Automated freezers, like Hamilton BiOS, are used in high throughput biobanks to reduce the time needed to store and retrieve the samples, and maintain high-quality samples. OpenSpecimen is integrated with Hamilton BiOS at the University of Maryland and can be integrated with other freezers too.

Use cases supported

Pre-registration of Specimen barcodes:

When a specimen is stored in the BiOS freezer, OpenSpecimen will send a message to BiOS pre-register the barcodes. This will ensure that the BiOS will only accept barcodes that are registered in OpenSpecimen.

Retrieve specimens in "one-click"

You can retrieve one or more specimens from BiOS in "one-click". You can do it from many pages in OpenSpecimen. For example,

1. Add specimens to a Cart (Cart → Actions → Retrieve)
2. From Freezer page (Container → Specimens list → Retrieve)
3. From the Order page (Order → Distribute) - Submitting order will automatically retrieve the specimens from BiOS.

Use cases not supported

1. Temperature changes in BiOS
2. Communication is only one-way right now, i.e. OpenSpecimen to BiOS. OpenSpecimen won't be updated if you retrieve a specimen directly in BiOS. This is due to the lack of appropriate "push" APIs in BiOS.

These actions will be supported once BiOS adds the necessary APIs to support them.

Case Study - University of Maryland

Read more (or watch video) about how OpenSpecimen is integrated with Hamilton BiOS at Univ of Maryland.