872
LETTERS T O T H E EDITOR
Lab Clin Med 80:117-124, 1972) that
platelets from CGD patients show normal
NBT reduction. You might want some
clarification from MacPherson et al. regarding their information on this matter.
A.J.C.P.—Vol.
R I C H A R D W. B E L C H E R ,
62
M.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University
School of Medicine
Cleveland, Ohio 44109
Entry of Specimen Accession Numbers to a Clinical
Laboratory Computer System from an Online Coulter "S'
To the Editor: — While increasing the
efficiency of the clinical laboratory as a
whole, computerization has been a mixed
blessing in some areas. Clinical hematology, in particular, has sometimes required
more human effort per test with a computer than without, because the existing
reporting methods of machines such as
the Coulter Counter model "S" required
no transcription by the technician. With
most computer systems, an online counter
requires manual transcription of specimen identification as data are being filed
for each patient.
A simple solution to this problem has
been found for the PDP-12 LABCOM
system installed by Laboratory Computing, Inc., at Barnes Hospital, St. Louis,
Missouri. Little or no modification to
s t a n d a r d h a r d w a r e and only minor
software changes are involved. Briefly, the
formerly unused "test" and "date" fields
from the Coulter "S" are used to contain
the specimen accession number, and an
online special calculation program presents these fields to the system as accession numbers rather than test data.
Received May 1, 1974, revised J u n e 17, 1974;
accepted for publication J u n e 17, 1974.
Address reprint requests to Dr. Lewis, Central
Diagnostic Laboratories, Barnes Hospital, Barnes
Hospital Plaza, St. Louis, Missouri 63110.
Key words: Clinical laboratory computer systems;
Computer interfacing; Data transmission; Coulter
Counter Model S; Specimen identification.
The Coulter "S" presents nine threedigit numbers to the computer interface
for each test. Seven of these are test
results and the eighth and ninth, which
may be arbitrarily set by the operator, are
denoted "test" and "date." If three-digit
accession numbers are adequate then no
hardware modifications need be made;
the standard interface (CC03) for the
Coulter "S" provided by Digital Equipment Corporation on the PDP-12 and
PDP-8 computers accepts the "test"
number, and an online calculation routine
can store this as an accession number. If
four or more digit accession numbers are
needed, a minor wiring change on the
CC03 interface backplane causes the
computer to read the "date" field as well.
A slightly different calculation program
then concatenates the "date" and "test"
fields, converts the resulting number, and
stores it as the accession number for that
specimen. This wiring change makes use
of previously idle circuitry in the interface
and requires no additional components.
After the accession numbers have been
stored by the special calculation program
they appear to the system to have been
the result of a loading worksheet. The
technician may file as many test results as
desired with a single command, rather
than entering an accession number for
each.
It should be emphasized that the special
December 1974
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
873
calculation appears to the LABCOM accession number input similar to that
system to be no different than, e.g., an reported here should be capable of being
electrolyte balance calculation. In particu- incorporated in these systems also. T h e
lar, no modification of the monitor or of specific hardware changes (if any) and
the online system was required.
requisite software will, of course, depend
Technician acceptance of the additional on the particular computer system under
capability has been good. Not only has the consideration.
previously required 10-20-second period
per specimen of manual editing and filing
J. W. L E W I S , P H . D .
been eliminated, but transcription errors
Division of Laboratory Medicine
which occasionally resulted in data being
Washington University School of Medicine
filed for the wrong patient have been
St. Louis, Missouri
reduced.
A. F. PUARIEA, B.S.
Since the same computer output signals
Laboratory Computing, Inc.
from the Coulter "S" are used in almost
Madison, Wisconsi7i
all clinical laboratory computer systems,