Specimen identifiers in LDMS for Windows

LDMS for Windows handles specimen identifiers in a few ways that differ from LDMS.

Understanding the differences between the way LDMS and LDMS for Windows assign specimen identifiers is important if your laboratory does work with other laboratories.

LDMS will not assign a specimen ID to a specimen and will only assign a global specimen ID. LDMS for Windows will assign both. The format of the global specimen ID differs as well, depending on which system assigned it.

Figure: Specimen ID and global specimen IDs interoperability. This image shows how specimen IDs and global specimen IDs are affected as specimens are shipped between LDMS and LDMS for Windows.


Figure: Shows specimen IDs and global specimen IDs as they exist in LDMS and LDMS for Windows.

The global specimen ID of a primary specimen can be different. LDMS for Windows does not permit the shipping or storage of primary specimens; these are features that are exclusive to LDMS. In LDMS for Windows, users would generally create aliquots (commonly called “ghost aliquots”) that were identical to the primary specimen; the aliquot (which was really just the primary) could then be shipped and stored.

When a primary specimen is shipped to LDMS for Windows, an aliquot will automatically be created. This aliquot will have the global specimen ID of the primary specimen, and the primary specimen ID will have no global specimen ID.

Figure: Primary specimens shipped to LDMS for Windows. This image shows how a primary specimen without aliquots created in LDMS is converted to an aliquot if shipped to an LDMS for Windows laboratory.


Figure: Shows primary global specimen ID being carried down to a new aliquot when shipped to LDMS for Windows.

In this situation, if the new aliquot is shipped to a laboratory that users LDMS, it will recognize that the global specimen ID belongs to a primary specimen (and not an aliquot), and will turn it back into a primary specimen.