Terms used in LDMS
Specimen records are stored as a hierarchy of related participant, enrollment, and information. All of this information for a participant-project combination comprise a record in LDMS.
A specimen record in LDMS is the collection of specimen, study, and visit information for a specific participant.
Figure: Contents of a specimen record. The top of a specimen record represents the largest part, such as a clinical trials network; the right side of this image is an example of each item
- project
- The organization that sponsors or conducts the study in which the participant is enrolled.
- participant
- The person (or specimen source if the project doesn’t work with human samples) that is participating in a given project. If a person is participating in more than one project, they will be considered two different participants in each project. Participants cannot be linked across projects.
- enrollment
- The protocol or study in which the participant is enrolled.
- visit
- A specific event at which a primary specimen was collected from a participant.
- primary specimen
- The specimen that was collected from the participant, such as an unprocessed tube of blood
- aliquot
- A specimen that was created by processing a primary specimen into a smaller specimen.
Each part of a specimen record is selected in sequence. For example, you must specify a project before enter participant information. Likewise, you must create the information for a visit event before you can add specimens that were drawn at that visit.