What laboratory sample tracking should answer
Any time someone asks about a specimen, you should be able to answer four questions in seconds:
- Where is it now? Which step, which room, which rack or box position.
- Who handled it? Each person who scanned it, in order.
- When did each step happen? To the minute, not reconstructed from memory.
- Is it late? Whether it has sat in a step longer than your lab's target.
Spreadsheets and paper logs can hold this information, but only if someone types it in, on time, every time. In practice the log is filled in at the end of a shift and nobody is sure whether a cell was changed later. Track My Test makes the scan itself the record.
Every step is a scan
Each event in a specimen's history stores who scanned it, when, where (the location you scanned into) and how it was recorded, for example with a barcode scanner or in the web app. A typical scan at the bench looks like this:
- Scan the location barcode, for example the rack or the box the specimens are going into.
- Scan each specimen going there. Each one gets a new event with your name and the time.
- Move on. There is nothing else to type.
Track My Test works with ordinary USB or Bluetooth barcode scanners that act as a keyboard, so there are no drivers to install. If you don't have barcodes on your racks and boxes yet, every location gets one, and you can print labels from the browser. For a quick start, our free specimen label generator makes Code 128 or QR labels on any printer.
Your process, your steps
Labs don't all work the same way, so Track My Test doesn't impose a fixed workflow. Each lab defines its own steps and can give each step an optional target time. Here is one example of a clinical lab's process:
| Step | What happens | Example target (set by the lab) |
|---|---|---|
| Collected | Specimen drawn and labeled at the clinic | None |
| Shipped | Packed into a shipment with a carrier and tracking number | Within 4 hours of collection |
| Received | Shipment scanned in at the lab | Within 24 hours of shipping |
| Placed on rack | Scanned onto a rack at the bench | Within 1 hour of receipt |
| Testing | On the analyzer or at the bench | Depends on the test |
| Results approved | Results signed off in the lab's own system | Same day |
| Stored | Placed in a freezer box position for retention | Within 2 hours of approval |
The targets above are examples, not recommendations; your lab sets its own. When a specimen passes a step's target, it shows up as overdue on the live dashboard, which is also where the turnaround times come from.
A chain of custody that can't be rewritten
A chain of custody is only as good as your confidence that nobody changed it. In Track My Test, history can't be edited or deleted, only added to. This isn't just a hidden button: the database itself refuses changes to past events.
That has a few practical effects:
- Mistakes stay visible. If a specimen was scanned into the wrong rack, you scan it into the right one. The history shows both, in order.
- Notes add context. You can add a note to any specimen, for example "hemolyzed, recollect requested", and the note becomes part of the history.
- Disposal is recorded, never deleted. When a specimen is discarded, that's an event like any other, so you can still answer "what happened to it?" years later.
Shipments between sites
Many small labs receive specimens from clinics, collection sites or partner labs. Track My Test treats a shipment as its own record with a carrier, tracking number, where it's from, where it's going and the expected arrival.
When the box arrives, you receive the whole shipment by scanning instead of logging it specimen by specimen. Shipments in transit appear on the dashboard, so you can see what's on its way before it arrives.
Spreadsheet or sample tracking software?
A spreadsheet is a reasonable place to start, and plenty of labs run on one. Here's where the two differ:
| Spreadsheet or paper log | Track My Test | |
|---|---|---|
| Recording a step | Someone types it in, often later | A scan records it at the moment it happens |
| Who did it | Initials, if remembered | The signed-in person, every time |
| Changes to history | Any cell can be overwritten | Past events can't be edited or deleted |
| Overdue specimens | Found by reading the sheet | Listed on the live dashboard |
| Storage location | A separate sheet, if any | Down to the box position, in the same record |
| Patient updates | Phone calls | An optional status page with no results on it |
No patient information needed
Track My Test tracks specimens by your own accession numbers. It never stores patient names, birth dates, addresses, insurance or results. Matching a specimen to a patient stays in your own system. It's built so you don't have to put patient information in it.
What's not included yet
The first version doesn't connect to an LIS or EMR, doesn't speak HL7 or FHIR, has no instrument interfaces and no mobile app (it runs in a web browser). Labels print from the browser rather than through label printer drivers. If your lab depends on one of these, tell us in the form below.