Lab Interface Management

Navigate to a lab interface within the Administration > Sites component by selecting the site of interest followed by the lab interface of interest.

Connectivity

Lab interface connectivity status can be monitored on the Site Management page after clicking into a site. If the flow of lab orders/results is not functioning as expected, check this screen first to verify connectivity. The following fields indicate whether or not ClinSpark is effectively communicating electronically with the resulting laboratory:

Polling Results: Indicates whether ClinSpark is configured to poll for result files. If ‘Yes’, ClinSpark will actively query the SFTP result directory for result files. If ‘No’, ClinSpark will not query the result directory.
Polling Confirmations: Indicates whether ClinSpark is configured to poll for order confirmations. If ‘Yes’, ClinSpark will actively query for order confirmations and process asseccion numbers returned by the LIMS system. If ‘No’, ClinSpark will not query for order confirmations.
Connectivity Status: This field marks whether the last attempt at polling was successful or a failure. A check mark indicates that the last polling cycle was successful; and a corresponding ‘Success’ date/time is displayed below. An exclamation mark indicates that the last polling cycle failed; and a corresponding ‘Failure’ date/time is displayed below.
Connectivity Success: Indicates the most recent date/time of successful polling.
Connectivity Failure: Indicates the most recent date/time of failed polling.

Lab Interface Settings

Lab interface connectivity status can be monitored on the Site Management page after clicking into a site. If the flow of lab orders/results is not functioning as expected, check this screen first to verify connectivity. The following fields indicate whether or not ClinSpark is effectively communicating electronically with the resulting laboratory:

Name: Name of the lab interface. Typically the name of the resulting laboratory.
Timezone: Timezone of the resulting laboratory, used for auditability.
Order Directory: SFTP directory location to which ClinSpark will post orders to be picked up by the resulting laboratory.
Poll Results: Indicates whether ClinSpark is configured to poll for result files. If ‘Yes’, ClinSpark will actively query the SFTP result directory for result files. If ‘No’, ClinSpark will not query the result directory.
Result Directory: SFTP directory location to which the resulting laboratory will post results to be picked up by ClinSpark.
Poll Order Confirmations: Indicates whether ClinSpark is configured to poll for order confirmations. If ‘Yes’, ClinSpark will actively query the SFTP confirmation directory for order confirmations and process asseccion numbers returned by the LIMS system. If ‘No’, ClinSpark will not query for order confirmations.
Order Confirmation Directory: SFTP directory location to which the resulting laboratory will post order confirmations to be picked up by ClinSpark.
SFTP Host: The SFTP URL provided by the SaaS host.
SFTP Port: The SFTP port provided by the SaaS host.
SFTP Username: The SFTP username provided by the SaaS host.
SFTP Password: The SFTP password provided by the SaaS host.
SFTP Private Key: Supports an alternative authentication mechanism for a customer-provided SFTP server, instead of username/password.
Sending Application: Name of the application sending orders. Typically “ClinSpark”.
Sending Facility: Name of the facility sending orders. Typically the name of the CPU/CRO site.
Receiving Application: Name of the resulting laboratory LIMS system receiving orders.
Receiving Facility: Name of the resulting laboratory.
Central Laboratory ID: Unique identifier of the resulting laboratory.
Archive: Allows lab interfaces which are no longer in use to be decommissioned. Archival actions can always be reversed.

Result Transfer

Result files (typically in .hl7 format) returned from the reference lab may be accessed by selecting Actions > Result Transfers on the Lab Interface Management screen. These result files are helpful for troubleshooting scenarios in which results are returned to ClinSpark in an unexpected fashion. Result files are uniquely named and the creation date of each file is tracked.

Interface Configuration Audits

Audits are stored for lab interface configuration edits and may be accessed by selecting Actions > Audits on the Lab Interface Management screen. When viewing audits, a user is presented with a comparison of the ‘Audited’ settings configured at the time of the edit against the ‘Current’ configured settings, with changes highlighted.

Delete a Lab Interface

A lab interface may only be deleted if it has not yet been leveraged for study-specific lab configuration. This means that once lab panels have been constructed in the Lab > Configure component for a study by way of a lab interface compendium in the Administration > Sites component, that lab interface may no longer be deleted.

Download Test Template

An Excel ‘Test Template’ may be downloaded from the Lab Interface Management screen to facilitate rapid upload of a test compendium. Particularly useful during initial creation of the global interface for a reference lab, this template may be leveraged to upload the following fields for one-to-many lab tests:

Name**:** Name of the lab test.
Order ID: Unique identifier for the lab test; to be used for test identification by the reference lab.
Reference Range: Acceptable non-numeric test result range used only for eligibility determination. Ranges provided by the reference lab will never be overridden by this field.
Reference Range Low: Acceptable low test result limit used only for eligibility determination. Limits provided by the reference lab will never be overridden by this field.
Reference Range High: Acceptable high test result limit used only for eligibility determination. Limits provided by the reference lab will never be overridden by this field.
Units: Defines the expected units of returned results for organizational purposes. Units provided by the reference lab will never be overridden by this field.
Sex (Both, Male, Female): Defines the gender(s) for which the lab test applies. If a subject does not match the expected sex for a test, the test will be omitted from the order files for that subject.
Result Type (Coded, Numeric, Text, GreaterThan, LessThan, Range): Defines the expected test result data type for organizational purposes. Result data type provided by the reference lab will never be overridden by this field.

Upload Tests

A completed test template may be uploaded to a lab interface to expedite the creation of a compendium. Particularly useful during initial creation of the global interface for a reference lab, a template may be leveraged to upload the fields for one-to-many lab tests. The following fields are required:

Name: Name of the lab test.
Order ID: Unique identifier for the lab test; to be used for test identification by the reference lab.
Sex (Both, Male, Female): Defines the gender(s) for which the lab test applies. If a subject does not match the expected sex for a test, the test will be omitted from the order files for that subject.