How To Pool Specimens

This feature will become available in VetView Version 2.1

To facilitate pooled specimen testing (for COVID and other large accession tests with limited resources),  VetView has added the ability to create a single accession with multiple samples from other accessions that can be tested together.  Working results will be applied to the pooled specimen, and the child specimens and their parent accessions can be automatically finalized or tagged when appropriate. 

How To Create a Pooled Specimen Accession

Pooled Specimens in VetView will combine multiple samples into a single specimen for testing.  

To create a pooled specimen, you will need the following:

• A new accession in the appropriate lab which will become the parent accession for all pool members
• Existing accessions that contain the specimens that will be pooled.  Pooled Specimens in VetView support multiple child accessions, or they can all be together on a single accession, depending on your lab's workflows.
• Matching tests for the new parent accession and all child accessions containing pool members

How do I add my pool members to my new accession?

On the accession that will become the parent accession for the pool members, click on Add Specimen.  Select the specimen information that is available (ideally they will be the same type of specimen collection and on the same day) and click on the new Pool check mark.  Enter in the total number of specimens that will be included in the pool.  Select the test that will be run, and then click on the Save button.

From the Accession Details screen, double click the Specimen you just added to reopen it.  The Pool Members table will now be available.  

Scan the barcodes of the child accessions or manually enter in the numbers.  VetView will automatically select and identify the specimens from the child accession to include in the parent Pool accession.

When you are done adding your Pool members, click on the Save button.

The Pool members will immediately become visible on the Accession Details tab, as well as the details pane on the Result Entry tab once the accession is released.

To open the child accessions in another tab, you can CTRL+Click on the accession number.  All child accessions must be released before the pool accession is set to review or finalized for the results to be automatically applied to child members.

How do I view the results of my pool members?

The pool members will display their status on their own accession screens.  Depending on your settings for Test Setup, this may be automatically moved to Review or Finalized, or can remain in Working status with a special accession tag if the Pool Accession had a non-negative result.

How To Set up a Test to Automatically Finalize or Tag Child Accessions

How do I add the Pool Untangle tag to my Accession tag list?

Like all Accession Tags, the Pool Untangle tag is actually a custom tag.  You can use any tag that is appropriate for your lab workflows or state requirements.

These tags are added under the Accession Setup tab on the main lab setup screen, in the Accession Tags setup window.

Click on the Add button in the accession tags window to add a new tag.

Once added, Pool Untangle (or the other custom tag you added per your lab's policies) will become available under Test Setup.

How do I set up my test to auto finalize pool members when the parent pooled specimen accession is finalized?

A new subtab has been added to the Test Setup screen called Pool Testing Auto-Finalizing.

Pool testing can be done on any accession even without this setup being active.  This tab only turns on the Auto-Finalize feature that will change the status of the child accessions based on the status of the pool parent.

When Active, the Auto Finalize of the child accessions occurs when the specified result has the specified status.  Under all other result statuses, the underlying child accessions will remain in Working status, even if the pool parent accession has been finalized.  Note that the Result and Result Status can be any result from the Result Definition tab, so if you want to create a custom Result set for your pooled accession tests with a hard Pool Negative or Pool Positive but leave your other results alone, that is another option.

How do I set up my test to tag my child specimens when the condition for auto finalize is not met?

The Else statement in the logic chain of the window above is an optional Accession Tag that can be applied to any Pool members if the negative result is not set on the Pool parent accession.  This allows for easy searching of the Working accessions so that they can be retested individually. 

This field can be left blank if your lab does not use accession tags.