Create a Project
A 'Project' is a collection of services provided by a biobank to the researcher. Some projects may be simple and include very few services, whereas some projects may include numerous services.
Example: Request to pull frozen cell pellets from inventory, process to RNA/DNA, perform QC (Molecular Review), create aliquots of RNA/DNA, refile remaining RNA/DNA, close frozen cell pellets, review project folder, and pass along to billing.
The projects can be created by any user having access to the biobank (site). The user should assign himself/herself as a PI or collaborator, otherwise, the system would throw an error.
Click the 'Projects' tab from the home screen or navigation menu.
Click on 'Create'.
Enter necessary project details i.e., name of the project, site, principal investigator, collaborators, and click 'Next'.
You will be directed to the 'Add services' page.
Select the level at which you want to manage the services.
You can skip adding services and click 'Save Draft' or 'Submit for Approval'.
Adding specimens to a Project
On the 'Add Services' page, click 'Next'.
Enter specimen labels.
Click 'Submit for Approval'.
You can skip adding specimens and click 'Save Draft' or 'Submit for Approval'.
By default, the services added at the project level appear in all the requests created in that project. In this case, it is not possible to create requests with new services.
The project needs to be approved by the super admin or project admin. Once the project is approved, it gets tagged as 'Approved'. The status of the projects can be viewed on the project list page. Below is a list of project statuses:
Status | Description |
|---|---|
Pending Review | Project is pending approval |
Approved | You can start processing the project requests |
Rejected | If for some reason the project cannot be done, you can reject the project |
Draft | The project is saved as a draft and not submitted for approval |
Add Services to a Project
If you had not added services while creating the project, or you wish to add more services, you can add them by clicking the services tab on the project overview page.
Sort Project Services (v10.0)
To change the sort order of any project service, click on the edit icon and add the sort order number:
Notifications
By default, the notifications are sent to:
Principal Investigator
Collaborator
Project/Request ‘Assigned To’ if any
You can also specify additional users to receive notifications.
Go to the Project overview page.
Click on the 'Notify' tab.
Click in the input window. A list of project users would be displayed.
Select the user and click 'Update'.
If there are no project notification receivers, site coordinators receive the email notifications.
Additionally, you can reply to email notifications from your email account. There is no need to log in to the OpenSpecimen account. The reply gets attached to the requests and can be viewed by clicking the activities tab.
Create Requests
Once a project is created, the researcher can create a request under the project. In a request, the researcher asks the biobank to process the required specimens as per the selected services associated with the Project. The researcher can create multiple requests in a project. If you add specimens while creating a project, a request would be created along with the project.
Go to a project and click the 'Requests' tab from the left-hand side menu and click 'Create' or click on the '+Create' button.
Else, you can also go to the requests list page and click on 'Create Request In,' and select the project.
Add specimens and submit the request for approval (You can also submit a request without specimens and add specimens later on).
Like projects, requests should be approved by the super admin or project admin.
Requests can be viewed from various pages:
By clicking on the “View Requests” button from the projects list view page
Requests list view page
By clicking the “Requests” tab on the project overview page
By clicking on the “View Requests” button from the request overview page (v10.0)
Add Services to Request
The 'Add' button on the request overview page allows you to add services to the request.
Rearrange request services (v10.0)
Once you have added all the services to your request, it is possible to rearrange their order if the initial order was incorrect.
Navigate to the request.
Keep your mouse pointer on either the ID column or the name column and drag.
Drag and drop all the services to the correct sequence and click on 'Save':
Update Status of the Services
Once the request is approved, you can start updating the status of the services e.g., 'Not started', 'In progress', etc. Only site users can record service progress. You can also assign a start date and end date to the service.
Go to the request overview page.
Click the edit icon next to the service.
Select the desired status from the dropdown i.e., Not started, In progress, On Hold, Completed, Won't Do, or Aborted.
Add other details such as start and end date, comments if any, and click update.
By default, the start date/time of the service is set to the current date/time. Once all the services are completed, you can change the status of a request to 'Completed'. If all services are completed, and you try to complete the request, the system throws a message to furnish the reason for completing the project. The completion date provided by you is set as the end date of the request. You can also reopen the completed request if required.
View Activities/Specimens of Request
All the updates of the request can be viewed by clicking the 'Activities' tab.
You can also add a comment by clicking the 'Add comment' tab.
The specimens added to the request can be viewed by clicking the 'Specimens' tab.
Attachment
This tab allows you to upload documents related to the project. For example, Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) document.
Click the 'Attachment' tab from the left-hand sidebar.
Click on the ‘Upload’ button. You can select and upload multiple files.
Alternatively, you can also download the specimen template file, fill in the details and upload it back.
Complete, Abort, and Archive Requests
You can perform the below operations on the requests:
Complete requests: Once all the services of a request are completed, you can click the 'Completed' button to mark it as completed. If any of the services are incomplete, the system will display a message that all services are not complete and prompt you to provide the reason for completing the request deliberately. By default, the current date and time are set as the date and time of completion of the request. However, you can change it by clicking the calendar button.
Abort requests: If for any reason it is not possible to complete the request, e.g., contamination of specimens, you can abort the request by clicking the 'Abort' button.
Archive requests: In instances where no more specimens are to be added to a request or the request has to be closed, you can archive the request by clicking the 'Archive' button.
Email notifications
An email is sent to the PI of the project when a request is created
On changing the status of the request an email notification is triggered to the project principal investigator
Once the request is approved, an email is sent to the PI
On making any changes to the services within the request, below email is triggered to the PI
