Often, users are confused between the Shipment and Distribution features and are not clear on when to use which feature.
Shipment: When specimens are sent to another lab or offsite storage location and that lab also uses the same instance of OpenSpecimen to receive and manage the specimens.
For more details: Shipment
Distribution: When specimens are sent to a researcher or lab for utilizing the specimen. The receiving lab does not use OpenSpecimen to track the specimens.
For more details: Distribution
Here’s a summary of the differences:
Property | Distribution | Shipment |
Use case | Sent to researchers for utilization who may or may not be using OpenSpecimen | Sent to another site which uses the same instance of OpenSpecimen |
Actions on Specimen | Distributed event added | Shipment shipped and shipment received events are added. |
Specimen Disposal | An option is available to dispose of the specimens available. If checked, a disposal event added to the specimen | No option to dispose of the specimens while shipping |
Container with specimens | Containers cannot be distributed | Containers can be shipped |
Tracking | Not after the specimen has been distributed | Possible after the specimen has been shipped/received |
Partial Quantity | Partial distribution is possible | Partial shipment is not possible |
Return | An option to return the specimens, fully or partially. A separate return event is added in such a case. | No option to return the shipment. Another shipment has to be created from destination to source. |