To distribute specimens as soon as they are collected, you can use the direct distribution feature. OpenSpecimen allows you to distribute specimens directly from the specimens tree view.

From the visits overview page

Steps:

• Go to the participant's list page of the CP for which the DP is linked and click on any participant from the list.

• Go to the overview page of the ‘Occurred Visit' of the participant by clicking the event label.

• Select the collected specimens from the list, click the ‘Actions’ button, and select the option ‘Distribute.’

• The system directly distributes the selected specimens using the DP set at the CP level.

• The system creates the order and displays it on the orders list page.

Visits last page of the participant

Steps:

• Go to the participant's overview page and click on the 'Visits' icon from the left-side menu.

• Click on any visit from the list.

• Select specimens from the list, click on 'Actions' → 'Distribute.'

• Enter further details and click on 'Distribute' to distribute the specimens.

• Like the distribution of specimens from the visits overview page, you can distribute the specimens from multiple other places using the 'Actions' menu.

• Refer to the 'Bulk Operations On Specimens' page for details on which pages the 'Actions' menu is displayed.

• Go to the overview page of the participant. 

• Click on the 'Specimens' icon from the left-side menu.

• Select specimens from the list, click on 'Actions' → 'Distribute.'

• Enter further details and click on 'Distribute' to distribute the specimens

You can create an order directly by entering or scanning specimen labels. This is useful for use cases where you don’t need to search for specimens to be distributed and have the specimen labels in Excel or to be scanned.

Steps:

• Go to the orders list page and click on ‘+ Create.’

• Enter all the valid details on the ‘Create Order Details’ page and click on the ‘Next’ button.

• Enter or scan comma, tab, or newline-separated specimen labels in the area provided and click on the ‘Add’ button.

• View the specimens list or add new specimens if needed and click on the ‘Next’ button.

• Add services if set at DP level, or click on the ‘Distribute’ button.

• You can view the created order in the list of orders.

• You can view the list of all the distributed specimens on the order's specimens list page with the status ‘Distribute and Close.’

• The system adds the distributed event to the specimens and marks them as ‘Closed’ (if the ‘Dispose All’ checkbox is checked).

• If the 'Dispose of All' checkbox is unchecked, the system adds the status as 'Distributed' but does not mark the specimens as 'Closed.'

• The site admin receives a request for specimens from various resources.

• If researchers are not given direct access to OpenSpecimen, the request might come via phone or email.

• Admin can search for the specimens of interest through the system, create a ‘Cart’ of all the specimens, and distribute them using any distribution protocol.

Pre-requisites

• Create a cart of specimens to be distributed. Refer ‘Add to cart’ page.

• Create a user with a ‘Site Administrator’ or ‘Technician’ Role.

Workflow

• Go to the carts list page and click on the newly created cart, which has the specimens to be distributed.

• Select the specimens from the list, click on the ‘Actions’ button, and select the option ‘Distribute.’

• You can use the ‘Distribute Now’ feature from the dropdown shown in the below popup image that will distribute the specimens directly, or else you can click on the 'Add More Details' option and follow steps from #4 to add more details about the order.

• Enter all valid details on the ‘Create Order’ page and click on the ‘Next’ button OR click on the 'Distribute' button for direct distribution.

• If you add any mandatory custom field such as ‘Name of TMA,’ then the system will throw an error message of validation on the order page.

• You can remove specimens from the cart using the 'Remove From Cart' option from the order add/edit page.

• Add any specimens if needed to the list and click on the ‘Next’ button.

The system displays an error message when the closed specimens are automatically removed from the order, and only open specimens are displayed on the create orders specimen list view page.

• Add services, if added at the DP level, and/or click on the ‘Distribute’ button.

• The system adds ‘Distributed Event’ to the distributed specimen and mark them as ‘Distributed.’

If using the ‘Distribute Now’ option to distribute the specimens, then enter the required details in the comment field as below and click on ‘Distribute’ → ‘Distribute Now’

If distributing specimens by using ‘Add more details’ or directly creating an order, then enter the required details in the sender comment field as below

From the query interface, it is impossible to distribute a large number of specimens, i.e., more than 500 samples. To do that, you have to add all the specimens to the cart and use the ‘Distribute All’ option.

You can select 10000 specimens in one go via a query to distribute the colossal number of specimens. You can use the 'Distribute All' features from the cart.

Steps:

• On the query result view page, click on the ‘Select All’ option to select the specimens.

• Click on the arrow beside the ‘Add to Cart’ button. You can type '$$' in the search bar to search for default carts.

• Select the ‘Cart' under which you want to add the specimens. Clicking on the 'My default Cart’ option navigates you to your default cart.

• If the cart does not exist, you can create one using the 'Create New' option.

• Go to ‘Carts,’ select the cart under which the specimens are distributed.

• Click on the 'Distribute All' option. (Button visible under “Actions” menu from v7.0 onwards)

• A pop-up window will appear. Add the details such as distribution protocol name, comments, and click on the 'Distribute' button.

• Two options, ‘Distribute Now' or 'Add More Details,’ will be displayed.

• On selecting 'Distribute Now,' the specimens will get distributed in “one-click.”

• Clicking on the 'Add More Details' button navigates to a detailed create order page.

• Complete the Order and Submit. For more details about Order, refer to https://openspecimen.atlassian.net/wiki/x/CwB2Dw

You can validate the specimens before adding them to the order by clicking on the "Validate" button. This will check for errors like specimen does not exist, privileges, etc., and provide a popup with statistics. In case of errors, you can click on "Copy to Clipboard" button and paste the error report to a file (like notepad or text).

Indicates the quantity of specimen to be distributed. It can be less or equal to the available quantity. The system has an validation check on the distributed quantity, so if its more than the available quantity the specimens will not be distributed, an error will pop up as below:

Using the 'Copy first to all' option copies the field's first value to all below rows, thus saving the users' efforts to enter values for each row manually.

A temporary location where the specimen will be transferred to and stored until the researcher picks it up (retrieves) for his use. Refer the wiki page for details of how to create a container for holding location.

Using the 'Copy first to all' option copies the field's first value to all below rows, thus saving the users' efforts to enter values for each row manually.

Note:

• You can select the container and position for temporary “Holding Location“ by clicking on the search icon. This option would place the specimens in that specified location.

• You can select the container directly from the dropdown without specifying the position. This would place the specimens in available/empty positions of the container.

  

• Once distributed, the researchers can confirm the pick-up of specimens. They can login and go to the order and click on the specimen tab on the left. They will see all the distributed specimens for that order with the Holding location mentioned under the 'Location' column.

  

• Once the researchers retrieve the specimens, they need to click on the 'Retrieve' button on the top to free the holding location.

Holding location before retrieving the specimen:

Holding location freed after retrieving the specimen:

You can choose whether the specimen being distributed should be closed or kept open after distribution by manually checking/unchecking the 'Close Specimen' checkbox. This allows you to edit the specimen, add more details.

There are certain use cases where the system automatically checks and uncheck the 'Close Specimen' checkbox.

• If the quantity to be distributed is less than the available quantity then the 'Close Specimen' checkbox automatically gets unchecked. Thus the specimen is available for further distribution.

• If the quantity to be distributed is equal to the available quantity then the 'Close Specimen' checkbox automatically gets checked by the system. thus the specimen is closed and cannot be edited or distributed. From v10.1 onwards, users can edit the closed/distributed specimens. Refer to the wiki page https://openspecimen.atlassian.net/l/cp/XYmhDwqx for more details.

• However, if there is a value for 'Holding Location' present, the specimen will always get closed. It will be transferred to the holding location completely and cannot be stored at two locations simultaneously. In case the specimen is to be distributed partly and held in a temporary location, it should be aliquoted into two parts and distributed accordingly.

An order can be saved as a draft order if you are not yet ready with all the details. Click on the 'Save Draft' button on the 'Invoice' page of the order.

The possible reasons for the error are:

1. You don't have privileges to the specimen. Check if the specimens are stored in a site where you do not have access.

2. The CP under which the specimen is collected is linked to a DP. If the CP is linked to DP, then specimens can be distributed only to that DP.

3. Consents are not validated. Applies only if you have configured the consents in CP and DP.

4. The specimen is not available, already distributed or closed, etc.