Intelligent laboratory lockbox system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11857017-B2
Application number	US-202016896923-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 9, 2020
Priority date	Jun 11, 2019
Publication date	Jan 2, 2024
Grant date	Jan 2, 2024

Abstract

Systems and methods provide for an intelligent laboratory lockbox. The intelligent laboratory lockbox self-regulates an internal temperature of one or more compartments, regardless of external temperatures. The one or more compartments can be individually climate controlled. The intelligent laboratory lockbox is in communication with a remote server, which is in communication with one or more remote sources including an electronic health record server, a courier server, and the like.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. One or more non-transitory computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations, the operations comprising:
measuring an internal temperature of a vault unit of an intelligent laboratory lockbox system with at least a temperature sensor;
based on at least the internal temperature, transmitting an instruction that controls the intelligent laboratory lockbox system to activate cooling functions to self-regulate the internal temperature to a first temperature;
identifying, by a sensor that senses a presence of a specimen within the vault unit, a load status of the vault unit of the intelligent laboratory lockbox system, wherein the load status includes one of a loaded status or an unloaded status;
receiving an indication of a change in the load status from the vault unit;
determining whether the change in the load status changes a specimen pickup workflow;
upon identifying that the change in the load status changes the specimen pickup workflow, generating an optimized pickup workflow based on the change in the load status of the vault unit;
wherein in response to the load status changing from the unloaded state to the loaded state, the optimized pickup workflow is generated to include a courier route to a location of the vault unit to pickup the specimen;
wherein in response to the load status changing from the loaded state to the unloaded state, the optimized pickup workflow is generated to remove the courier route to the location of the vault unit;
generating a notification of the optimized pickup workflow at one or more remote computing devices separate from the vault unit; and
transmitting the notification of the optimized pickup workflow to a destination device.

2. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving the internal temperature of the vault unit as measured by the temperature sensor; and
communicating the internal temperature to an electronic health record (EHR) for storage.

3. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1 , where the specimen pickup workflow comprises a schedule of one or more pickups from one or more vault units.

4. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1 , wherein the one or more remote computing devices separate from the vault unit comprise mobile devices of couriers.

5. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1 , wherein the load status is monitored at predetermined intervals of time.

6. A computerized method comprising:
measuring an internal temperature of a vault unit of an intelligent laboratory lockbox system with at least a temperature sensor;
based on at least the internal temperature, transmitting an instruction that controls the intelligent laboratory lockbox system to activate cooling functions to self-regulate the internal temperature to a first temperature;
identifying, by a sensor that senses a presence of a specimen within the vault unit, a load status of the vault unit of the intelligent laboratory lockbox system, wherein the load status includes one of a loaded status or an unloaded status;
receiving an indication of a change in the load status from the vault unit;
determining whether the change in the load status changes a specimen pickup workflow;
upon identifying that the change in the load status changes the specimen pickup workflow, generating an optimized pickup workflow based on the change in the load status of the vault unit;
wherein in response to the load status changing from the unloaded state to the loaded state, the optimized pickup workflow is generated to include a courier route to a location of the vault unit to pickup the specimen;
wherein in response to the load status changing from the loaded state to the unloaded state, the optimized pickup workflow is generated to remove the courier route to the location of the vault unit;
generating a notification of the optimized pickup workflow at one or more remote computing devices separate from the vault unit; and
transmitting the notification of the optimized pickup workflow to a destination device.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
receiving the internal temperature of the vault unit as measured by the temperature sensor; and
communicating the internal temperature to an electronic health record (EHR) for storage.

8. The method of claim 6 , where the specimen pickup workflow comprises a schedule of one or more pickups from one or more vault units.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the one or more remote computing devices separate from the vault unit comprise mobile devices of couriers.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the load status is monitored at predetermined intervals of time.

11. A system comprising:
one or more processors to:
control measuring an internal temperature of a vault unit of a laboratory lockbox system with at least a temperature sensor;
based on at least the internal temperature, transmitting an instruction that controls the intelligent laboratory lockbox system to activate cooling functions to self-regulate the internal temperature to a first temperature;
identify, by a sensor that senses a presence of a specimen within the vault unit a load status of the vault unit of the laboratory lockbox system, wherein the load status includes one of a loaded status or an unloaded status;
receive an indication of a change in the load status from the vault unit; determine whether the change in the load status changes a specimen pickup workflow;
upon identifying that the change in the load status changes the specimen pickup workflow, generate an optimized pickup workflow based on the change in the load status of the vault unit;
wherein in response to the load status changing from the unloaded state to the loaded state, the optimized pickup workflow is generated to include a courier route to a location of the vault unit to pickup the specimen;
wherein in response to the load status changing from the loaded state to the unloaded state, the optimized pickup workflow is generated to remove the courier route to the location of the vault unit;
generate a notification of the optimized pickup workflow at one or more remote computing devices separate from the vault unit; and
transmit the notification of the optimized pickup workflow to a destination device.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
receive the internal temperature of the vault unit as measured by the temperature sensor; and
communicate the internal temperature to an electronic health record (EHR) for storage.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the load status is monitored using one or more sensors to detect a presence of one or more specimen tubes within the vault unit.

Assignees

• Cerner Innovation Inc

Inventors

• Rose Joseph
• Easler John
• Williams James
• Raines Jeff
• Tran Nghia
• Scholz Dustin
• Penrod John Christopher

Classifications

• G06Q10/0832 Primary

  Special goods or special handling procedures, e.g. handling of hazardous or fragile goods · CPC title

• A42B1/225 Primary

  with openings for hair · CPC title

• G06Q10/0633

  Workflow analysis · CPC title

• G06Q10/0833

  Tracking · CPC title

• Y10T24/32

  having magnetic fastener · CPC title