Correcting data

Most data in LDMS can be corrected by a user simply by changing it and clicking the Save button from the LDMS toolbar. For example, if a specimen date was entered incorrectly, the specimen can be located in Specimen Management, the specimen date changed, and the records saved. Changes that apply to a participant enrollment, such as PID or study, should be made in Patient Management, not Specimen Management, to avoid creating erroneous duplicate enrollments.

There are a few important points that need to be considered when modifying LDMS data:

• Different groups have different policies on what data can and cannot be corrected. If you are not sure if a group permits a specific change, consult with leadership from that group.

• If the specimen data was exported to Frontier Science previously, you will need to export again so that Frontier Science receives the corrected data. You can determine if information for a specific specimen exports to Frontier Science by looking at the Exportable field in the Details Window Specimen Management.

• If the specimen(s) was shipped to another laboratory, correcting data at the sending laboratory will not fix the error at the receiving laboratory. Both laboratories must make the change.

• If you change data it will not be apparent to others who made the change and why. LDMS has several data entry fields that can be used to help track changes (see below).

• If labels were already printed, those labels may now have incorrect information. LDMS will automatically ask if you would like to print new labels when saving modified specimens.

LDMS has several features to help users track specimen changes. All of these fields are accessed by clicking the Details button for the aliquot or primary in Specimen Management. These fields are described below:

Comments

The comments field can be used to enter free-form details about the change. So that others know about the change, it is important that you use this field to document it. Comments should include what information was changed for the specimen, the original data, the new data, the date it was changed, who made the change, and why.

Condition codes

Condition codes are 3-character codes that signify certain properties about the specimen. For example, the condition code DSR indicates that a specimen was destroyed, while the code SHV (Short Volume) indicates that the volume of the specimen is less than was expected. The default condition code for specimens is SAT , which indicates that the specimen is satisfactory and was collected and processed as expected.

Reason sample not collected

This field is a drop-down list on the details window that can be used to specify why an expected specimen was not collected from a participant. This field is typically used in conjunction with condition codes such as SNC (Sample Not Collected) that indicate that a specimen was not collected.

When making a change to a specimen, you will be asked if you’d like to cascade the change to aliquots, which can help if the data entry change was made to the primary specimen or if multiple aliquots were affected. It is important that comments are made at the aliquot level (instead of or in addition to comments to the primary). The reason is because comments to aliquots will appear on shipping manifests, whereas comments for primaries will not.

Data corrections made for a specimen at one laboratory will not be automatically synchronized with that specimen’s record at another laboratory. For most data corrections, if the specimens were shipped, both laboratories will need to make the corrections.