rail, which may terminate at a junction or intersection with another or subsidiary rail or guideway along which the holder moves longitudinally in a direction parallel to the main rail. Means is provided for moving the holder along the main rail and means is provided at the junction of a branch rail with an intersecting rail such as the main rail, for laterally shifting the holder from the junction.
Apparatus and test film strip for evaluation of a film processor, particularly an x-ray film processor, based on a photodetector signal sequentially indicating the optical density of graded density test areas on a developed film and comparing the output thereof to a preselected voltage relating to the acceptable/too dark threshold of an unexposed or base fog area, the acceptable or too light threshold of a maximum density or dark area and the acceptable/too light and acceptable/too dark threshold of a medium density test area. Sequence testing of the graded density areas is functionally related on a single film strip to timing marks, adapted to be read by photodetector and timing circuitry, the timing marks and graded density test areas being linearly spaced and relatively disposed along the length of film strip.
