Lab Test Sample vs Sample Collection

[chlarsen]

Dear All,

I have a feature request (clinical pathway correction, if you prefer) for the sampling area:

You see, if you take for instance blood from a patient, you often use a number of different containers in accordance with prevalent laboratory standard operating procedures (SOPs). Example: A full blood count needs a purple-top EDTA vacutainer tube, while a liver function test requires a golden-top vacutainer with clot activator. The following screenshot highlights these requirements, and the different samples are linked to their specific lab test procedures described via lab test templates:

So far, all is great. However, when it comes to sampling, the existing procedure is able to print several labels, which is truly useful, but I cannot list each tube (purple-top, golden-top, etc) for one sampling process, which, however, reflect clinical practice: One venopuncture for several tubes...

Therefore, wherever sampling is concerned, e.g. in clinical procedures and sample collections, it should be possible to add several different sub-samples (purple-top tube, etc) instead of only one, using essentially a table instead of a data field.

I hope this makes sense to you. If not, please sing out! Thank you for all the great work!

Chris

[akurungadam]

Dear Chris, thanks for posting in detail, this will definitely be a good addition.

We recently had started working on recording consumables for Lab Tests and Sample Collection by adding a child table with the consumables (Item) in Lab Test and Sample Collection (setup via Lab Test Template). This I guess can be utilized for indicating the sub sample containers and will also help in recording stock consumption. We'll also have the option to indicate separate qty to be collected in each container.

I see that you are creating different Lab Test Samples to handle this. if you are good to go with the consumables child table, you’ll only have to configure Blood as the Lab Test Sample.

Please suggest, thanks! -Anoop

[chlarsen]

Dear Anoop, Child tables are certainly the way to go, but there is, like in https://github.com/frappe/healthcare/pull/107 a cavat: Not very items are consumables. You find a similar situation in the above issue, where not all item are consumables. Examples include documents (e.g. the antenatal care card) and counselling (for instance on nutrition, exercise,...) in antenatal care visits, defined as package. These different categories should be defines in different form sections, e.g. documentation, counselling, drugs, investigations, etc. Same with lab sampling: consumables are needles, gloves and different tubes, indeed, but the SAMPLE itself is not a consumable, but a sample test item which may feed different tests. Example: An EDTA tube can be used for blood grouping and a complete blood count, and a sickling test. Similar situation as seen in lab templates versus consumables used during a single lab test. Does this makes sense? Cheers, Chris