Specimen Tracking App
Digital chain of custody to improve patient safety
Atlantic Health
The specimen tracking app was developed by the Atlantic Health Digital Transformation team as a way to decrease risk of lost or misplaced specimens through a traceable and maintainable chain of custody.
Product Design Lead
Desktop and Mobile
1 year development
Launched in 2024
Problem
When a specimen is collected in the hospital operating room (OR), a chain of custody needs to be established so that every time the specimen is dropped-off in a new location it is documented until it reaches its lab destination.
Previously, specimens were tracked using a handwritten notebook
- No traceability for lost or missing specimens
- No visual record of specimens being placed inside the containers
Project goals
- Develop a digital solution to track a chain of custody for specimens being collected in ORs
- Lower risk by reducing organizational exposure to any loss of specimens
- Measure and analyze the specimen journey to improve efficiency of services
Solution
Our team built a digital application that provides full traceability of every specimen including the specimen’s location, chain of custody, and images of the scanned specimens.
- User friendly & Mobile: Accessible on Android and iOS devices
- Digital Scanning: Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to scan specimen labels
- Electronic Health Record Integration: Get patient MRN, Order ID, and Number of specimens from EHR to match with the OCR for accuracy.
User Research
Our team make multiple visits to the operating rooms to watch surgeries, and meet with nurses and pathology staff. We walked through every existing workflow to see the full specimen tracking process and understand the requirements.
Key Features and Functions
Scanning Specimen Labels
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology reads the specimen label
Scannning Location Codes
Scan location QR Code using mobile device.
Tracking History Timeline
The chain of custody, date, time, and location is documented for every specimen tracked.
Reports
How many specimens ‘in transit’, successfully dropped off, and ‘overdue’.
Missing Specimen Alerts
If a specimen hasn’t been tracked within a set timeframe, an email alert is sent to managers and team leads.
The Digital Workflow
Previous tracking method
- Handwritten notebooks
- Lost/missing specimens
- No traceability or reporting
- No record of specimens inside containers
New Specimen Tracking App
- Digital tracking of custody and location
- Cloud based AI Computer Vision to capture label information
- Full Traceability to manage risk
- Reporting to measure, analyze and optimize
Design Iterations
Design started in 2023 after the initial project discovery and user research.
- Human centered: Clinical staffs key role is patient care: the design needed to be as simple as possible to not interfere with their key responsibilies.
- Visibility of system status: Staff members need to know current status of any specimen at any location.
- Error prevention: Users need work-arounds for when scanning can not detect the label or there are label printing issues.
Using Intelligent Technology
To improve the accuracy of scanning the specimen labels, our team developed an AI model to improve the OCR intelligence when scanning the specimen labels
Impact
Since the launch of the pilot in February 2024, all routine specimens collected in the OR are tracked digitally. The journey time of specimens from the operating room to the pathology grossing room has been reduced, and the risk of specimens being misplaced has significantly reduced due to the digital chain of custody and specimen alerts.
- ~1500 specimens handled monthly
- 65% reduction in Specimen Journey time (7.7 hours → 3 hours)
- Expansion to additional hospital sites, outpatient facilities and offsite labs
Awards & Recognition
Specimen Tracking App
Digital chain of custody to improve patient safety
Atlantic Health
The specimen tracking app was developed by the Atlantic Health Digital Transformation team as a way to decrease risk of lost or misplaced specimens through a traceable and maintainable chain of custody.
Product Design Lead
Desktop and Mobile
1 year development
Launched in 2024
Problem
When a specimen is collected in the hospital operating room (OR), a chain of custody needs to be established so that every time the specimen is dropped-off in a new location it is documented until it reaches its lab destination.
Previously, specimens were tracked using a handwritten notebook
- No traceability for lost or missing specimens
- No visual record of specimens being placed inside the containers
Project goals
- Develop a digital solution to track a chain of custody for specimens being collected in ORs
- Lower risk by reducing organizational exposure to any loss of specimens
- Measure and analyze the specimen journey to improve efficiency of services
Solution
Our team built a digital application that provides full traceability of every specimen including the specimen’s location, chain of custody, and images of the scanned specimens.
- User friendly & Mobile: Accessible on Android and iOS devices
- Digital Scanning: Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to scan specimen labels
- Electronic Health Record Integration: Get patient MRN, Order ID, and Number of specimens from EHR to match with the OCR for accuracy.
User Research
Our team make multiple visits to the operating rooms to watch surgeries, and meet with nurses and pathology staff. We walked through every existing workflow to see the full specimen tracking process and understand the requirements.
Key Features and Functions
Scanning Specimen Labels
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology reads the specimen label
Scannning Location Codes
Scan location QR Code using mobile device.
Tracking History Timeline
The chain of custody, date, time, and location is documented for every specimen tracked.
Reports
How many specimens ‘in transit’, successfully dropped off, and ‘overdue’.
Missing Specimen Alerts
If a specimen hasn’t been tracked within a set timeframe, an email alert is sent to managers and team leads.
The Digital Workflow
Previous tracking method
- Handwritten notebooks
- Lost/missing specimens
- No traceability or reporting
- No record of specimens inside containers
New Specimen Tracking App
- Digital tracking of custody and location
- Cloud based AI Computer Vision to capture label information
- Full Traceability to manage risk
- Reporting to measure, analyze and optimize
Design Iterations
Design started in 2023 after the initial project discovery and user research.
- Human centered: Clinical staffs key role is patient care: the design needed to be as simple as possible to not interfere with their key responsibilies.
- Visibility of system status: Staff members need to know current status of any specimen at any location.
- Error prevention: Users need work-arounds for when scanning can not detect the label or there are label printing issues.
Using Intelligent Technology
To improve the accuracy of scanning the specimen labels, our team developed an AI model to improve the OCR intelligence when scanning the specimen labels
Impact
Since the launch of the pilot in February 2024, all routine specimens collected in the OR are tracked digitally. The journey time of specimens from the operating room to the pathology grossing room has been reduced, and the risk of specimens being misplaced has significantly reduced due to the digital chain of custody and specimen alerts.
- ~1500 specimens handled monthly
- 65% reduction in Specimen Journey time (7.7 hours → 3 hours)
- Expansion to additional hospital sites, outpatient facilities and offsite labs
Awards & Recognition
Specimen Tracking App
Digital chain of custody to improve patient safety
Atlantic Health
The specimen tracking app was developed by the Atlantic Health Digital Transformation team as a way to decrease risk of lost or misplaced specimens through a traceable and maintainable chain of custody.
Product Design Lead
Desktop and Mobile
1 year development
Launched in 2024
Problem
When a specimen is collected in the hospital operating room (OR), a chain of custody needs to be established so that every time the specimen is dropped-off in a new location it is documented until it reaches its lab destination.
Previously, specimens were tracked using a handwritten notebook
- No traceability for lost or missing specimens
- No visual record of specimens being placed inside the containers
Project goals
- Develop a digital solution to track a chain of custody for specimens being collected in ORs
- Lower risk by reducing organizational exposure to any loss of specimens
- Measure and analyze the specimen journey to improve efficiency of services
Solution
Our team built a digital application that provides full traceability of every specimen including the specimen’s location, chain of custody, and images of the scanned specimens.
- User friendly & Mobile: Accessible on Android and iOS devices
- Digital Scanning: Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to scan specimen labels
- Electronic Health Record Integration: Get patient MRN, Order ID, and Number of specimens from EHR to match with the OCR for accuracy.
User Research
Our team make multiple visits to the operating rooms to watch surgeries, and meet with nurses and pathology staff. We walked through every existing workflow to see the full specimen tracking process and understand the requirements.
Key Features and Functions
Scanning Specimen Labels
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology reads the specimen label
Scannning Location Codes
Scan location QR Code using mobile device.
Tracking History Timeline
The chain of custody, date, time, and location is documented for every specimen tracked.
Reports
How many specimens ‘in transit’, successfully dropped off, and ‘overdue’.
Missing Specimen Alerts
If a specimen hasn’t been tracked within a set timeframe, an email alert is sent to managers and team leads.
The Digital Workflow
Previous tracking method
- Handwritten notebooks
- Lost/missing specimens
- No traceability or reporting
- No record of specimens inside containers
New Specimen Tracking App
- Digital tracking of custody and location
- Cloud based AI Computer Vision to capture label information
- Full Traceability to manage risk
- Reporting to measure, analyze and optimize
Design Iterations
Design started in 2023 after the initial project discovery and user research.
- Human centered: Clinical staffs key role is patient care: the design needed to be as simple as possible to not interfere with their key responsibilies.
- Visibility of system status: Staff members need to know current status of any specimen at any location.
- Error prevention: Users need work-arounds for when scanning can not detect the label or there are label printing issues.
June 2023: Lo-fidelity Wireframes
Lo-fi concepts for MVP
June 2024: Version 1 Native App
First version pilot launch
June 2026: Version 2 Native App
Most recent version with enhancement features
Using Intelligent Technology
To improve the accuracy of scanning the specimen labels, our team developed an AI model to improve the OCR intelligence when scanning the specimen labels
Impact
Since the launch of the pilot in February 2024, all routine specimens collected in the OR are tracked digitally. The journey time of specimens from the operating room to the pathology grossing room has been reduced, and the risk of specimens being misplaced has significantly reduced due to the digital chain of custody and specimen alerts.
- ~1500 specimens handled monthly
- 65% reduction in Specimen Journey time (7.7 hours → 3 hours)
- Expansion to additional hospital sites, outpatient facilities and offsite labs
Awards & Recognition
