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Biological Specimen Inventory

Features

Specimen Tracking

BSI tracks the entire specimen life cycle, including receipt, assessment, storage, processing, shipping, and destruction.

An unlimited number of repository sites can be virtually tracked with separate location hierarchies with easy one-click processing tasks.

BSI can also process specimens on a task-by-task basis, track derivative creation and lineage, and import delimited files into editors throughout the system, as well as integrate with other systems using BSI Hub and our extensive web service API.

Functionality

Functionality includes the ability to receive your specimens, verify their contents, and document discrepancies.

Quality Control

Ensure data validity via BSI’s three-tiered data quality control processes that can be tailored to your specific business rules.

Inventory Management

Configurable, scalable storage containers and their contents can be easily tracked within BSI.

Audit Trail

Changes to specimen and subject records are recorded in history reports, which detail who made the change, when the change was made, and the old value versus the new value.

Database Configuration and Scalability

The BSI database is extremely scalable, and can meet and exceed the needs of a growing repository.

In total, BSI databases track an estimated 150 million specimens across the globe. You can also dynamically create customized fields to track data and metadata on multiple levels, including individual specimens, groups of related specimens, patient-level PII, processing events, and more.

BSI supports streamlined, large scale data entry via import files, API calls, and manual entry. For smaller scale operations, a form view mimics the look and feel of filling out paper documents.

Customizable

  • Flexible workflow configuration
  • Customize data fields
  • Create templates to reduce human error

Flexible

  • Track any type of specimen
  • Supports multiple groups and/or studies
  • Tailor data verifiers to enforce business logic

Support for:

  • Single lab, multi-site, or large network databases
  • High-throughput environments
  • Data sets with anywhere from hundreds to millions of records

Compliance, Security, and Patient Data Management

Protection of patient data is a primary concern of BSI.

BSI helps you promote GLP/GMP/GCP standards within your users’ institutions. Evidence of the system’s validation can be provided in the form of validation plans, summary reports, etc. In addition, BSI follows the ISBER and NCI Best Practices Guidelines for biospecimen tracking systems. The system also provides a role-based security structure, allowing administrators to strictly control user access and permissions by study. IMS-hosted BSI servers are housed at our FISMA moderate data centers and are NIST compliant.

BSI allows you to track specimen-related patient and informed consent data in a flexible interface where data is defined dynamically and can vary by study, allowing you to customize data fields. Only authorized users can view and edit the data, allowing you to restrict access to PII.

Regulatory Compliance

Validated, 21 CFR part 11 and Annex 11 compliant application which meets FDCC, HIPAA and HITECH regulations.

Data Security

Single Sign On (SSO) capabilities available and patient data is encrypted at rest.

Patient Data Management

HIPAA-compliant system that uses a combination of data linkage and verification to provide a mechanism for data security and accuracy.

Reporting

BSI reporting allows for the retrieval of any data submitted in the application and any associated metadata. You can configure your own reports to display fields of your choice, or you may execute one of the many comprehensive standard reports available in BSI.

  • Downstream analysis
  • Data mining
  • Processing completion times
  • Monitor user workloads
  • Personalized user dashboard
  • Various format options for displaying search results

Collaborative Tools

BSI offers opportunities for collaboration with external organizations, as well as internal groups within the database.

BSI Engage is a web-based portal that provides an easy-to-use interface to submit requests and report on specimen activity in BSI. This interface, accessible via any web browser, is ideal for users who do not need all of the functionality available via the BSI desktop application.

BSI Hub provides an avenue for remote repositories, labs, collection centers, and other biobanks in your network to submit their specimen inventory data to a simple web site to be loaded into BSI. BSI Hub promotes centralized tracking and data harmonization across a network of repositories.

  • Provides a simple web interface for external sites to submit data
  • Transforms and loads data into BSI automatically after submission

Barcode Printing and Scanning

You have the option to scan to complete many operations within BSI, including to register specimens, assign their locations, mark their processes as completed, and report on their data.

  • Multiple barcode formats available, including Linear, 2D, and RFID
  • Print barcodes for any ID within the system
  • Compatible with Brady CodeSoft and Seagull Scientific BarTender
  • Print labels during any point of your workflow
  • Scan barcodes anywhere that you can type

API

BSI’s web services API, BSI Connect, enables connectivity between BSI and external systems regardless of platform or programming language.

BSI has successfully integrated with numerous systems including:

  • Automated freezers
  • Warehouse inventory management systems
  • Business management systems
  • Business intelligence reporting systems
  • Project management and collaboration software
  • EHR/EMR systems
  • Slide scanning/digital pathology systems
  • Data governance and ontology management systems
  • BioShare, a specimen sharing and request system

View the BSI API documentation.

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