The present disclosure generally relates to an automated sample workcell and a method for operating an automated sample workcell and, in particular, to an automated sample workcell which is operable to process biological samples and a method for operating an automated sample workcell.
In analytical laboratories, in particular clinical laboratories, a multitude of analyses on biological samples are executed in order to determine the physiological state of a patient. Current pre-analytical specimen processors on the market are able to prepare a plurality of biological samples such as blood, urine, cerebral-spinal fluid, saliva, etc. Biological fluid samples are typically contained in open or capped sample tubes. Before a chemical or biological analysis can be performed on a biological sample, a plurality of different pre-analytical processing steps may have to be executed on a sample of a patient. Such processing steps may comprise centrifugation, capping, decapping, recapping and/or aliquotation steps. The processing steps may also comprise adding chemicals or buffers to a sample, concentrating a sample, incubating a sample, and the like. A growing number of those ‘pre-analytical’ steps and procedures are executed automatically by automated pre-analytical sample workcells, also known as ‘automated pre-analytical systems’. The kind of analytical test to be executed on a biological sample is typically specified in a test order.
One typical problem is with the physical transport and processing of a sample may not always be synchronized with the assignment of a particular analytical test to the biological sample. For example, a blood sample may be drawn from a patient and collected in a sample tube which is then transported manually, or automatically, to an automated sample workcell at a moment in time when it may not clear which kind of biological and/or chemical analysis, also referred to as ‘analytical test,’ shall be executed on that sample. A physician may have to conduct additional examinations of the patient before he/she can decide which kind of analytical test should be executed on that blood sample of the patient. While the physician conducts the additional examinations, the blood sample of the patient may have already arrive at the automated sample workcell, leaving the automated sample workcell with the question what to do with the sample. According to some laboratory settings, a plurality of samples is received together with a pile of paper-based test orders. In those scenarios, the assignment of electronic test orders to samples may be delayed as the data on the paper-based test orders needs to be entered manually into the lab software before an electronic test order can be requested for a particular sample.
Most state-of-the-art automated sample workcells do not prepare a biological sample for a particular analysis as long as the test order for the sample has not received. Valuable time is lost, as the automated workcell is not able to process the biological sample at all or is merely able to carry samples not having assigned a test order to a buffering station.
Some state-of-the-art automated sample workcells do not request a test order but rather determine the type of the sample tubes of a biological sample and process the sample exclusively based on its tube type. For example, in one known system, the automated sample workcell determines the sample container type by image analysis for distributing the containers to different areas or racks. A disadvantage of this approach is that information on the tube type alone is often not sufficient to determine all processing steps necessary to prepare a particular biological sample for a particular analytical test. In addition, the systems are inflexible, because in a lab there may exist much more processing workflows and corresponding test orders than tube types.
Generally, state-of-the-art automated sample workcells are either completely test order based (and therefore completely dependent on the receipt of a test order) or are solely based on the determination of the tube type. In the latter case, the workcells are inflexible and often not able to sufficiently pre-process a biological sample for a particular analytical test.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved automated sample workcell which is operable to process one or more biological samples even in case no test order was received for the samples, thereby avoiding delays and speeding up sample processing