Patient Sample Management with BC|SAMPLE and BC|CLIN

Professional management of patient tissue samples and the associated clinical data is an increasing challenge. Collaboration with research projects and everyday handling of the samples requires secure, safe, and accurate workflows, which can get difficult to maintain even with modest numbers of samples and data.

We at BC Platforms have gained a good insight into the bottlenecks, legal issues, and pain spots in clinical sample collections. We understand the need for developing smooth laboratory routines without losing accuracy and data integrity.

Keeping it all together

Clinical samples are collected with the permission of a patient or a volunteer. During the collection phase it is a usual practice to gather some clinical information about the person, in the form of an interview and/or a set of laboratory tests. The actual samples are then catalogued, and either processed further or transferred to storage.

It is not necessary, and indeed not always legal, for the whole personnel in the sample-chain to access all this information. However, parting the physical sample from its associated clinical data requires steps of anonymizing and accurate recording.

Co-operation of BC|SAMPLE and BC|CLIN

BC|SAMPLE sample management tool combined with the BC|CLIN clinical data management software creates a very powerful platform for controlling patient recruitment and sample accumulation. Researchers can easily get access to critical information about availability and processing of different sample types across different projects. Laboratory personnel has a powerful tool for tracking and recording samples, and creating real-time reports for analysis, collaboration, and bookkeeping. All this takes place in a secure, state-of-the-art database, providing several levels of access control.

With the combined forces of BC|SAMPLE and BC|CLIN it becomes possible to:

• Get real-time information about the availability of patient samples
• Divide information to more manageable chunks of pure sample data, and pure clinical data
• Track sample location, amount, and processing history
• Create semi-automated workflows for repeating tasks
• Define restricted access to sensitive information
• Share clinical data across projects and with collaborators in a safe and controlled manner