Method for tracking and imaging biological samples

• US 9,633,176 B2
• Filed: 12/27/2006
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Agilent Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dako Denmark A/S (Agilent Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: De La Torre-Bueno, Jose
• Primary Examiner(s): Dejong, Eric S
• Application Number:
  US11/646,208
• Publication Number:
  US 20070124084A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,772 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 3/545 for laboratory containers
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/00138 Slides
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/00742 Type of codes
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/00752 bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/00831 identification of the sample, e.g. patient identity, place of sampling
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/00841 results of the analyses
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/00881 network configurations
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/0091 GUI [graphical user interfaces]
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/00029 provided with flat sample substrates, e.g. slides G01N35/028 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/00732 Identification of carriers, materials or components in automatic analysers
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/00871 Communications between instruments or with remote terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 40/00 ICT specially adapted for biostatistics; ICT specially adapted for bioinformatics-related machine learning or data mining, e.g. knowledge discovery or pattern finding
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 50/00 ICT programming tools or database systems specially adapted for bioinformatics
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/40 for data related to laboratory analysis, e.g. patient specimen analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/60 relating to pathologies

Abstract

Systems, methods, and apparatus are described for the handling of biological specimens for analysis. The systems, methods and apparatus are designed to reduce errors in misidentification, incorrect processing, and recordkeeping and reporting. The systems, methods, and apparatus can also provide real time tracking of samples at any stage, from collection to processing to analyzing to storage.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining a sample of biological material;

depositing the sample on a sample carrier;

labeling the sample carrier with a unique identifier, which represents the biological material, and which is unique relative to all other identifiers for all other samples carriers;

forming an electronic image indicative of said sample of biological material;

associating the electronic image of said sample with the unique identifier;

maintaining a lossless compressed version of the electronic image at a data center, as a reference copy of the electronic image of the biological material; and

sending a lossy compressed image to a client workstation, to allow review of the electronic image.

2. A method as in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the data center, user input region coordinates from the client workstation, and

carrying out an image analysis at the data center based on the received region coordinates and the lossless compressed image.

3. A method as in claim 1, further comprising:

sending information indicative of the image to a remote database.

4. A method as in claim 1, further comprising:

performing an action on a sample, wherein an action includes at least one of

reading of the unique identifier;

performing a grossing action on the sample;

performing a staining action on the sample;

performing an analysis action on the sample; and

performing a therapy selection action on a sample;

and maintaining a running list of all actions taken on the sample.

5. A method as in claim 4, wherein maintaining the running list further comprises recording at least one person who accessed the unique identifier.

6. A method as in claim 4, wherein assigning the unique identifier further comprises including a portion of the unique identifier indicative of a time when the identifier was assigned.

7. A method as in claim 6, further comprising:

electronically reading the unique identifier with an identifier reader; and

determining the time when the identifier was assigned from the reading.

8. A method as in claim 1, wherein associating the sample with the unique identifier further comprises including a portion of the unique identifier indicative of a location where the unique identifier was assigned.

9. A method as in claim 8, further comprising:

electronically reading the unique identifier with an identifier reader; and

determining the location where the unique identifier was assigned from the reading.