The Achiever Medical service was implemented in order to provide an effective and standardised method of tracking tissue samples held under our HTA license. In addition, it is also a useful tool for extracting data (eg for HTA reporting) based on the types of samples that are stored. In order to efficiently extract this data it is crucial that the data follows certain rules and adheres to conditions that all teams follow.
The majority of these rules are enforced by picklists – these are the selectable drop-down lists that ensure data is entered uniformly throughout the system. In recent months, as the Achiever team collaborates with new users of the system it has become apparent that some of these picklist options may be unclear. In addition, the original process for importing samples did not validate data by itself and therefore it used to be possible for erroneous data to slip through. We have recently introduced import validation, however we need to address some existing picklist values previously imported.
What kind of erroneous data are we talking about? For example, there are samples on the system where data such as ‘Vial’ is stored as a Volume Unit Type – this field is typically used for Volumes such as ml, μl etc. Vial itself should be entered into the Container Type field, and corrected to match the existing picklist option ‘Cryo Vial’. There are other instances where typing errors have crept in, so we have samples with derivative ‘Cytospins’ as well as ‘Cytopsins’.
We are looking to tidy some of this data up, and make some tweaks to the system to ensure more data validation occurs at point-of-entry. Rest assured that none of your data will be removed, simply amended for import errors or fields switched around. More examples of changes follow:
- Eppendorf as Container Type will be changed to Microcentrifuge Tube
- Eppendorf as Volume Unit Type will be changed and moved to a Container Type of Microcentrifuge Tube
- Container Types Cryovial, Cryovials and Vial changed to Cryo Vial
- Sample form ‘RNA Later’ to be removed, data stored as an Additive, with an appropriate Sample Form chosen
- Container Type ‘ul’ removed were the data is stored in Volume/Volume Unit Type
- Volume Unit Type removed where there is no Volume value
- Volume values representing a cell count, where no Volume Unit exists will have the Volume Unit populated to ‘cells’
This work will be carried out over the next few weeks. If you have any queries or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of the Achiever team.