Labeling in the Lab

Duke University Medical’s Department of OB/GYN assists some 3,000 baby deliveries per year. So when they asked ScanOnline to assist with their biological repository lab set-up for the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, we understood that not only numbers were on the line, but also the well being of mothers, babies and others touched by the research conducted in the lab.

With an on-going internal relationship with the Duke Medical IT department, the division turned to ScanOnline for bar code tracking of the thousands of samples collected, stored and tracked for research. Tammy Sinclair-Bishop, RNC-OB, MSN, and Maternal-Fetal Medicine Research Program Manager, oversaw the installation of software and applications created by ScanOnline. “Privacy and patient confidentiality are a huge deal in our work, and all the front end IT work had to go through Duke security and privacy standards review. That was of first importance, “ Tammy recalls.

After the custom software and applications were developed, approved and installed, ScanOnline equipped the facility with barcode scanners, both tethered and mobile, to give the researchers the capability to better track critical samples from collection to query. Previously, those working in the lab had to depend and keep data on enormous, complicated spreadsheets. “The new system has made conduct and speed of sample ID’s much faster and easier,” Tammy tells us.

“Now if there is a particular problem we are researching, for example, preeclamptic pregnancy, we can query the database for that problem and/or research hypothesis on the issue, ID the parent sample, trace where and when the sample was taken, pull up the report on that particular sample, and locate the specific sample we need by freezer, by row, by rack and right to the vial. This is critical to a 100% research lab like ours.”

ScanOnline’s role in the Duke Medical OB/GYN Department is an example of how the value-added solutions we offer can make a difference in not only day-to-day internal processes, but also in the lives of your customers, or in this case, the lives of the families that may depend tomorrow on the data research done in the lab today.

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