April 2023

• Print Center – Manufacturing Task Label. Added this sub-screen to allow for the printing of manufacturing task labels.
• Admin Web Site – Product Category Maintenance. Manufacturing Checkbox. Added this check box to mark a product category as manufacturing.
• Admin Web Site – Product Master Maintenance. Date/User maintenance timestamps and product department. Added last maintained date and user information and a product department to the maintenance screen.
• Quality Module Manufacturing. Version Information. Modified the write into the transaction log table to include the date/time of the executable
• Interface Utility. Auto Distribution Logic. Added a routine to the interface utility to allow for the creation of automatic distribution information for sites that “pre-distribute” cases based on an end of day process.
• Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Log. Created this report to allow for reporting on the number of times that the distribution automatic interface job has run, the timing, etc.
• Admin Web Site. Multiple Piece Maintenance. Show RecordNumber. Added a check box to the top of the web page to allow for the display of the multiple piece record number to support sites that need to create multiple piece bar codes.
• Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Exceptions Report. Created this report to show the exceptions that have occurred by the auto distribution robot when this feature is used.
• Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Daily Report. Created this report to provide the detailed view of data from the auto distribution process. This data gets “rolled up” to a summary view.
• Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Summary Report. Created this report to provide visibility to the summary level of data that is generated by the auto distribution “robot”. This is the summary table indicating the actual results of the auto distribution project and is used by the distribution module to determines how cases get routed. This report provides visibility to the data set.
• Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Audit Log. Created this audit log to show exactly how the auto distribution robot created the summary table at an accession level. The report can be used to verify the operations of the process and provides detailed analysis of business rules such as specimen type exclusions and doctor licensure to better enable credentialing personnel to make better decisions about specimen/pathologist mixes in staffing.
• Issue Tracking. Standard Icon buttons. Added the standard picture/icon buttons to the issue tracking (help desk) screens inside Assist to make more visually compatible with the other modules.
• Issue Tracking. Description inclusion in detailed grid. Added as much of the issue tracking description into the detailed grid as would fit to give a better idea of the issue when looking at the list. Also added a free form notes field in the criteria to filter by issue description wild card matches.
• Issue Tracking. Selection Criteria Priority. Added the priority to the selection criteria in the issue tracking module to allow for the filtering of specific issue priorities.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab. Testing sites were not defaultiing correctly by business unit. Corrected this to have the screen default correctly.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab. Holding Site Maintenance Disable Fields. Multiple fields on the holding site maintenance screen were confusing to some sites that do not use those fields. Added configuration choices to disable these fields.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab. Duplication Communcation Log Notes. Found a scenario where the communcation log notes could get duplicated when notes were entered BEFORE going to the test ordering screen. Closed this loophole.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab. Email Library automation. Added the ability to launch pre-formatted emails directly to the email client of choice (ex. Outlook) based on formatted emails much like the attachment library where the email has variables that fill in from the active order.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab. Days left column reset. The days left column was getting reset to zero when a specimen order was saved even if the steps were not changed. It was resetting the number each time to give an artificial deadline extension. Stopped this from happening and only change the number of days left when a step changes.
• Admin Web Site – Business Unit Step Email Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the mapping of business units, specimen order steps, and email library items. This provides the ability to tie the email library into specimen order steps by business unit to customize standard email forms but to do so by BU in case an Assist instance is used by a single organization with multiple business units in the same database.
• Admin Web Site – Communication Log Audit Log. Created this report to provide an audit log of all of the communication log activity that has been done during the processing of specimens and the capture of communication events.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Concentration Interface Report. Created this report to allow for reporting over the equipment concentration interface transactions that have been performed. This interface is inside the sample testing module on the PCR laboratory tab.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution State Priority Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of state codes along with a priority value. This data is used in the auto distribution algorithm to allow for certain client states to be prioritized at a higher value when performing auto distribution in case their is limited doctor licensure to read the cases (i.e., distribution them first so that the eligible doctors are not consumed from a quota perspective on other states).

May 2023

• Universal Cassette Queue – Quantity Column. Added the cassette quantity to the cassette queue grid so that the number of cassettes to be printed by an individual row is visible.
• Universal Slide POU – Client Accession Tracking. Added logic to write to the client accession tracking table when processing PC/TC client private labelled slides so that a cross reference can be kept of the number of client blocks processsed along with any cross reference back to company LIS accession to be used for ensuring block counts and billing reimbursement.
• Universal Cassette Queue – Hide Instructions and Quantity options. Added logic to provide for the suppression of the Instructions and quantity.
• Universal Slide POU – Client Accession Tracking Logic. Added extensive logic to allow for additional parsing rules to be called and processed when working with block that originated from outside of an organization (i.e., a client block). Often the rules for these objects do not match the internal rules where the bar codes can be controlled and this new logic algorithm allows for some “out of the norm” rules when handling. This provides laboratories with greater flexibility when absorbing technical component work.
• Legacy Scanner Engine – Client Accession Tracking Logic. Added logic to the legacy scanning engine (typically Microtomy) to allow for the successful scanning of client blocks utilizing the new client accession tracking logic and any matching slides that were printed under the same ruleset.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance. Client Prefix Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for marking an an accession prefix as being a client accession prefix as opposed to an internal use. This allows for different parsing rules when processing the bar codes.
• Admin Web Site – Client Accession Prefix Maintenance. Multiple fields associated with parsing a client accession number for received blocks were added to the screen.
• Accessioning – Not Specified Specimen Type. If a specimen had a type associated to it, and a subsequent scan was performed with a specimen type of “not specified” the original value was left in the database and was not getting removed. Corrected this and also wrote the delete transaction to the audit log for traceability.
• Universal Module – Protocol Display (Brain Button). Was suppressing from view any slide that was configured as a blank slide. Modified to show the text “No Instruction” if a blank slide is going to print as part of the protocol package.
• Accessioning Module – Specimen Type Changes. MultiCassette Choice. Added logic to the Accessioning module when writing to the specimen type tracking table to include the cassette identifier (i.e., part) or not.
• Accessioning Module – Specimen Type Clear on Save. Added a configuration choice to the accessioning module to allow for the specimen type to clear as each specimen is processed or to stay in place.
• Distribution Module – Client Accession Tracking Logic. Added extensive logic to the distribution module to allow for the processing of client blocks/slides for PC/TC work compatibility using the new logic that was put in place at other data collection points in the Assist workflow. This allows for the customization of the parsing engine to support bar code logic that does not match the internal parsing logic of the normal lab bar codes.
• Distribution Module – Sequence Addition and Manifest Inclusion. Modified the distribution module to write the sequence number into the database if relevant and also included the ability to print the sequence number on the manifest.
• Main Scanner Engine – Embedded Specimen Type Scanner Capability. Added logic to allow for the scanning of specimen type bar codes when the specimen type override view is displayed. Previously, the scanner was de-activated when this view was displayed which meant selections had to be made using the mouse.
• Quality Module Manufacturing – Screen Error Traps. Added detailed error traps into the manufacturing quality module to provide extended troubleshooting when an error is encountered. With all of the interfaces and image processing done by this module, it provides extended error messaging to help support personnel in determine the cause of issues.
• Admin Web Site – Image Review. Delete Button Changes. The delete button did not work if the actual image was no longer at the location represented by the UNC path on the image view. If the images have been physically purged or corrupted, there was no way to remove the placeholder from Assist. Modified to still allow for deletion in the event that the file was not actually present at the location.
• Quality Module Manufacturing – Login Screen. Standard Buttons. Modified the screen to use standard picture buttons instead of words to be compatible with other modules.
• Admin Web Site – Client Accession Tracking Report.  Created this report to provide visibility to the client accession tracking information that is part of the technical component/professional component logic built into Assist to support laboratories that product slides for outside entities. It provides tracking of the objects received and what objects (typically slides) that got produced for the client.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Slide label print with client accession. If the client accession (i.e., alias) had part information specified that needed to print, it was set to print on seperate x/y coordinates from the alias/client accession which made it challenging to line up correctly. Added a configuration flag to append the specimen/part to the accession number to make the data more visually appealing.
• Sample Testing – Cytogenetics Tab. Cell Count settings apply all. Changed the logic on the feature where the cell count and volume settings apply across all cultures on an accession. Changed the logic so that this is still true but only if the culture type is not an enrichment culture type.
• Admin Web Site – Culture Type Maintenance. Drop Prep and Enrichment type checkboxes. Added these two checkboxes to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of what kind of culture type is being created/maintained so that different algorithms can be processed based on the culture type.
• Admin Web Site – Client Accession Print Log. Created this report to provide visibility to the client accession objects that have been printed. This is part of the Processional/Technical component logic built into Assist. This is a listing of the slides (typically) that are printed based on client blocks.
• Doctor Module – Tab Order Logic. Changed the way that tabs are called from a hot key perspective. The actual tab names are used to identify the correct tab page number rather than calling based on the numbers which could cause issues if tab order was changed around.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor Maintenance. Doctor Schedule Maintenance. Capacity Percentage. Added this field to the doctor schedule screen to allow for an indication of a doctor not working a full load for a day (i.e., taking  a half day) as part of the new auto distribution logic.
• Admin Web Site – MFG Case Status Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the manufacturing section of Assist. This allows for the status of a case to be tracked and have values mapped to multiple LIS platforms to tie status values together.
• QC Module Out. LIS Status Check Interface. Added logic to the manufacturing quality module to check for a status inside the LIS using the status cross reference table. This was done to provide visibility to the fact that a case that is actively being worked on in the faciity may have been cancelled or held in the underlying LIS or ERP system.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Summary Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for direct maintenance/intervention over the data created by the auto distribution robot. This allows for overrides of data when a situation has changed from when the AI processed what doctor should get what cases for processing.
• Admin Web Site – On Call List Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of on call lists. This is part of the feature set that allows for the various Assist screens to provide visibiity of on call information to reduce the amount of printing of call lists for the facility.
• Admin Web Site – Interface Type Maintenance. Add Last Record, Last Date, and LIS. Added the last record number, last date value, and LIS fields to the interface type maintenance screen to allow for improved functionality with some of the interface jobs controlled by the various Assist interface robots. By providing both record number and date, the data migration/replication jobs can process data based on either methodology.
• Admin Web Site – Interface Transaction Type Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability filter/categorize the interface records into transaction types (i.e., A – Add, P – Purge, etc) as needed by the various interface engines.
• Admin Web Site – On Call Area Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of on call areas. This is part of the new feature in the Assist modules to show call lists for employees. Call areas represent an area of company (ex. Maintenance, Security) for which contact information needs to be made available to staff.
• Admin Web Site – On Call List Details Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of on call detail information. This is part of the new feature in the Assist modules to show contact information for whom to contact when there are problems. This is the lowest level of data and includes names, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.
• Robot – Distribution Auto Interface. Modified to include doctor percentage capacity logic. Modified the AI engine for the automatic distribution robot to include doctor filtering by percentage of capacity. Added functionality to allow this to be done by standard percentage all the time for a doctor vs. a percentage override for a specific calendar day (ex. Working a half day).
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Audit Log. Case totals and percentage. Add the case totals, percentages and total cases to the audit log for the automatic distribution AI robot to make the data more meaningful.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance. Default Case Percentage. Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of a default case percentage to assign for a doctor. This value is used by the automatic distribution AI robot when determining how to assign cases to doctors.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor Schedule Maintenance. Default Schedule Percentage. Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of an override percentage to be used for a doctor on a specific day. This value is used by the automatic distribution AI robot when determining how to assign cases to doctors.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Doctor Report – Created this report to provide summary level visibility to the automatic distribution assignment of cases to doctors by the AI robot.
• Admin Web Site - Equipment Interface Maintenance – Acknowledgement File Suffix. Modified this maintenance screen to allow for the entry of a seperate file suffix filter just for acknowledgements. This allows the interface return files to be in the same directory as the send files without there being an issue.
• Sample Testing – FISH Tab. Batch Status. Added the batch status to the grid and added color coding to make them easy to stand out. Also added the FISH batch status to the selection criteria in order to filter the data being displayed.
• Sample Testing – FISH Tab. Batch Dropdown. Added color coding to the drop down to indicate open vs. pending. Added all “non-closed” values to the drop down. Added functionality to the status drop down in the change area to be used as either criteria or the save status.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Detail Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for direct maintenance/intervention over the data created by the auto distribution robot. This allows for overrides of data when a situation has changed from when the AI processed what doctor should get what cases for processing. This is at the detail level before case summarization has been performed.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Exception Summary. Created this report to provide summary level counts of the exceptions that were generated by the auto distribution AI robot so that management decisions can be made regarding licensure, case type/specimen mixes, etc.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Not Assigned. Created this report to provide visibility to the accession number records that have been generated by the AI distribution robot but that have not been distributed.
• Stain Queue – Assist Activation Error. The stain queue did not have a message indicating a warning if an activation record was not found. Added a message to better troubleshoot when a configuration is not set correctly.

June 2023

• Universal Slide POU. Upper Case Protocols. Added logic to allow for two configuration flags to print the human readable in upper case only for the protocol and also for the value that goes into the bar code.
• Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Summary Report. Added Distribution date, active flag, and distributed doctor to this report.
• Admin Web Site – MFG Task Bundle Maintenance. Modified this screen to allow for a retrieve of all bundles without having to know an existing one. Previously, you had to specify a task before clicking retrieve instead of being able to see all of them.
• Universal Cassette POU – On Call Information. Added a on call button to the cassette POU screen that will show all of the “on call” phone numbers defined for a site. This can be used to eliminate the need for on call lists of paper printed out in the laboratory.
• Universal Slide POU – On Call Information. Added a on call button to the slide POU screen that will show all of the “on call” phone numbers defined for a site. This can be used to eliminate the need for on call lists of paper printed out in the laboratory.
• Sample Testing. PCR Tab Concentration Entry. There were issues with the concentration values when performing manual overrides/saves. Modified the logic to allow for specification of which value is being manually updated and added logic to handle overrides.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Doctor Order Review (magnifying glass). When this button was clicked to display the doctor order listing, the sequence number was not visible for either the doctor orders or the sample testing orders (before doctor order generation). Added the sequence to both grids.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Order Generation Audit trail. The order master audit trail was not getting created when a “doctor order” was created using the sample testing module. The audit data is generated when orders are submitted from the interfaces, doctor module, or closeout screen, but there was an exclusion from Sample Testing which made research challenging if all of these modules are in use in a facility. Added this auditing step.
• Universal Slide POU. Doctor Order Grid. Sequence Number visibility. The sequence number was loaded into the doctor order grid, but was not visible. Modified the screen load to show this “S” column.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. When a template is specified, it was assuming that the sequence should start at 1. If individual material had been specified before the template or if two or more templates were utilized, the sequences would be duplicated on the same specimen. Modified the template addition to look for the last selected sequenece number to start the next number.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Default Printers. The configurations settings for the default block and unstained slide were the same. Created a new configuration value of “DefaultBlockPrinter” so that the block printer default can be specified without impacting the unstained slide value.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Material Order Pop Up Screen. Modified the deletion button press to verify that doctor orders have not already been generated. If orders have been generated, throw an error to the screen to notify that the orders need to be cancelled for verification that the specimen is not already being worked in a different part of the lab.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Delete All Option. Modified this check box associated with the delete button to allow for a full delete of all material against a sample. This can only be done if no orders have been generated against the material order. If orders have been placed, the steps must be taken to ensure no one is working on the order and it is cleared using the order modification pop up screen.
• Sample Testing. PCR Tab. Vial Label Printing. The notation values specified against an existing PCR extraction order was causing the notation portion of the bar code to repeat if the label count was greater than one, which made the bar code size increase. Fixed this issue to only reflect the notation once in the bar code.
• Sample Testing. PCR Tab. Extraction View order type duplication. When notations were used against a single PCR order, the data in the grid was repeating for each extra notation (i.e., N1, T1, etc.) This was causing a many to many join situation and was causing odd behavior when listing the order type and printing.
• Sample Testing. Specimen Ordering. Email Library. When the email prompts were being passed into the email program of choice (ex. Outlook), the preformatted email messages were getting set as all upper case regardless of how the data was entered into Assist. Corrected this issue.
• Sample Testing. Specimen Ordering. Attachments Library. When using the interactive forms logic, the various variables were getting set as all upper case regardless of how the data was entered into Assist. Corrected this issue.
• Sample Testing. Specimen Ordering. Holding Site Maintenance. Added red asterisk values that can be controlled via the configuration to mark various fields on the screen as mandatory.
• Sample Testing. Specimen Ordering. Email Library Functionality. Modified the email library to include a feature to filter form emails by business unit or an “always available” flag.
• Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Maintenance. Production Hold checkbox. Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen to provide the ability to note a case hold reason as one that would halt production.
• Admin Web Site – Email Library Maintenance. Always available and default business unit. Added these two fields to the maintenance screen to allow for filtering of the email library by business unit and to allow for always present members of the library.
• Sample Testing – Shipping Tab. Not all objects showing. Found an issue where if there was a duplicated object (i.e. same block twice) that the routine to load the details available for return was getting exited without displaying all of the details. Fixed this issue to ignore the duplicates and keep loading subsequent information.
• Admin Web Site – Tissue Size Maintenance. Case Hold Reason. Added a drop down for the specification of a case hold reason to be associated with a tissue size value. This can be used to automatically put cases on hold based on the tissue run they are on.
• Admin Web Site – Tissue Size Maintenance. Moved this maintenance screen into the equipment category of the maintenance area to logically group the screen with the function.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Usage Report. Detail View. Most Recent Date. Added a “most recent” date field to this report to show the last scan date/time for an accession number.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Order Generation. Added two new fields when creating doctor order records to capture the configuration number of the sample testing module (in case there are more than one) and the configuration code to allow for discernment of the sample testing module vs. other methods of generating a doctor order (i.e., doctor module, closeout, universal, etc.) to provide more advanced audit trails.
• Universal Slide POU. Loading Submitted Testing Routine. Modified this routine to write to the doctor order audit table when a record is pulled directly from the submitted testing database and added the fields for where the data came from and the configuration.
• Admin Web Site. Doctor Order Audit Report. Sequence Number. Added the sequence number to this audit report.
• Admin Web Site. Order Master Audit Report. Sequence Number. Added the sequence number to this audit report.
• Admin Web Site. Doctor Order Listing. Added the sequence number to this report. Also combined the various accession number related fields into the single “full accession” field. Cleaned up the selection criteria section of the screen to be more visually appealing. Changed the sort order to show by date, then accession.
• Admin Web Site. Material Submission Report. Created this report to provide visibility to the high level information regarding material submissions. The report includes the date/time of the “package” header, the material records and any testing assigned to the materials.
• Universal Slide POU. Auto Generate Doctor Orders. Modified this routine to write to the doctor order audit table when a record is pulled directly from the submitted testing database and added the fields for where the data came from and the configuration.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Material detail save and specimen type. The screen was writing “empty” specimen type tracking transactions if no specimen type was specified. This was not really causing any issue but was generating unneccessary data. Elimintated the transaction if no specification has been made.
• Universal Slide POU. Generate doctor orders from material submission issue. There is a routine in the universal slide that looks at the material submission testing for any orders that should be processed but were not generated in the sample testing module. This was intended to be a “failsafe” for forgetting to press the “generate orders” button in the sample testing module. BUT, the routine did not factor in the material types that have the “suppress orders” check box set and were pulling forward orders for materials that should be skipped. Resolved this to work as expected and factor in this flag.
• Sample Testing. Object Conversion Tracking Logic. Found a flaw in the object conversion tracking logic. The check to see if an object was already in existance was not operating correctly causing the number of objects to become higher than it should. Resolved this issue.
• Sample Testing. Fish tab. Screen reload button. Added a button to the screen to allows for wiping out changes to the selection criteria and take them back to screen load.
• Check In Module. Day End Status Button. Added a visual button to the screen to reflect the last day end transaction (based on day end type) to provide visibility for check in operators of the status of day end.
• Check In Module. Tissue Run Auto Case Hold. Added logic to pull into the tissue size drop down the indication of whether or not a tissue run should put the accessions placed on the run into automatic case hold based on the reason specified on the tissue size maintenance screen.
• Check In Module. Case Hold Automatic Addition. Added logic to the check in process to automatically put all cases on a tissue run onto case hold if the tissue run selected was an automatic case hold run. If a case hold is already in place for the same reason, it will be removed before a new one is put back (to establish an accurate timeline). A write will be done to the active case hold table as well as the history audit log.
• Check In Module – Automatic Timer Countdown Close. The only vehicle for marking a tissue processor run as complete has historically been the scoreboard countdown timer. Not all sites use this module. Added functionality to the main module when the processor history checkbox is loaded to close all runs that are beyond their end time. This does NOT mark them as unloaded, just as finished. It will come up to two days past to get historical OR the actively selected batch.
• Check In Module – Automatic case hold removal. Added logic to automatically remove any case holds that were placed on the accessions in a tissue run by the process of loading the tissue run discussed above.
• Check In Module – Case Hold Button. Added the “standard” case hold button to this module. Provided the ability to turn case holds on and off via the screen. Set the case hold reasons up to respond to scanned codes instead of pure drop down.
• Check In Module – Existing Case Hold Processing. Modified the logic of this module to check for case holds at object scan (ex. cassette). If hold is found, turn the case hold button red, make a beeper error sound and launch the case hold screen view with the existing case hold shown in the drop down (and disabled) with the “delete” as the only choice. These settings are all in the configuration for change as needed.
• Scanner Module – Case Components Screen Size. Widened the screen to allow for less horizontal scrolling of the case components area.
• Scanner Module – Case Components Information Changes. Modified the case components logic to allow for the tissue processor run information to be broken down into the various components and added as child “nodes” to the tree and collapsed them to the parent level. Processor batch, tissue run, equipment, run count were added as children.
• Scanner Module – Case Components Information Additions. Modified to add pieces to the tree. This was also available underneath the main section of the screen but included it into the tree so that the piece counts of all specimens in the accession could be seen at the same time if needed.
• Scanner Module – Login Screen Buttons. Modified the buttons to be the standard size and to be icon buttons instead of text buttons to be standard with the rest of the module.
• Scanner Module – Case Components Information Additions. Case Hold Information. Added case hold transactions to the tree so that visibility would be provided to show why a portion of a case might not be available with the other components. All case hold transactions are visible.
• Scanner Module – Case Components Information Case Hold Headers. Placed the literal values for the case hold “tree” into the configuration for simply tweaking. Also added color coding to the release vs. hold on the case details.
• Scanner Module – Standard Image buttons. Continued the process of converting more “text buttons” to be the standard image buttons to increase consistency.
• Scanner Module – Case Hold Screen. Include Cassette Checkbox default. There was no setting to allow for the defaulting of the checkbox for including the cassette identifier on the case hold screen. Added this.
• Scanner Module – Case Components Information Changes. Added the ability to include embedding information in the “tree” as well.
• Admin Web Site – Recipe BOM Listing. Created this report as part of the inventory functional area to provide visibility to the list of “recipes” and their bill of materials. These can be finished goods recipes or sub assemblies.
• Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance. Lock Material After Hours. Added this checkbox to allow for “locking” a material type to not allow delete at the point that it has had orders placed against it. This prevents the deleting of a paraffin block after hours have been submitted to the lab.
• Sample Testing Module. Receiving Tab. Material Submission Audit Log. Added a new audit log table to the database and put write transactions in place for every add, update, or delete to a submission so that a data “chain of custody” audit trail exists.
• Admin Web Site – Material Type Group Maintenance. Created this screen to provide for maintenance over material type groups. These groups are used to categorize material types by the “sub labs” they may go into for filtering purposes (Ex. PCR, FISH, etc.)
• Admin Web Site – Material Type Grouping. Created this screen to provide for the association of material type groups with material types. This allows for better filtering of material types to reflect only the items that should be in use inside specific functional areas of a facility.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Detail Delete. Modified the delete routine to not allow the deleting of material types with the lock value checked (#2) if doctor orders have been generated even if not for the individual object being deleted.
• Sample Testing – FISH Tab. Material Type Grouping Criteria. Added the material type grouping to the selection criteria and added logic to use this in retrieving specimen orders.
• Stain Queue – Manual Entry. Found an issue with the location identifier for sites using the Pathway LIS where the year was getting left off the location identifier on a manually typed entry. Correct this issue.
• Interface Utility – Case Components Robot. Previously, the case components robot only looked at “transaction” data (i.e., Grossing, Embedding, Microtomy, etc.). Modified the routine to also consider distribution and equipment tracking (check in) to give a better view of objects.
• Doctor Closeout – New Fields. Added new fields to the closeout including the source of the orders and the configuration number of how the screen was built when the order was written. Also standardized the screen buttons to be icon buttons instead of words to be consistent with the other Assist modules.
• Doctor Module – New Fields. Added new fields to the doctor module ordering including the source of the orders and the configuration number of how the screen was built when the order was written. Also standardized the screen buttons to be icon buttons instead of words to be consistent with the other Assist modules.
• Sample Testing – FISH Tab. Batch Type/Order Type Filter. Added a checkbox to the screen (based on configuration) to allow for a filter of FISH orders based on the batch type/order type grouping maintenance screen. This can be used in conjunction or instead of the material type grouping to derive the needed list of FISH orders.
• Admin Web Site – On Call Report – Created this report to provide visiblity to the on call information (i.e. call lists, after hours, etc.) that can be entered into Assist and be viewed in the various module.
• Check In Module. Case Components Logic. Added case component tracking logic to the check in module. This is logic that keeps track of the last touch point for a specimen/object and was previously only written by a robot job.
• Admin Web Site. Case Hold Reason Maintenance. Show Record Number option. Added this check box to the screen to allow for display of the database record number to help with making custom bar codes.
• Admin Web Site. Timer Countdown Report. Case Hold Reason. Added the case hold reason to the report to reflect automatic case holds that exist on timer countdown data.
• Admin Web Site. Case Components Tracking Report. New Fields. Added the sequence number, deactivated by record, and DBTableCode fields to the report.
• Quality Module Extended. Auto Update Feature. Made some fixes to the quality module auto update feature to ensure functionality and also to capture the prior and current date/time stamps of the executable into the installation history reporting.
• Admin Web Site. Software Installation History Report. Added fields for the original and updated software executable to this report and also added the installation message (i.e., success or failure).
• QC Module Extra – End Task Button. Added this button to the screen to allow for the explicit ending of an open task without requiring the existence of the end task bar code.

July 2023

• Sample Testing. Cytogenetics tab. The “Suppress” closed checkbox in the selection criteria was not working correctly. This was fixed.
• Sample Testing. Cytogenetics tab. Grid default view. The status value for specimens that have not been worked yet were showing with a blank status column. Changed the “no status” value to be “None” rather than an empty cell in the grid for better clarity. Did the same thing for the culture date if there is no date because the culture has not been created yet.
• Sample Testing. Cytogenetics tab. Selection criteria changes. Added a “suppress closed” checkbox for the culture status (order status already existed) to add more flexibility. Set this checkbox to “off” by default.
• Sample Testing. Cytogenetics tab. Culture Tracking and Audit Log Changes. Added several fields to the culture tracking and audit log tables to make the audits more meaningful in regard to where data came from with the new data specifically being the computer name and the software version.
• Sample Testing. Cytogenetics Tab. Audit log clearing. Noticed when working with the cyto tab that when switching accession numbers that the audit log was not clearing on the click of the retrieve button which could make the screen confusing as the audit trail from a prior record was being displayed. Now the grid clears on retrieval.
• Admin Web Site – Culture Tracking Audit Log. Modified the report to include the machine name and software version that made the changes.
• Admin Web Site – Culture Tracking Report. Modified the report to include the machine name and software version that made the last change to the data.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Vial label print with multi part information. The specimen letter was not printing in either the human readable OR bar code. Added configuration options to print or suppress these values as needed.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Tracking Analysis Report – Batch Number Criteria. Added the batch number to the selection criteria to allow for improved data filtering.
• Admin Web Site – Timer Countdown Report – Batch Number Criteria. Added the batch number to the selection criteria to allow for improved data filtering.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Tracking Report – Batch Number Criteria. Added the batch number to the selection criteria to allow for improved data filtering on both the summary and detail version of this report. Also added the batch number to the report. Added formatting to the full accession number to add dashes to make the report data more visually appealing.
• Check In Module – Auto Batch Close. Added logic to the check in routine to determine whether or not a check should be performed for open processor batches. If any are found with an end date less than the current date, they are closed. This feature should only be activated if the “unload process” is not being used to indicate when a processor run batch should be closed.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Category Maintenance. Category Metric Value. Added this value to the specimen category maintenance screen to make the information available in automatic distribution. This value can be used instead of or as an adjunct to the metric values that can be specified at the specimen type level.
• Universal Cassette POU. Case Hold Changes. Modified the case hold entry screen to include comments and reorganized the screen to be more logical.
• Universal Cassette POU. Case Hold Reason Scanning. Added logic to allow for the scanning of case hold reasons. If this is scanned from the main grossing screen, it immediately presents the case hold screen as if the button were pressed and positions the case hold reason drop down to the bar code value scanned.
• Universal Cassette POU. Requisition Switch with no bottle. Found a couple of visual changes that needed to be made with how the error condition is handled when a second requisition is scanned after the first with no child scan. Modified the error reset on no error inside requisition to clear the screen.
• QA Out Module. Task Being rejected error. There was a problem inside the routine for loading rework data to the screen that was causing an erroneous message of “Taks does not exist for the selected MSP”. Fixed this issue.
• QA Out Module. Clear rework data on new case. Found an issue where the rework tab was still showing information from a prior case if there was no rework data on the current case. Set the retrieval routine to clear the screen before attempting to load new data.
• QA Out Module. Rework Audit Log Capture. Added logic to the rework request process to introduce an audit trail capturing all of the rework request transactions to see all of the changes over time.
• QA Out Module. Rework Audit Log Toggle. Added a toggle choice to the rework screen to provide for display of rework request active data as well as providing visibility to the new audit log data to see all of the transactions associated with the rework request.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor Schedule Override Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the specification of schedule override information for doctors in terms of workload quotas and such for sites that take advantage of distribution limitations.
• Admin Web Site – Rework Reason Audit Log. Created this report to provide visibility to the newly created rework reason audit log.
• Admin Web Site – Client Accession Prefix Maintenance. Sample bar code and comments fields have been added to this maintenance screen to allow for entry of the bar code that the prefix is designed to handle. Comments are also provided to allow for a detailed description.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Tracking Analysis Report. Run Start/Run End columns. Added these two columns to the report to provide additional information.
• Admin Web Site – Material Submission Audit Log. Created this report to provide visibility to the detailed audit log that is written to any time a material submission record is modified.
• Universal Slide POU – Order Master Update Changes. With the routine that automatically prints doctor orders at cassette scan, it was discovered that the status was changing but the last changed user/date fields were not getting modified and no record was getting written to the audit log to reflect the status change. Corrected this to record both.
• Sample Testing - FISH Detail Audit Log. Modified the FISH tab so that the transactions adding accession to and removing from batches go into an audit log for more detailed tracking.
• Sample Testing – FISH Tab Audit Log. Added an audit log tab to the FISH batch details area to show full audit trail information in regard to FISH batches.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor Schedule Defaults Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the specification of default values of case capacity and case metrics for a doctor with an effective start and end date. While capacity values can be specified at the distribution location level, this allows for an effective start/end of default changes from the values for the doctor in general.
• Check In Module. Software Time Stamp. Modified the check in write to the equipment tracking table to include the executable date/time stamp to help in determining version information.
• Universal Cassette POU. Case Hold Functionality Changes. Added logic to how the case hold functionality works. Added the ability to look at the production hold vs. “information only” case hold information. Also provided detailed ability to view all of the case hold information on the case hold view rather than just the description (ex. WHO put the case on hold and WHEN).
• Accessioning Module. Software Time Stamp. Software Time Stamp. Modified the check in write to the equipment tracking table to include the executable date/time stamp to help in determining version information.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Tracking Analysis. Modified this report to sort by tracking start date if “include date” is selected rather than just by the date without the time stamp to make the data show in true chronilogical order.
• Accessioning/Opening Module. Login Panel standard buttons. Modified the login and cancel buttons to be standard picture buttons.
• Admin Web Site. Client Accession Prefix Maintenance. Delimiter Package Drop down. Added this drop down to the maintenance screen so that delimiter packages can be specified for specific client prefixes to handle technical component work.
• Admin Web Site. Delimiter Package Maintenance. Comments field addition. Added a free form comments field to the screen to allow for a detailed description to be entered to explain the purpose of the delimiter package.
• Distribution Module. View Options Grouping. Added a view options group box to the upper right-hand corner of the screen. This view option will provide additional choices between manifest view, auto distribution views, etc. to meet the increased demand for viewing options.
• Distribution Module. Manifest Printing Area. Reorganized the manifest printer choices to make them more visually appealing and decreased the font size to allow for more information to be displayed on the screen. This was also done in anticipation of adding alternate printer choices to the screen.
• Distribution Module. Alternate Printer Logic. Added a second printer and checkbox to the manifest printing area. This allows for the specification of an “alternate” printer. This was done to simplify the transactions for users that wanted to print a physical copy of a manifest to a paper printer as well as an electronic copy to a fax printer and/or PDF printer without having to go through a reprint process.
• Sample Testing. Tracking Tab. Reorganized several cosmetic items on the tracking tab to have the screen make more visual sense. Added defaults to the view choice between transactions and zone scan information. Added accession information to the selection criteria to allow for better filtering. Added a check to make sure an employee is logged in before allowing data retrieval.
• Sample Testing. Tracking Tab. The zone scan side of the tracking tab was already operational and working fine but the transactional side of the inquiry was not in place. Added the ability to display transactions from a chain of custody standpoint over the main transactional audit log.
• Sample Testing. Tracking Tab. Extended the transactional scanning data stream to include equipment tracking (ex. tissue processors and other equipment loading touchpoints) to provide more in depth information on the chain of custody information on a specimen and/or accession.
• Sample Testing. Tracking Tab. Extended the transactional scanning data stream to include distribution data (ex. doctor slide distribution, send outs) to provide more in depth information on the chain of custody information on a specimen and/or accession.
• Sample Testing. Tracking Tab. Extended the transactional scanning data stream to include warehouse data (ex. banking) to provide more in depth information on the chain of custody information on a specimen and/or accession.
• Accessioning Module. Default cassette identifier specimen type tracking. Found an issue where the “type” of cassette identifier flag “A/N” was getting written into the specimen type tracking table, which was not valid. Corrected this to be the value “A” or “1” if data is written and implied values are in play.
• Admin Web Site – Block Slide Instructions Maintenance. Description criteria. Added a description criteria field to allow for the filtering of data ont he screen by wildcard character matching.
• Accessioning Module – Case Hold Functionality Changes. Added logic to how the case hold functionality works. Added the ability to look at the production hold vs. “information only” case hold information. Also provided detailed ability to view all of the case hold information on the case hold view rather than just the description (ex. WHO put the case on hold and WHEN). Brought this feature set up to the same standard as the universal module for grossing to be consistent.
• Accessioning Module – Case Hold Reason Scanning. Added the ability to scan case hold bar codes to select the appropriate case hold reason from the dropdown listing when the case hold panel is visible.
• Scanner Engine – Case Hold Functionality Changes. Added logic to how the case hold functionality works. Added the ability to look at the production hold vs. “information only” case hold information. Also provided detailed ability to view all of the case hold information on the case hold view rather than just the description (ex. WHO put the case on hold and WHEN). Brought this feature set up to the same standard as the universal module for grossing to be consistent.
• Universal Slide POU. Case Hold Functionality Changes. Added logic to how the case hold functionality works. Added the ability to look at the production hold vs. “information only” case hold information. Also provided detailed ability to view all of the case hold information on the case hold view rather than just the description (ex. WHO put the case on hold and WHEN). Brought this feature set up to the same standard as the universal module for grossing to be consistent.

August 2023

• Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance. Special Stain Filter. Added a checkbox to the selection criteria to allow for filtering of special stains to allow for finding stains vs. recuts, deepers, etc. in a more timely manner.
• Distribution Module – Inbound Manifest Logic. Modified the logic of the inbound process to remove the manifest selection. Previously, if a manifest were active and inbound scans were performed, they got added to the manifest which was incorrect processing.
• Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Rate Report. Clear Employees Button. Added a “Clear” button to this screen to allow for the removal of all employee filters from the list box on the screen.
• Admin Web Site – Block Slide Instructions Maintenance. Protocol Magazine Override checkbox. Added this checkbox to allow for the specification of whether the block slide instructions record should override the protocol magazine for sites that have complicated slide magazine selection logic.
• Admin Web Site – Object Storage Report. Date of service and sort order. Added the date of service column to the report and provided the ability to sort based on this date of service field OR the transaction date (i.e., scan date) via a selection area.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance. Order type deactivation check. Modified the order type maintenance screen to check to ensure that there are no active orders against an order type before allowing it to be deactivated.
• Warehouse Module – Warehouse Inquiry. Included the date of service field on the details section of the inquiry.
• Warehouse Module – Warehouse Inquiry. Free Form Accession Prefix Criteria. Added a checkbox to the inquiry to allow for the entry of free form prefix criteria instead on only having the choice of choosing from the drop down list.
• Warehouse Module – Warehouse Inquiry. Date of Service Criteria. Added the from/to date of service as a criteria option on the inquiry screen. Also added the field to main grid view and changed the accession number field to display as a formatted accession number rather than listing in each of the component parts.
• Main Scanner Engine – Block Request Screen. Standard Buttons. The batch block request screen did not make use of standard buttons for the print and cancel. Added the standard picture buttons to make the screen consistent.
• Distribution Module – Manifest Utility – Reworked this pop up screen to clean up the functionality of how to modify manifest data. The screen was simplified and changes were made to make the screen more visually appealing.
• Distribution Module – Manifest Print Changes. Modified the manifest print routines both from the utility screen and the main screen to include the protocol value for slides and to move around the layout in both summary and landscape mode to make the reports more visually appealing.
• Distribution Module – Overdue Warning Button. Added a “green/red” button to the top right hand section of the screen to reflect a count of objects that are overdue based on a configuration value for number of days. This reflects items send OUTBOUND with “RETURN EXPECTED” that have not been scanned back in via distribution or warehouse.
• Scoreboard Module – Case Hold Scoreboard – Created a scoreboard to show outstanding case hold records. Shows the total in the header and the most recent “X” active case holds with the “X” deteremined by configuration.
• Scoreboard Module – Case Rush Scoreboard. Created a scoreboard to show outstanding case hold records. Shows the total in the header and the most recent “X” active case holds with the “X” deteremined by configuration.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance. Overdue Days. Added an overdue days text box to the distribution location maintenance screen to allow for the customization of the definition of an overdue case by distribution location.
• Warehouse Module - Overdue Warning Button. Added a “green/red” button to the top right hand section of the screen to reflect a count of objects that are overdue based on a configuration value for number of days. This reflects items send OUTBOUND with “RETURN EXPECTED” that have not been scanned back in via distribution or warehouse.
• Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab. Max Rows Addition. Added a row count box to the screen to add a “maximum” number of rows that can be returned to prevent a huge amount of data being requested and locking up the screen.
• Admin Web Site – Object Storage Transactions Report. Date Of Service. Added the date of service column to this report. Also modified the layout of the report to remove the component parts of the accession as showing seperately and added a single “full accession” column to the report.
• Warehouse Module – Date of Service Capture on scan. Added logic to the warehouse module to determine the date of service of an accession when it is scanned. This is determined by looking for the first scan transaction in Assist against the object being scanned to provide a date/time different from the time the object was scanned into the warehouse to determine when an object can be purged.
• Warehouse Module – Object Type/Drawer Object Type Error Check. Added logic on the main filing screen to make sure that when the object type is changed that the object type for the active filing drawer is the same as the object type of the object scanned.
• Sample Testing – Case Rush Functionality. Added logic inside the sample testing receiving tab to write case rush transactions into the database for case rush tracking and scoreboard functionality rather than just capturing in the material submission workflow.
• Scoreboard – Order Cancellation Scoreboard. Build a new scoreboard view for cancelled orders that can be displayed for other portions of the laboratory until the cancellation order is acknowledged to inactivate the cancellation transaction.
• Admin Web Site. Order Status Maintenance. Cancel Status Checkbox. Added this checkbox to allow for the stratification of an order status as being a cancellation. This will allow for the routing of order changes into the cancellation table.
• Admin Web Site. Case Rush Report. Last Maintained Information. Added the last maintained date and employee to the case rush report to provide a better audit trail and consolidated the accession number into a single column.
• Admin Web Site. Case Rush Maintenance. Last Maintained Information. Added the audit trail last maintained date and user to this screen. Also added the bottle/cassette identifier to allow for rush data to be specified at the specimen/part level.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Header Save. Chain of Custody. Modified the save routine for the header receiving package creation to write a record into the main Assist transactional table for chain of custody/Audit trail purposes.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Detail Save. Chain of Custody. Modified the save routine for the detail receiving package creation to write a record into the main Assist transactional table for chain of custody/Audit trail purposes.
• Sample Testing – Flow Save. Chain of Custody. Modified the save routine for the Flow package saves to write a record into the main Assist transactional table for chain of custody/Audit trail purposes.
• Accessioning Module – Case Rush. Added the last maintained date and user to the case rush database write routine to provide better chain of custody information.
• Universal Module – Cassette/Slide POU. Logout Logic. Modified the logout logic for sites that are using employee time tracking. If there are open time buckets, on logout, close the most recent abandoned bucket to keep from having odd time tracking issues.
• Distribution Module. Case Hold Functionality. Added logic to how the case hold functionality works. Added the ability to look at the production hold vs. “information only” case hold information. Also provided detailed ability to view all of the case hold information on the case hold view rather than just the description (ex. WHO put the case on hold and WHEN). Brought this feature set up to the same standard as the universal module for grossing to be consistent.
• Distribution Module. Protocol History. Modified the scan history information that is shown on the screen. When protocols and slide tracking numbers are displayed, the screen was not big enough to hold all of the information. Placed the protocol and tracking information on a seperate line in the scan history list.
• Distribution Module. Case Component History Choice. Added a configuration choice to the module to allow for printing history based on case components as opposed to being limited to just microtomy history.
• Distribution Module. Case Component History. Sequence Number. Added the sequence number and tracking number to the history on a seperate line to provide more information on the history.
• Admin Web Site – Case Component Acknowledgement Report. Tracking Number. Added the tracking number to this report to provide more information about case component acknowledgements.
• Admin web Site – Case Component Tracking Report. Sequence number and full accession. Reformatted the full accession number instead of showing each portion in a seperate column and added the sequence number/tracking number to provide more data.
• Warehouse Module – Drawer Utility Screen. Accession number formatting. Changed the formatting of the accession number to make it more visually appealing.
• Universal Module. Cassette Queue. Arrival sequence printing. Added a configuration choice to print by accession number order OR arrival sequence. Previously, the screen only printed in accession number order.
• Admin Web Site – Service Provider Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of service provider types. This is part of new functionality being introduced into Assist to allow for the tracking of “outsourced” work being performed.
• Admin Web Site – Service Provider Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of service providers. This is part of new functionality to support outsourcing service providers in mulitple sections of Assist.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance. Service Provider Drop down. Added the service provider as a value that can be associated with a distribution location. This allows for the specification that distribution locations might be outsourcing partners inbound and outbound and for automated distribution.
• Print Center. Slide Label Print Screen. Print Template. Added the print template drop down box to the slide label print screen to allow for “standard” template customization of label printing for sites that use this screen.
• Sample Testing - Shipping Tab – Manifest/Printing Area. Rearranged this section of the screen to clean it up. Changed a couple of the options to make more accurate as to what they do. Specifically renamed the “Close Package” check box since it was not named as accurately as it could be. Made the manifest number larger.
• Sample Testing - Shipping Tab Auto Close Utility – Added the accession number to the criteria so that a single case could be retrieved if needed.
• Sample Testing - Shipping Tab Auto Close Utility – Row count. Added the row count to the screen when many rows are retrieved.
• Sample Testing - Shipping Tab – Inbound/Outbound Refresh Option – Added a checkbox to the shipping area to allow for the choice of reloading the inbound/outbound screen at the point of save on the shipping tab.
• Sample Testing - Shipping Tab - Auto Close Utility – Added configuration choice to enable/disable the auto open choice due to the risk of accidentally opening up all closed packages.
• Sample Testing - Shipping Tab - Auto Close Utility – Status Choice. Added a filtered status drop down to this utility that only shows “closed” status values to allow for the assignment of a specific status when auto closing packages.
• Sample Testing – Top of Screen - Close Pending Button – Added a large status button to the top of the screen that lists a count of packages that SHOULD be eligible for closure. The logic produces a count of packages where all materials that are flagged for return are returned. Clicking this button launches the auto close utility just like from the shipping tab (box with wrench button).
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Detail/Header Accession check. Added logic on the detail save to ensure that the accession number of the active package matches the accession number of the detail object.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Accession Across Multiple packages. Modified the logic to limit an accession number from existing on multiple packages. If the same accession is submitted more than once, the logic prevented the accession number from being entered against more than one package. Since over the lifetime of the accession, it could come back into the lab, adjusted the rule to be that the accession can only exist on one OPEN package at a time to allow for appropriate tracking of a “resubmitted” specimen to be able to have separate received/returned timelines.
• Admin Web Site - FISH Batch Details Audit Log – Created this report to provide visibility to the FISH batch details audit log.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Order Modification (Magnifying Glass Button). Under the order modification pop up screen, added a checkbox to indicate an intentional deletion of a “non-open” order. There is a checkbox that drives this behavior and it can be enabled or not based on configuration choices. Also added a comments box which can be enforced to require an explanation for the deletion of a “non-open” status order.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Order Modification (Magnifying Glass Button). When an open status order was deleted, no audit trail record was being written into the doctor order audit log because the order never “really” existed. This has been changed to now record the deletion especially since all status orders can now be deleted.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Order Modification (Magnifying Glass Button). Order Cancellation Logic. If an order is deleted, a cancellation transaction can now be written (based on checkbox) to drive the cancellation scoreboard to let other sections of the lab know not to process the order. It is an “opt out” transaction since the order may have never left accessioning before needing to be deleted.
• Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Order Modification (Magnifying Glass Button). Full Reset button (Test Tube button). Do not allow a full order flag reset if there are any orders. Must process the order screen and delete before resetting the flag.
• Distribution Module. Auto Distribution View. Modified the distribution module to include the auto distribution view that can be toggled to from the manifest view section of teh screen. The default between the two can be chosed inside the configuration.
• Distribution Module. Doctor Name/Abbreviation Toggle. Added a checkbox inside the auto distribution area to allow for control of whether the full distribution location name is displayed or the doctor abbreviation.
• Distribution Module. Day End Display Button. Added a button on the auto distribution view that shows the date/time of the last day end that has been completed. This allows distribution personnel to see what the date/time is being used to drive the auto distribution data.
• Distribution Module. Write Auto Doctor Inactivation Data. If a distribution location is marked as “inactive” and the target is removed from auto distribution, a record is written to the inactive table for analysis.
• Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Inactivation Report. Created this report to provide visibility to the inactivation transactions that were made during automatic distribution where doctors were taken out of the active list of targets for object distribution.
• Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance. Service Provider. Added a dropdown for the specification of a service provider on the security maintenance screen. This allows for the specification of an external vendor, outsourcer, etc. as a user badge.
• Stain Queue – Automatic Order close using Sequence number. The on demand scan routine did not make use of the sequence number when applying the automatic status value which was causing problems when an entire case did not hit the stain queue at the same time.
• Stain Queue – Sequence number inclusion in grid. Added the sequence number to the stain queue grid view.
• Stain Queue – Scan On Demand. Scan History and Sequence number. Added scan history information to the stain queue on demand scanning so that transactions can be viewed and also added the sequence numbers.
• Stain Queue – Queue Modification. Sequence Number Inclusion. The queue modification (right-hand section) of the screen did not include the sequence number to allow for changes. This was added.
• Sample Testing – Cytogenetics tab. Chain of custody capture. Added the chain of custody information for the cytogenetics save to write into the main Assist transaction log table for reporting.
• Sample Testing – FISH tab. Chain of custody capture. Added the chain of custody information for the Fish save to write into the main Assist transaction log table for reporting.
• Admin Web Site. Material Type Maintenance. Default Print On checkbox. Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen so that at receiving, the material label print choice can default on or off to save the clicks.
• Sample Testing – PCR tab. Chain of custody capture for PCR extraction. Added the chain of custody information for the PCR extraction save to write into the main Assist transaction log table for reporting.
• Sample Testing – PCR tab. Chain of custody capture for PCR order. Added the chain of custody information for the PCR order save to write into the main Assist transaction log table for reporting.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Material Type Default Print On. Added the logic to the “default print” setting for the material type so that the items will be pre-selected to print when added.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Inactivation Report – Specimen Category and Type. Added these two fields to the report.
• Distribution Module – Auto Distribution – Day End Details Display – On the section of the distribution module that handles automatic distribution, the status of the day end transaction is critical for the functioning of pre-distribution. While the “last day end” value is already visible on the screen, there was no visibility to historical day end transactions without running a report on the admiinistrative web site. Added a button to pop up a screen to see historical day end transactions.
• Distribution Module – Auto Distribution – Doctor Inactivation Detailed Logic. Added detailed logic to the automatic distribution functional area to mark a doctor as inactive at the specimen category and type level rather than simply at a doctor level. This allows for taking a doctor out of the mix for auto distribution by “product lines” if they need an ad hoc different mix of products.

September 2023

• Admin Web Site – FISH Batch Details Audit Report. Inclusion of active data. The audit report was modified to add a checkbox to allow for the display of both active FISH batch data as well as the historical audit log information to provide one report for all data.
• Admin Web Site – Business Brand Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of business brands. Brands represent different lines of business that an organization can utilize and allows for the assignment of brands with clients to keep track of which section of the business the client works with (one to many).
• Order Closeout – Doctor Orders. Order Cancellation logic. Added the ability to write to the order cancellation table if an order is cancelled.
• Universal Slide POU – Doctor Order Printing. Order Only No Print Order Types. The doctor order print routine was ignoring this flag. Corrected this to suppress order types that have this setting active.
• Distribution Module – Auto Distribution Unassignment. Added logic to allow for the removal of distribution data or back out of distribution to put records back into the mix if they were done via error. This was done using the pop up screen for the visual of assignment.
• Distribution Module – Auto Distribution Show Rules. Added a checkbox to the auto distribution area to show the rules for an accession. The client demographics are displayed along with the specimen types for the case with a list of doctors that are eligible to read the case from a licensure standpoint.
• Admin Web Site – Client Brand Maintenance. Created this maintenance screen to allow for the assignment of clients to business brands in a many to many fashion. If there are multiple business brands for a company and each brand does business with a client, this allows for the capture of under which brand an individual case was being worked or sold.
• Admin Web Site – Service Provider Maintenance. Maximum Case Workload and Allow Maximum Overload. Added the maximum case workload field to the service provider to keep track of the maximum cases that are allowed to be worked (ex. outsourced) to a service provider. This will throttle the assignment screens in Assist UNLESS the allow override checkbox is selected which provides the ability to override the maximum value.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Material Submitted Save/Audit Trail. Added the original record number from the original material submitted record number to allow for the audit trail of submitted testing to tie to the detailed audit trail.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Template audit trail. Discovered that the use of the template to add material submitted details did not write to the audit trail. Added this functionality to close the loophole on auditing.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Package Drop down Auto Load. Modified the logic on the receiving tab to sort the data in the package drop down by created date in descending order (i.e., most recent at the top) and added a configuration flag to preload the most recent if configured.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Package drop down logic. Modified the package drop down load to change the color of the package label to green if there are multiple values to help distinguish from no data found in which case the label will be black.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Client Details Display Button icon. The icon on this button was the magnifying glass which was the same as the order details section and was therefore confusing. Changed the icon to be unique (File Folder picture).
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Client Details Pop up Screen. The pop up screen to show client related details from the interface was not loading correctly. Fixed this issue.
• Distribution Module – Auto Distribution – Day End Selection – Added the ability based on a configuration flag setting to change the active day end value. This feature would typically only be used by an Assist administrator during testing, but COULD be used to back date automatic distribution if this was needed.
• Distribution Module – Auto Distribution – Unassigned Display. Modified the automatic distribution inquiry screen to give the ability to see any accessions that did not get assignment done successfully to a doctor for troubleshooting purposes without having to go to the administrative web site.
• Admin Web Site – Material Submitted Report and Audit Log. Created this report to provide visibility to the material submitted data that is part of the sample testing module in Assist. There is a toggle choice to go between the “live” data and the audit log data for research purposes.
• Admin Web Site – Service Provider Workflow Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the service provider logic (i.e., outsourcing) to be able to create specific specimen workflows that an be assigned to a service provider.
• Admin Web Site – Service Provider Workflow Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of the service provider workflow status values. These are used as part of the service provider (i.e., outsource vendors) tracking.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Order Notation pop up screen. Show Copy concentration value, PCR Repeat, and Extraction repeat choices. Added three new fields to the notation specification and display them on the screen as values for the order notation is changed.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Order Notation pop up screen. Concentration Value display. Added the three concentration values to the pop up screen (C1, C2, Cavg) but ONLY if the screen is displayed coming from the Order Type view of the PCR tab as opposed to the extraction side where the values are suppressed.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance. Reflex Type. Added a checkbox to the screen to allow for the specification of an order type as a reflext order type for use in the sample testing module of Assist in the PCR functional area.
• Admin Web Site – Order Notation Maintenance. New field additions. Four new checkboxes were added to this screen: Copy Concentration Value, PCR Repeat, PCR Reflex, and Extraction Repeat. Each one of these determines how the order notations behave inside the sample testing module/pcr tab area.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Order Notation pop up screen. Order types for reflex notations. Modified the pop up notation screen to allow for the entry of reflex orders if the notation indicates a reflex order is being generated.
• Check In Module – Case Hold Functionality. Modified the case hold logic to provide the ability to scan repetitively into case hold mode. Previously, the case hold screen would toggle forward to case hold and back to the main screen, but the screen could not be effectively used as a pure case hold screen. This repetitive hold scanning is now allowed.
• Distribution Module – Auto Distribution Manual Login. When the manual login option was used, the auto distribution data was showing on the login screen, which was odd. Hid this section of the screen to cut down on confusion.
• Interface Utility – Auto Distribution Exceptions. The write into the auto distribution exceptions table did not capture the auto distribution job run date/time that generated the exception which made it difficult to see the specific reason an accession did not get distributed if it has passed through the auto distribution logic more than once.
• Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Exceptions Report. Auto Distribution Run Date. Added this column to the report to better indicate the “run” to which the exception belongs.
• Distribution Module. Auto Distribution Exceptions Screen. Inside the auto distribution section of the distribution module, added a pop up screen to allow for the display of any/all exceptions that might exist for objects that did not qualify for automatic distribution.
• Admin Web Site. Service Provider File Type Maintenance. Created this screen as part of the distribution area of Assist factoring in service providers and outsourcing. This is specifically geared toward digital objects and this maintenance screen allows for the specifications of which Windows file types should be considered for distribution when working with digital objects and service providers.
• QC Module Manufacturing. MFG Task Tab. Multiple sources of employee. Modified the QC module plus manufacturing task tab to handle situations where an employee is known only to Assist, only to the LIS, or to both to better handle sources of task scans and display.
• QC Module Manufacturing. Rework Tab. Multiple sources of employee. Modified the QC module plus manufacturing task tab to handle situations where an employee is known only to Assist, only to the LIS, or to both to better handle sources of task scans and display on the rework tab area.
• Admin Web Site. Service Provider Workflow Reference Maintenance. Created this maintenance screen to add more flexibility to oursourcing operations. This screen allows for the specification of which workflows can be assigned to a service provider (i.e., outsourcer) and how many cases and specimens can be assigned.
• Admin Web Site. Service Provider Workflow Status Reference Maintenance. This screen was created as part of the outsourcing/service provider logic inside Assist. This status data is where the various workflow status values that are “eligible” for a service provider are mapped. This supports the idea that different providers can perform different workflow steps and/or status values.
• Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Daily Summary Report. Override On, Manual Creation, Manual Creation Date, Manual Creation user. Added the above fields to this report to provide visibility to additional data that has been added to the auto distribution process.
• Distribution Module. Auto Distribution Grid. Remaining Cases column and Addition/Subtraction column.
• Distribution Module. Auto Distribution Process. Unplanned accession addition logic. Added logic to the distribution module to allow for the scanning of objects (i.e., slides) that were not part of the auto distribution “pool” of objects that are supposed to be distributed. This allows for ad hoc scanning with tracking added to keep a + value to show how many cases were distributed above the planned number from the auto distribution artificial intelligence routine.
• Interface Utility. Auto Distribution. Manual Creation Field defaults. Multiple fields were added to the auto distribution database tables to keep track of records that are generated manually. Changed the AI to put blank default values into these fields rather than leaving them as null values.
• Interface Utility. Auto Distribution. Original Day End Data and Rollover Count.  Added fields for the original day end information to the table that is created by the artificial intelligent distribution robot to capture the original data and also a count of the number of times data has been processed by the robot.
• Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Daily Summary Report. Original Day End Year, Month, Day and Override Count fields. Added these fields to the report to report on the new information that has been added to the database.
• Scoreboard. Multiple Shipment Board. Adjusted cell/font size and color/data keys at top of screen. Added a header line to the top of this “board” to show the key of what grid colors and calculations mean and adjusted the contents of the grid cells.
• Admin Web Site. Outsource Work Tracking Report. Created this report to provide visibility to the outsource work tracking information for sites that use service providers to outsource work.

October 2023

• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Added a warning to the receiving tab if changes are made on the details of a package that has a closed status. The warning it telling the employee to “reopen” the package so that it will show correctly on the various screens if it has been changed. This is controlled by configuration whether or not the check is made.
• Admin Web Site – Assist Licensing Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the Assist licensing logic that is being introduced into mulitple modules of Assist to allow for the purchase of license packs for the various modules.
• Clinical Module. License Activation Logic - Modified the clinical module of Assist to check for available license pack quantities for the usage of the software to better facilitate large scale application roll outs for clients.
• Sample Testing – Shipping Tab - Modified the logic on the shipping tab to sort the data in the package drop down by created date in descending order (i.e., most recent at the top) and added a configuration flag to preload the most recent if configured.
• Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Detail Inquiry – Specimen Type/Order use location identifier. The location identifier was not being applied in the critieria for the specimen type and order retrieval which was showing prior year data in the inquiry for sites that use the Pathway LIS. Corrected this inquiry lookup.
• Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Sequence Zero Only. Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification that the material type in question cannot have sequence numbers. This will be applicable inside the Sample Testing module of Assist.
• Warehouse Module – Cabinet Template – Drawer Creation extra fields. There have been several new fields added to the cabinet and drawer tables over the years that have not been included in the template creation. The field values would not be known at template creation time, but Nulls were getting written into the database. Added the fields with blank placeholders instead.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab - Package Number Criteria. Added the package number to the selection criteria to allow for the pull back of a specific package when one is known.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Package Accession number update logic. Discovered that the update of the parent record did not perform a check to make sure that all previously entered detailed accession records matched the parent. This was allowing the end users to mismatch the parent package record from the children. Added an error check for this scenario when performing a package parent update.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Resequence Button. Found an issue where the resequence button did not work correctly when multiple specimen/part records were on a single package. The numbering did not consider the change in specimen/part and also did not consider the “always zero sequence” value. Corrected both of these issues.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Delete All button hourglass. The “wait” hourglass was not being used when the delete all button was clicked which could cause confusion as to whether or not the screen was still processing the command. Added the hourglass.
• Admin Web Site – Multiple Pieces Maintenance – Show Record Number Checkbox. This toggle button was not working correctly. This has been fixed.
• MFG Module – LIS Scheduled Field. Added this field to the screen to allow for the capture of whether or not the task scanned was scheduled inside the LIS. This is assuming the “enforce” is turned off and an LIS interface check exists.
• Admin Web Site – MFG Task Transaction Report – LIS Scheduled Field. Added this field to the report to show task transactions and whether or not they were scheduled tasks in the LIS.
• Admin Web Site – Service Provider File Type Maintenance. Sent file path and credentials. Added fields to the database to allow for the capture of the file path and credentials for sending outsourced digital files by file type/service provider.
• Doctor Closeout – First Display Employee/Time Stamp and display count. Added logic into the doctor closeout screen to capture the first date/time that a record is displayed on the screen. Also capture the employee that is logged into the screen the first time the record is displayed. Additionally added a counter value that increments by one every time a record is displayed on the screen to provide line of sight to how often an order is displayed and the original time.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Listing – First Closeout Display Information and display count. Added the first displayed date/time stamp, employee and display count to this report to provide visibility to these new data fields that are being captured as explained above. This can be valuable when looking at TAT with orders.
• Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Histology Suppress Print check box. Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for the specification of material type that should never print when encountered at microtomy. This is helpful in facilities where blocks/orders are receiving that need to go to histology but only SOME of the object need to have labels/slides printed.
• Universal Slide POU. Histology Suppress Print choice. Added logic to the slide point of use routine to not print orders if they are associated with material types (i.e., from the Sample Testing module) that have the Histology Suppress Print option selected.
• Admin Web Site. Doctor Order Type Listing. Multiple new fields. Modified the doctor order type listing to include lots of new fields that have been added to the order type table.
• Admin Web Site. Material Type Listing. Created this report to provide a “dictionary” of all of the material types created in Assist and the various settings associated with them.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Extraction View. Grid row count. Added a count value to the screen to show the number of rows of data that were included in a retrieval.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor License Report. Active Only Checkbox. Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for the filtering out of only active licenses with active being defined as the current date between the effective start and expiration dates.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor License Summary – Created this report to provide summary counts of how many doctors are licensed by state to provide management with meaningful data as to clients and state coverage.
• Admin Web Site – State Accession Summary – Created this report to provide summary information to show the volume of accessions that are coming into the laboratory by state.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Doctor Daily Summary – Created this report to show an alternative view of the automatic distribution data to show accession volumes by doctor according to the automatic distribution logic with additional data to show ACTUAL distribution so that overrides and discrepancies can be analysed.
• Admin Web Site – Order Workflow Maintenance. Generate notifications checkbox. Added a generate notifications checkbox to this maintenance screen to allow for the suppression of notifications if a facility is using workflow tracking but not notifications.
• Sample Testing – Receiving tab. Generate notifications logic. Modified the sample testing order generation process to consider the new generate notifications option and suppress the notifications if indicated.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Order Deletion Logic. Tweaked the logic associated with deleting detailed orders against materials. Made sure that the deletion is allowed if there are no orders associated with a specimen/material or the order master generation process has not been performed.
• Sample Testing – All tabs. Use Business Unit logic. The loading of several drop down boxes on this screen is driven by membership in different business units. Added a flag to allow for this attempt to filter to be removed if business units are not being used.
• LIS Interface Utility – Client Master Addition. New Fields. Added several new fields as placeholders when writing into the client master file to not have “null” additions.
• Admin Web Site – Sample Missing Client Report. Created this report to provide visibility to the material submission packages that have no associated client. This report can be run with counts/date and also as an accession listing.
• Interface Utilty – Auto Image Hold Robot. Created a new unattended robot job inside the interface utility for sites that capture images and then close them after processing. The robot auto closes images after they have been open for X days after the creation. This greatly improves the performance of the image capture screen by not loading multiple thumbnail images of active pictures on the screen.

November 2023

• Interface Utility – Auto Distribution. Assignment audit log purge. Added logic to the auto distribution artificial intelligence robot to purge data from the assignment audit log table based on configuration flag and days back configuration value to prevent database bloat.
• Interface Utility – Auto Distribution. Exceptions audit log purge. Added logic to the auto distribution artificial intelligence robot to purge data from the exceptions audit log table based on configuration flag and days back configuration value to prevent database bloat.
• Interface Utility – Auto Distribution. Doctor Capacity check. Moved the capacity check for doctors to the top of the auto distribution algorithm so that all of the subsequent testing is not done which wastes time if over capacity distribution is not allowed.
• Universal POU. Show Suppress Print Option. Recently, in the doctor order view, a column was added to indicate whether or not suppressed orders should be visible in the list. A check box was added to the grid to allow for the control of this behavior by site. This will also prevent the loading of the records to the grid if they should be suppressed.
• Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance. UDI Label 2 Field. Modified the inventory maintenance screen to allow for the inclusion of a second line of UDI description for sites that use UDI labels and need more space than the original 60 characters of description.
• Universal Slide POU. Business Unit Logic. Add the ability on doctor orders when printing slides to pull the business unit code for the doctor that placed the order and put in parameters to print the business unit code for sites that need to do this.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Extraction Repeat orders. These orders were not displaying correctly. Were coming through with no order type. Found the issue and corrected.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Extraction Notation Deletion. There was no ability to delete notation records (repeat, etc.) so added a delete button but can only remove extraction records if they have not already been started. It was added to allow for the removal of true mistaken additions.
• Sample Testing – Shipping Tab and Manifest Utility. Added the ability to print the patient name to the manifests on the line below the accession number.
• Interface Utility – Auto Distribution. Run Start/End date/time stamps. Added a run start and run end date/time stamp to the utility to capture the exact time for the robot job to complete and also to allow for determination of whether or not the job is currently active.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Log. Extended this report to include the run start and run end date/time stamps that have been added to provide visibillity to this information.
• Scoreboard – Auto Distribution Board. Created this scoreboard view to provide a count of the outstanding accessions by day end year, month, day that have not been distributed. This is a valuable “count down” for sites that use the auto distribution artificial intelligence robot.
• Interface Utility – Auto Distribution. Auto Close Run Date/Time. Added logic to the robot to look for audit log transactions with a missing end date/time. If the “missing” audit records are outside of a threshold specified in the configuration, add an end date to close out an “aborted” run. This is needed due to the logic being added to ensure that the robot is not running concurrently.
• Interface Utility – Auto Distribution. Concurrency Check. Added logic to the auto distribution robot to check for a job that has been started but not completed to allow for the prevention of a redundant job run. The “auto close” that was added will close any abandoned jobs.
• Admin Web Site – MFG Tasks Maintenance – Batch Task flag. Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen to allow for marking of a manufacturing task as eligible for use on batch screens such as the check in module.
• Admin Web Site – MFG Task Transaction Report – Cancelled By and Cancelled Date/Time fields. Added these fields to the report to provide visibility to the information.
• Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Detail Inquiry. Screen redesign and addition of specimen type source. Modified the inquiry to better display information and show the source in the specimen type area of the inquiry.
• Doctor Module – Workload Detail/Summary Tab – Added an entire tab to the doctor module to handle the display of auto distribution information. This provides line of sight to what information has been/will be sent to a doctor for reading. Has selection criteria for filtering the data and can also be displayed as detail and summary information.
• Doctor Module – Diagnostic Tab. Alt-B toggle fast key for fast code category enforcement. Added logic so that the alt-b key press or dictation will toggle the fast code category enforcement checkbox on the screen.
• Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Detail Inquiry. Accession wildcard lookup. Modified the selection criteria logic to use a wildcard on the accession number instead of an exact match. This was needed to handle a leading zero issue on some accession numbers.
• Scoreboard – Auto Distribution Unread Board. Created this scoreboard view to provide a count of the outstanding accessions by day end year, month, day that have not been distributed but do not have a “doctor read” timestamp. This is a valuable “count down” for sites that use the auto distribution artificial intelligence robot and doctor module to indicate processed.
• Doctor Module – Information Tab. About Box Button. Added a “?” button to the information tab to launch an about box pop up screen to show information about the executable such as date, version, etc.
• Check In Module – MFG Task Version. Write Transaction Log. Added logic to the check in module when using the new manufacturing task scan tab view to have the option to also write transactions to the main Assist transaction log based on configuration flag.
• Admin Web Site – MFG Task Employee Summary. From/To Time drop down. Added from/to time drop down boxes to allow for specific hours of the day to be included in the reports.
• Universal Module – Slide POU. T Number calculation. There was an issue with the “T” number on the latest update in some scenarios with the first slide not getting the value. Resolved this issue.
• Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Employee Task Entry. Created this screen to provide a method of entering and/or updating employee/manufacturing task transactions. This data is typically creating using the various Assist manufacturing modules, but this web option allows for overrides or entry for sites/employees that do not have access to the desktop modules.
• Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Time Report. Speed Enhancements. Made modifications to this report to try and speed up the detail version data retrieval.
• Main Scanner Engine – Slide Scanning Section. Protocol Alternates and slide tracking. Added the slide tracking variables in case they are encountered in a slide bar code and also added handling for protocol wildcard alternatives.
• Doctor Module – Workload Tab. Double Click on workload row to show details. Added logic to the workload tab so that a double click on a workload record will show all of the auto distribution information associated with the record.
• Doctor Module – Transaction Log on Retrieve button. Added logic to write a transaction log record to the database when the retrieve button is pressed for a manual accession number entry to capture the fact that the accession was accessed via the doctor module.
• Doctor Module – Transaction Log routine. Modified the write routine to capture the date/time stamp of the module into the scan software number as is done with the other modules of Assist.
• Doctor Module – Auto Distribution Update. Modified the accession retrieval routine, whether via button or scan to update the auto distribution database table with the doctor read timestamp and doctor that read the case to close the loop back to distribution on the timeline of when the case was read by a doctor.

December 2023

• Check In Module – LIS Integration Database name from control data. Added logic to the module to pull the LIS database information from the control data table in the Assist database and removed the values from the various SQL strings to ease portability.
• Check In Module – LIS Integration Database name from config file as override. Added logic to the module to pull the LIS database information from the config text file as an override at the individual computer level from the value that was added in the Assist database.
• Manufacturing Module – LIS Integration Database name from control data. Added logic to the module to pull the LIS database information from the control data table in the Assist database and removed the values from the various SQL strings to ease portability.
• Manufacturing Module – LIS Integration Database name from config file as override. Added logic to the module to pull the LIS database information from the config text file as an override at the individual computer level from the value that was added in the Assist database.
• QA Out Module – LIS Integration Database name from control data. Added logic to the module to pull the LIS database information from the control data table in the Assist database and removed the values from the various SQL strings to ease portability.
• QA Out Module – LIS Integration Database name from config file as override. Added logic to the module to pull the LIS database information from the config text file as an override at the individual computer level from the value that was added in the Assist database.
• Universal Slide POU – IHC Print variables. In order to handle the scenario where a different printer is used for IHC labels than from “regular” slides a full set of IHC variables has been added to allow for a completely different set of X/Y coordinates for “regular” vs. IHC label templates. Ex. a true slide printer (i.e., Leica) for regular slides and a Zebra label printer for IHC.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Material Order sort order. The material order pop up screen was showing the detailed data in arrival sequence instead of full accession sequence. Added logic to allow for sort order routing of either arrival OR full accession with sequence number.
• Sample Testiing – PCR Tab. Extraction batch number automatically unchecks unassigned. If an extraction batch number is specified on retrieve but the check box for “unassigned only” was selected, no data would be returned which could be confusing. Modified the logic to automatically uncheck the unassigned checkbox if a valid number was entered into the batch number field.
• Universal Slide POU – Doctor Order View. Selection column hidden. A previous change to the suppress print option column being hidden caused the selection column to be hidden. This was corrected.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Order Delete process was changed to reset the order master flag on the material submitted record if the data was cleared from the sample testing grid.
• Main Scanner Engine – Patient Retrieve/Encryption Logic. Added logic into the main scanner engine when patient names are retrieved from the LIS Interface table. If names are retrieved and have not been encrypted, they will be done now.
• Warehouse Module. Warehouse Inquiry. Modified the logic associated with pathway retrievals to include the location identifier and the accession prefix if the free form field was used.
• Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Time Report. A new field was added to the report to show a “Y/N” value for auto logout in the detail view to reflect whether the employee logout transaction was from inactivity or an intentional logout.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Summary Report. Specimen Count column. There were already columns on this report for case count, cassette count (i.e., part) and slide count, but there was no column for specimen count (i.e., bottle). This was added.
• Universal Slide POU. Protocol drop down list size. Added a variable to the configuration to allow for customization of the size of the protocol/stain drop down on the screen. For sites with a large listing of protocols and a small screen resolution, this allows for the drop down to be customized so that it does not go off the screen.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Order delete with comments. Added logic on the comments specification on an order delete to add the comments to the communications log.
• Sample Testing – FISH tab. Batch details select all/unselect all button functionality. Added these two buttons to the fish batch detail area to eliminate the need to click each check box individually.
• Sample Testing – Flow Tab. Communications Log. Modified the flow tab so that any comments entered into the flow tab get added to the communications log with a prefix on them to indicate that they came from flow.
• Interface Utility - Auto Distribution Algorithm Changes. Modified the auto distribution algorithm to work based on doctor capacity value. This used to be the specimen metric but was changed. Added a configuration flag to allow the value to be derived from either the doctor schedule case value or case test value field.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Daily Report – Specimen Metric converted to Doctor capacity value. To reflect changes that have been made in auto distribution.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Daily Maintenance - Specimen Metric converted to Doctor capacity value. To reflect changes that have been made in auto distribution.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Doctor Daily Summary. Added the summarized doctor capacity value to this report. Previously, only the case count values were shown.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Doctor Report. Modified this report to include the summarized doctor capacity value.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor Auto Not Assigned Report. Modified this report to also show the doctor capacity value.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Summary Maintenance. Modified this screen to include the doctor capacity value instead of the specimen metric to reflect changes that were made to auto distribution.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Summary Report. Modified this screen to include the doctor capacity value to reflect changes to the auto distribution robot.
• Case/MFG Task Entry Module – Created this brand new module to handle the capture of case/accession number and manufacturing task completed. This module will be used typically for remote workers to indicate completed tasks where scanning infrastructure will not be present.
• Distribution Module – Invalid default distribution location. Discovered an issue where if the configuration value for the default distribution location did not exist in the distribution location table in the database, that the screen did not load correctly. Modified the screen load routine to survive this situation.
• Admin Web Site – Collection Points Maintenance. Include Auto Distribution check box. Added a check box to this screen to allow the auto distribution robot to key off the box for determining the inclusion of accession numbers. Previously, this key was done based on collection point grouping which could cause some odd “naming” for collection points. This makes the inclusion more logical and intentional.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance. CPT Code information including price and cost fields. Added a CPT code drop down to the specimen type maintenance screen to allow for mapping of billing codes to tissue types. Also included histology cost and price fields and test cost and test price fields to be used in analyzing price/cost increase/decrease decisions.
• Admin Web Site – CPT Category Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of CPT code categories which
• Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance. CPT Code drop down. Added the CPT code drop down to the individual slide recipe section of the screen so that CPT codes can be associated with the detail stain area of the screen.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance. Header section CPT code drop down. Added the CPT code as a choice on the screen header section of the screen. This provides for the ability to collect CPT information at the “panel” level with override ability at the individual stain level.
• Sample Testing – Cytogenetics Tab. Communications Log. Modified the Cytogenetics tab so that any comments entered into the Cytogenetics tab get added to the communications log with a prefix on them to indicate that they came from Cytogenetics.
• Sample Testing – Flow Tab. Communications Log View. The notes asterisk button was not launching the communications log screen. Modified this to work correctly.
• Sample Testing – Cytogenetics Tab. Communications Log View. The notes asterisk button was not launching the communications log screen. Modified this to work correctly.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Details Tab. Workflow Defaulting. If there is only workflow listed in the drop down box, make it the default instead of “not specified”.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Specimen Type Tracking information. Several new fields have been added to the specimen type tracking table but were not in the write routine. Corrected this and also added a write transaction to the specimen type tracking audit log which was not being done.
• Universal Module. Specimen Type Tracking Logic. CPT Code information. Modified the routines that write to specimen type tracking table and audit log to also capture the CPT code number from the library and the actual code.
• Admin Web Site – Client Master Maintenance. Client Code selection criteria. Added the client code as part of the selection criteria to allow for lookup based on the code or LIS cross reference field with a wildcard search.
• Accessioning Module. Specimen Type Tracking Logic. CPT Code information. Modified the routines that write to specimen type tracking table and audit log to also capture the CPT code number from the library and the actual code.
• Main Scanner Engine.  Specimen Type Tracking Logic. CPT Code information. Modified the routines that write to specimen type tracking table and audit log to also capture the CPT code number from the library and the actual code.
• Sample Testing. Material Order Pop Up Screen. Order type text alignment. Added a Y/N flag to determine whether or not the order type description is listed in the grid left justified or centered.
• Sample Testing. Material Order Pop Up Screen. Added logic to use the order type short description in the ordering grid instead of the full description if the text length is larger than can be effectively displayed in the grid.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Information Report. CPT Code Column. Added the CPT code field to this report.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Tracking Audit Log. CPT Code Column. Added the CPT code field to this report.
• Admin Web Site – CPT Code Library Maintenance. Created this screen to provide for maintenance of the CPT code library.
• Admin Web Site – Queue Loader Settings. Machine Name Criteria. Added the machine name to the criteria on this maintenance screen to allow for filtering of data.
• Universal Module – Universal Cassette POU. 3 New Hot keys. On the grossing information pop up screen, three new hot keys have been added. ALT-D clears the clinical information area. ALT-M clears the grossing notes area. ALT-Q clears the patient history area.
• Universal Module – Universal Slide POU. IHC Variable addition for data matrix bar code size to allow for a different variable value for an IHC vs. a “regular” bar code.
• Admin Web Site – Service Provider Workflow Status Maintenance. Overdue Days. Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for the capture of a number of days that would indicate that an accession/case stayed in a status too long.
• Admin Web Site – Service Provider Eligible Status Maintenance. Created this screen as part of the service provider/outsourcing section of Assist. It allows for the capture of which status values are valid for the outsourcing/routing of work at the service provider level.
• Admin Web Site – LIS Electronic Connections Maintenance. Inbound/Outbound and Outbound Designation Fields. Added fields to allow for the marking of mainframe interface connections as inbound vs. outbound and to carry a designation of where the data originated.
• Admin Web Site – Status Cross Reference Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of status values for the service provider outsourcing section of Assist to match status values in Assist to status values inside an LIS/ERP.
• Distribution Module. Scan History Checkbox Inaccuracy. Resolved a report issue where scan history was not being “check off” correctly in the scenario that an accession was partially distributed. The screen was then reopened and the accession was scanned again. The slides were checked off in order rather than by specimen/part causing objects to reflect as processed when they had not. This was ONLY an issue is a void transaction was not done the first time through the process.
• Admin Web Site – Order Cancellation Report. Created this report to provide visibility to order cancellation transactions. An order cancellation can be performed on a doctor order with required acknowledgement in an attempt to stop special cuts and stains to be performed that are not necessary.
• Sample Testing – Multiple Tabs. Require employee login. It was discovered that there were several retrieval transactions that could be performed without an employee being logged into the application. Added this edit check to all of the tabs retrieval buttons.
• Stain Queue – On Demand Scanning. Write to transaction log. When using the on demand scanning feature on the stain queue, added a write into the main Assist transaction log for the scan transaction for chain of custody tracking.
• Stain Queue – Configuration Button Feature. Added the standard Assist configuration change button to support multiple LIS formats when performing on demand scanning into the stain queue.
• Sample Testing – Pickup Tab – Selection criteria changes for accession number. Row count inclusion. Wait hourglass on retrieve and save. On the pickup tab added selection criteria to the screen for the accesson number and prefix. Also added a row count of data that was retrieved and added the wait hourglass on the retrieve and save button click events.
• Sample Testing – Pickup Tab - Auto Pickup Routine. Added an automatic pickup button to roll through all of the various sub labs and look for transactions against a sample testing package and mark it as picked up in case the pickup process does not happen.

April 2022

• Doctor Module – Fast Code Order Category Enforcement – Added a check box to the doctor module/diagnosis tab to allow for the employee to specify whether or not fast codes should be verified to make sure that the fast code if valid inside the order category. This is especially relevant for use with dictation systems to ensure that a code is not spoken incorrectly and gets added to an order accidentally.
• Doctor Module – Code Reorder Arrow Buttons Rebuild Choice – Added a check box to the doctor module/diagnosis tab to allow for the medical report to be automatically rebuilt if the Up/Down arrows are used to modify the order of the diagnosis medical codes. This reduces the likelihood of the medical report being incorrectly.
• Simple Print – Modified this routine to provide the ability to produced an Accession number with the number wheel on the end instead of in the front.
• Universal Slide Queue – Doctor Initials – The doctor initials were not printing correctly on the slides via the universal slide queue. This was fixed.
• Admin Web Site – Referring Physician Maintenance – SpecimenOrdering Checkbox – Added a checkbox to the referring physician maintenance screen to denote a referring physician as a participant in the specimen ordering functional areas of Assist.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Specimen Order Type Checkbox – Added a checkbox to the order type maintenance screen to denote an order type as a participant in the specimen ordering functional areas of Assist.
• Universal Slide – Queue Starting Cassette – Issue with the “non 1” cassette not pulling correctly. The starting cassette numbering logic was not operating correctly for implied 1 logic. Corrected this issue.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Cassette Start Wildcard, Slide Start Wildcard – Added these two fields to better handle the idea of cassettes and slides that had no starting object identifier. These changes allowed for a wildcard to denote the difference between a cassette and a slide.
• Universal Slide – Cassette/Slide Start Wildcards – Modified the universal modules of Assist to handle the cassette and slide wildcards as explained above.
• Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance – Concentration Required Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the extraction type maintenance screen. This value allows for the policing of the concentration and whether or not it should be enforced against an extraction type. This is part of the PCR functional area of the sample testing module.
• Admin Web Site – Extraction Order Type Mapping – Created this screen to allow for the combined mapping of the Extraction Type, Order Type, and Material Type. This is useful inside the PCR functional area of the sample testing module and can be used to default the extraction type on PCR order types.
• Universal Grossing – “Truncate after logic” – There was no ability to truncate the bottle bar code after a specific value. This caused issues with sites that had additional data in the bottle bar code (such as patient name) after a delimiter. This change allows for that to be truncated for “normal” processing of the bottle bar code.
• Doctor Module – Digital Pathology - \ check on path – The path + file name did not have a slash in it which was causing an incorrectly formed “full path” to the file for loading.
• Universal Grossing – Grossing Information – When body source, site, or technique as specified, clear the text field on the screen before loading from the drop down closed event. This provides the ability clear the fields on the selection of “Not Specified”. Previously, the values would “stick”.
• Sample Testing - Returns – Added “Remaining” column to the summary view grid to indicate the number of detail material types that have not been returned but that are return required.
• Sample Testing - Fixed the summary grid to not show header level records if there were not material detail records with a material return required on them.
• Sample Testing - Fixed the overdue count total to not include the records if there were not material detail records with a material return required on them.
• Sample Testing - Returns – Manifest Utility – Added header comments separate from detail line item comments.
• Sample Testing - Returns – Manifest Utility – Added a check box to allow for the closure of the manifest header.
• Sample Testing - Returns – Manifest Utility – Set the save button click to reload all of the manifest drop down boxes to reflect changes.
• Sample Testing - Returns – Manifest Utility – Added a check box to opt in/out of changing the detail comments.
• Sample Testing - Returns – Manifest Utility – Modified the manifest print routine to include comments in the header.
• Sample Testing - Returns – Manifest Utility – Modified the manifest print routine to include the detailed comments underneath the detail line item if relevant.
• Sample Testing - Returns – Shipping Tab – Modified the manifest print to include the comments in the header and detail lines as noted above for the utility.
• Sample Testing - Returns – Shipping Tab – moved the header comments area down into the same area as the rest of the manifest information to make it clear that the comments text box is relevant for the manifest.
• Sample Testing - Inbound/Outbound Tab – Added the “testing” column to show what tests have been ordered against a detailed material type when in detail view.
• Sample Testing - Inbound/Outbound Tab – Detail Grid – Added a “selection” checkbox to allow for the selection of individual detail records to be sent to the shipping grid. Removed the grouping logic so that each individual row of data is displayed. Made sure that the +/- button works for either the summary or detail grid depending on the view.
• Sample Testing - Inbound/Outbound Tab – Grid Counts – The counts at the top of the grids (summary/detail) were not working correctly as the radio buttons were used to toggle between views. Corrected this.
• Sample Testing - Inbound/Outbound Tab – Selection Button for Details – Previously, the ability to send shipping records from the inbound/outbound grid to the shipping grid only worked at the summary level for the entire submission package. Modified so that the detail level records could be sent using the selection checkbox column with the button for submitting.
• Sample Testing - Shipping Tab – Detailed Grid – Modified this grid to show the testing in the detail grid. Previously, this was not shown and only the material type was visible.
• Sample Testing - Shipping Tab – Detailed Grid – Selection Column Move – Moved the checkbox column to the beginning of the grid to be consistent will all of the other grids in the module.
• Sample Testing - Inbound/Outbound Tab – Detail Grid – The status of the detail data was not being shown, it was the status of the material submission. Corrected this.
• Sample Testing – Admin Web Site – Extraction Type maintenance – Added the “Concentration Required” checkbox to allow for the marking of which extraction types need a concentration value to better lock in data integrity.
• Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound tab – Set logic so that the click of a summary grid row header loads the data for that master submission records into the detail grid and auto flips to display that grid.
• Universal Grossing – Grossing Information Capture – Modified the grossing notes capture screen to allow for configurations flags to require the body source, body site, surgical technique, and measurements (if visible) fields. This enhances the rules already in place to enforce grossing notes and clinical information.
• Warehouse Module – Digital Dashboard – Robot Screen – Modified the launch button to include a wait cursor to make it clear when the software is still running.
• Warehouse Module – Digital Dashboard – Digital Utility – Created this screen to allow for the processing of records that might have been inserted into the dashboard queue without having an accession number matched to them. The utility pulls all records from the queue with no accession and attempts to use the digitized bar code to find matching data in Assist.
• Warehouse Module – Digital Dashboard – Rearranged the update area to include an option for “bulk changes” that will apply the modifications values to ALL of the selected items. If the check box is NOT set, an individual save of the selected record (row header) will be done. Also added a check box for “assignment”  to assign the digital queue records to an employee to read them.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance – Allow Digital Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the distribution location maintenance screen to allow a distribution location (i.e. doctor) to be marked as eligible to receive digital objects (ex. Slides).
• Doctor Module – Digital Pathology Tab – Digital Queue Selection Criteria – Added the digital queue drop down to allow for filtering from within the tab by queue if relevant.
• Admin Web Site – Change Control Component Maintenance – Full Description, End of Life and End of Life Date – Added these fields to the change control component maintenance screen to better capture the status of software products and their change control status.
• Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab - Set logic so that the click of a summary grid row header loads the data for that master submission records into the detail grid and auto flips to display that grid.
• Sample Testing – Screen Header – Turned on the concept of business unit defaults for employees. The ability to specify a business unit for an employee has always existed, just showing the business unit to which, the employee belongs at the top of the screen with a button to allow for the switching of the active business unit.
• Sample Testing – Client drop downs – Added the logic to filter the display of clients to include the business unit that is active for the employee. This is shown in the communications log and is used to filter the various esoteric labs and how they will impact the sample testing module going forward.
• Sample Testing – PCR Grid – Modified the method used for determining the default extraction type. Previously, it was defaulting based on the set value for the extraction coming from the order type file. This has not been changed to allow for an override from the ExtractionOrderTypeMapping table which represents the alternatives to the extraction mapping based on the material type (ex. Block vs. Slide) along with the order type. This now loads into the grid unless there are no mappings, in which case the default order type will hold.
• Sample Testing – PCR Cap Label Printing – Changed the logic on the cap label for both extractions and PCR vial labels to print the order in which the specimens are “built” in the grids rather than representing the sequence of the specimen which is what was being done previously. This is now a choice driven by the configuration.
• Universal Cassette – Cassette Color Count – Some locations have a color indicator (cassette/slide magazine indicator) in their bar code. The Assist universal module for cassette printing did not have logic to handle/process this extra character on the tail of the bar code. Fixed this by adding functionality to handle the processing.
• Sample Testing – Holding Site Maintenance/Hamburger Button – From inside the specimen ordering tab of the sample testing module, there is a button to allow for the maintenance of specimen holding sites. The pop up screen for this maintenance was completed.
• Sample Testing – Holding Site Maintenance – Clipboard Address Button – Added a small button with the letter “C” on it to the holding site maintenance pop up window. When clicked, this pops up a screen with a large text box. The box builds the full address using all of the address lines, the city, state, and zip code. This can be automatically copied to the Windows clipboard to provide simplicity for copying/pasting the address into other documents (i.e. shipping documents).
• Print Center – Multiple Bottle Label Print – Direct Print Changes to not use label templates – The form for “Multiple Bottle Label” had not been modified to cease using NiceLabel for the printing of the labels. Made this change for it to native print and also added logic for the printing of single extra bottle labels instead of needing to use the full batch print logic flow of printing the combination of requisition and bottle labels.
• Admin Web Site – Business Unit Authorization Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the business unit authorization data. This is part of the sample testing module and allows for specification of which business units an employee is authorized to access data. This impacts the sample orders that can be seen (i.e. order, clients, etc.) but allows for toggling to other business units if necessary and authorized.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Business Location Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen business locations. These locations are part of the sample testing module of Assist and are found specifically on the specimen ordering tab. They represent the business locations where specimens are intended to be routed.
• Admin Web Site – Change Control Maintenance – Component Area – Added this field to the screen to allow for more accurate capture of what area of a module was changed.
• QC Module Extra – Image List – ImageScanSource Inclusion - Modified the image list capture routine to include a field in the database to indicate the module of Assist that captured an image that makes analysis easier.
• Manufacturing Module – Image List – ImageScanSource Inclusion - Modified the image list capture routine to include a field in the database to indicate the module of Assist that captured an image that makes analysis easier.
• Manufacturing Module – Milling Machine  Interface – Blanks to underscore – To better handle a limitation with the equipment manufacturer, modified the routine that prints the product bar codes to remove any blanks and replace them with underscores since this is what the application does in the cloud that creates the milling machine instruction file.

May 2022

• Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Client Maintenance – Added a hamburger button to the specimen ordering tab to allow for the maintenance (add, update, delete) of clients without having to go the Assist administrative web site.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Specimen Holding Site Maintenance - Added a hamburger button to the specimen ordering tab to allow for the maintenance (add, update, delete) of specimen holding sites without having to go the Assist administrative web site.
• Simple Print – Scan Field – Clear the text field on tab – When this field was used to scan into the field, it was not clearing the field when a tab was performed which resulted in the old scan value remaining. Set the routine to clear the field after processing.
• Doctor Module – Digital Pathology – Auto load cases at user login. Modified the digital pathology routine to go ahead and load any cases/slides assigned to an employee as soon as they log in. This removes the clicking of the retrieve button to load.
• Doctor Module – Digital Pathology – Diagnosis column move to after the accession number and protocol. The diagnosis column was moved to the right to improve screen readabiity especially since AI diagnosis is less common and the case number/accession is always present.
• Doctor Module – Digital Pathology – Double click on the digital pathology grid loads the case/slides to the right hand side of the screen and launches the viewer for all slides represented by the row in the grid.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Added a configuration flag to allow for hiding the order cost derived from the holding site from which a specimen was ordered.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Added a configuration flag to allow for hiding the accession prefix drop down, showing a free form accession prefix text box, or having the value not show up at all.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab – The concentration column was not always working correctly when clicked. Fixed this to pop up the concentration screen.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab – The file name that was loaded via the equipment concentration interface was not showing correctly on the screen. The sample ID was showing instead of file name. Corrected this to show the data appropriately.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Concentration Column on Order grid – Turned this background color to red if a concentration value is required based on the extraction type and there is no value.
• Simple Print – Suppress Part – Cassette and Slide – Added a check box to the cassette and slide versions of the simple print screen to allow for the part identifier to be suppressed. This can be especially valuable for clinical research scenarios.
• Doctor Module – Digital Pathology Tab – Changed the grid to include the display of rush cases to include a priority rush value and sort the data by priority value and then distribution date and then full accession number. Made this change for both the case level view and the slide level view.
• Doctor Module – Digital Pathology – The open cases button at the top of the screen was modified. The informational screen now shows a format of “Case Count / Slide Count” that are assigned to the employee to make the information more meaningful.
• Doctor Module – Digital Pathology Tab – Modified the selection of the detailed grid row to show the rush type description to the right of the grid with the other case/slide detailed information.
• Doctor Module – Digital Pathology Tab – Double Click To Diagnostics – Logic was added previously to allow for the double click of a digital queue record to automatically open up the case/slide that was double clicked. Further expanded this logic to allow for this double click transaction to also send the employee automatically to the diagnostics tab to process the case.
• Admin Web Site – Case Rush Type Maintenance – Priority Value and Font Color – Added a priority value to the maintenance screen and also the ability to set the font color.
• Doctor Module – Digital Pathology/Diagnosis – Set logic so that when a report is signed by the doctor from the diagnosis tab that the digital record can be moved to a “Signed Out” status and the digital queue is automatically refreshed to reflect the change.
• Sample Testing – Client Facility Maintenance – Added the “C” copy clipboard buttons for both the separated address lines and the full address line.
• Sample Testing – Client and Client Facility Maintenance – Added the ability to double click on any of the instructions or notes fields and have a pop up screen appear to display all of the information in an easier to read format to reduce screen scrolling in case of copious notes.
• Sample Testing – Client/Facility and Holding Site Pop Up Maintenance Screens – Auto Load – Added the ability for any client and/or holding site information active in the specimen order screen to go forward to the maintenance screens to pre-load with the active client or holding site.
• Sample Testing – Client/Facility and Holding Site Pop Up Maintenance Screens – Provided a configuration flag to allow for whether or not address and phone master buttons are enabled.
• Sample Testing – Client/Facility  Pop Up Maintenance Screens – Added the ability to delete either entity (with lots of edit checks) that is driven by configuration so that this ability can be disabled or enabled.
• Admin Web Site – Change Control Component Maintenance – Control Code Prefix and ProductName. Added the control code prefix and product name to the change control component maintenance screen. This will make it possible for the change control update utility to update a remote database with change control transactions.
• Admin Web Site – Rework Request Report – Criteria visual change and addition of Task scanned by to criteria. Modified the rework request report to clean up the selection criteria visually and also add the task scanned by criteria.
• Admin web Site – Change Control Maintenance – Control code and product name. Added the control code and product name to the change control maintenance screen. This will make it possible for the change control update utility to update a remote database with change control transactions.
• Admin web Site – Scan History Report – The “source” filter criteria did not work correctly. This report is an original Assist report and the source values were hard coded and did not account for the various alias values for data collection points that would evolve. Fixed this so that the filter works correctly.
• Admin Web Site – Change Control Type Maintenance – TypeCode – Added the type code to the change control type maintenance screen to allow the change control utility to add control types when relevant.
• Configuration Utility – Change Control Copy – Modified the configuration utility to include the ability to send change control transactions to a remote database. Previously, the utility only support the copy of screens, reports, and configuration changes.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Collection Site Text – Added a configuration setting to allow for the human readable tag on the “Collection Site” to be customized to support “Body Site” if that is the value being captured.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Order Date in order grid – Added the order date to the specimen order grid.
• Universal POU – Grossing Notes Entry/Timeout – Discovered an issue with the way the enforce timeout configuration option is enacted. If the option is turned off, and a grosser is using the grossing notes pop up capture, on closure of the screen, the timeout option was turned back on regardless of the configuration option. Changed the routine to look at the configuration flag on screen close rather than blindly turning the timeout timer back active.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Specimen Order Testing Capture/Display – Modified the specimen ordering section of the sample testing module to include the ability to specify the order types (testing) that should be performed on the specimen for which the order is being placed. Also show the existing orders via a list box on the screen.

June 2022

• Admin Web Site - ESL Tag Product Notation – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of ESL tag product notations. These are used to pass specific extra notation values to an electronic tag based on a product master record.
• Admin Web Site - Specimen Type Size Override Maintenance – Created this table to provide for protocol automation/overrides associated with tissue mold sizes. If a specific specimen type is encountered, the size of the mold (specimen) can then bump the specimen type to a different value which would launch a different slide protocol.
• Accessioning Module – Maximum Requisition Length on scan – Added logic to prevent a double scan of a requisition and also better tailor that a value requisition was scanned by policing the raw length of the data field.
• Universal Cassette POU – Printer Magazine Alias Logic – Added logic to the cassette point of use to tie magazines against different hardware profiles to one another. This allows magazines to be equal across hardware. For example, the Magazine 1 of a Leica can be mapped to the “Hopper 1” of an Epredia Printmate.
• Admin Web Site – Printer Magazine Alias Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the mapping of magazines to one another across hardware profiles.
• Main Scanner Engine – Specimen Size Scanning and Font Color – Added the ability to the main scanner engine (i.e. Embedding, microtomy, etc.) to scan the specimen size (i.e. tissue mold) and also display it on the screen with different colors.
• Main Scanner Engine – Specimen Type Size Override Functionality – Added the ability to the main scanner engine to have the specimen size + specimen type move to a new specimen type to more accurately plan for protocol mapping where an embedder discovers a larger mold size is needed which will impact the number of slides to be used.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Size Maintenance – Font Color – Modified the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of font color for each specimen size.
• Admin Web Site – Gender Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of genders. This can be used to specify a gender outside of the tradtional radio button choices of “M/F” when the gender might not be known.
• Accession Prefix Maintenance – LIS Master Criteria – Added the LIS as a criteria choice at the top of the maintenance screen so that prefixes can be filtered by prefix for better ease of maintenance/management.
• Universal Slide POU – Manual Specimen/Part – Removal of dash after print – There has always been a dash placed between the specimen and part identifiers after printing a slide in manual mode. Removed this since there was no value add and it looks odd.
• Universal Cassette POU – Drop File Alias Accession Overrides Specimen – Added logic to allow for an alias accession to go into the drop file in the same position as the specimen type. This allows for the client labelling of the cassette (at the cost of the tissue type) without needing multiple print template layouts.
• Doctor Closeout – Selection Criteria – Main Closeout and Status Closeout – LIS Master – Added the LIS platform as a selection criteria choice for facilities that use more than one LIS and need to pull doctor orders by platform.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Step Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen order steps. This data represents the various steps in the specimen ordering process.
• Admin Web Site – MFG Task Maintenance – Final Inspection Task – Added this check box to the maintenance screen to allow a manufacturing task to be marked as the final inspection task. This is part of the Assist manufacturing module.
• Admin Web Site – Medical Billing Code Maintenance – CPT Code addition with selection criteria additions for billing code, description, ICD code, and CPT code. Added the CPT code field to the medical billing code maintenance screen and also added multiple fields to the selection criteria as noted.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Slide Recipe – Medical Billing Code. Added the medical billing code drop down to the slide recipe area of this screen so that the CPT codes and such can be mapped to the slides that are being printed.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Business Unit Order Filter – Added logic to only display specimen orders for the business unti to which an employee is attached.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Gender drop down – Added the gender drop down to the specimen order area to allow for a gender value to be specified outside of the hard coded “M/F” logic.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Step changes status. – Added the logic to allow for the selection of specimen order steps to automatically change the overall order status since this status is part of the order step. Also added the step to the order selection criteria.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Added a configuration flag to allow for the suppression visually of the last maintained and order created values.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Added a configuration flag to allow for the suppression visually of the “copy of results” checkbox.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Added a configuration flag to allow for the suppression visually of the handling drop down.
• Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab – Summary Grid – Added a configuration flag to allow for the suppression of the cross reference column in the grid.
• Object Filing – Digital Dashboard – Digital Pathology Queue – Case Rush Type and Priority Value – Added these fields to the digital queue for the tracking of rush cases through the digital process. Also added a priority value so that the rush values can be prioritized.
• Doctor Module – Digital Pathology Tab – Meta Data Visibility – Modified the digital pathology queue grid to include a “M” button column on the far right. Clicking this button causes a pop up screen to appear to show all of the meta data associated with the digital pathology record.
• Doctor Module – Login Button – Added the ability to log in manually to the doctor module in the same manner as the other modules. Previously, either auto login or scanner were the only ways to log in.
• Doctor Module – Digital Pathology Tab – Case Level status change was not working to change the status to all of the slides in the case. It was only updating the FIRST digital pathology queue record (i.e. the first slide) on save. Corrected this.
• Doctor Module – Auto Launch Next Case Choice – Added a checkbox to the screen (depending on configuration) to determine whether or not the “launch next case on report submission” is active to allow a doctor to opt in/out of the feature.
• Doctor Module – Auto Launch Next Case Feature – Added logic to the module to allow for the auto launch of the next case from the digital queue as soon as the case is submitted.
• Doctor Module – Auto Close write to the digital queue audit log – Added the logic to write a value to the digital queue audit log when the auto close transaction is performed.
• Interface Module – LIS Order Request Robot – If the “ordered by” doctor is missing, added logic to write it to the exception table. Previously, no exception was generated, the data just got loaded as the automated robot account.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Use Extraction Defaults Checkbox – Added a configuration flag to allow this value to be toggled on/off as needed by the installation.
• Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance – Concentration Quantity – Added the concentration quantity field to the extraction type maintenance screen. This is used to indicate how many concentration values (PCR) are allowed for the concentration type and determines the screen handling of the PCR tab of the sample testing module.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – PCR Extraction Code – Added this field to the order type maintenance screen. This is used to allow for entry of an extraction code that can be used for a PCR equipment interface back into Assist and represents the code to tie to the order type coming from the equipment.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Slide Recipe Maintenance – Sequence Quantity – Added this value to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of the sequence quantity associated with a slide recipe record. For example, an L1-3 slide would potentially represent a sequence quantity of 3 to reflect the number of tissue ribbons that are tied to the slide.
• Admin Web Site – Client Facility Maintenance – Address fields delimited – With the duplication of the address fields at the facility header level, a change needed to be made to allow the client facility web screen to continue to function correctly.
• Doctor Module – Slide Scan – Modified the routine to allow for an alternate protocol wildcard inside the bar code. This allows for changes to how the bar code holds protocols or to address multiple wildcard delimiters if relevant.
• Doctor Module – Slide Scan – Tracking Number Delimiter – Added a slide tracking start/end delimiter to provide the ability for the doctor module to scan slides that have slide tracking values in the bar code. Also added this value to the scan history window on the scanning tab.
• Distribution Module – Slide Scan – Modified the routine to allow for an alternate protocol wildcard inside the bar code. This allows for changes to how the bar code holds protocols or to address multiple wildcard delimiters if relevant.
• Distribution Module – Slide Scan – Tracking Number Delimiter – Added a slide tracking start/end delimiter to provide the ability for the Distribution module to scan slides that have slide tracking values in the bar code. Also added this value to the scan history window on the scanning tab.
• Interface Utility – Patient Demographic File Drop – Added a patient demographic file drop option to load patients into the Assist database from a simple CSV file.
• Interface Utility – Magic Touch Manufacturing Task Load – Added an interface option to load manufacturing tasks from the Magic Touch LIS into Assist. Previously, there had only been an interface that was not bidirectional and did not pull data back into Assist.
• Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Clear Button – Added this button, which can be hidden by configuration to allow for the clearing of both the header and detail information on the screen. Previously, this would happen when a new package was chosen or a save transaction was completed.
• Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Manifest Print – Modified the print routine to include the order types for the material types. This was also added to the manifest reprint inside the utility pop up screen.
• Universal Cassette/Slide – On Screen Keyboard – Added a button to both the cassette and the slide tabs to allow for the launch of the Windows on screen keyboard to better support touch screens. This button is visible or not based on configuration.
• Warehouse Module – Main Filing Screen - Slide Scan – Tracking Number Delimiter – Added a slide tracking start/end delimiter to provide the ability for the Distribution module to scan slides that have slide tracking values in the bar code. Also added this value to the scan history window on the scanning tab.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Double Concentration Values – Made changes to support double concentration values and an average.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Concentration Interface History Inquiry – Built this pop up screen to provide visibility to concentration files that have been loaded into Assist from the PCR instruments.
• Sample Testing – Communication Tab – Communication Log Audit Log – Modified the communication log to also generate an audit log every time a communication log record is modified or added to provide more detailed traceability.

​July 2022

• Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Step Maintenance – Warning Font Color – Added a warning font color to the maintenance screen to determine what color the order step should appear in if the date has been excedded to make it easier to show the outliers.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order – Specimen Processing Order Active Step Date – Added a field to the specimen order capture data routine to capture the date/time stamp each time an order step is entered or changed.
• Admin Web Site – Attachment Type Maintenance – Client Image Type Checkbox, Patient Report Type Checkbox, Release Form Type checkbox, Test Request Form Type checkbox – Added the above check boxes to the maintenance screen to allow for the categorization of attachment types.
• Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – “By Shipment vs. By Manifest” choice on Manifest print. Added two radio buttons to allow for the choice between shipment or manifest filters on the printing of manifests.
• Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Group box header bolding – Modified the shipping tab to make the group box titles bold on all groups on the screen. If the visual changes are liked, this same change will be applied to the other tabs.
• Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Client and Address missing on manifest print. On a first print, the logic did not match the changes that were made to the reprint and there was a way for the client/facility names and the street address to not print.
• Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Context Help – Tool Tips – Comments text boxes. Added tool tips to the comment text boxes on this tab to help in learning screen operations. If this works effectively, the same data will be added to the other fields on the screens.
• Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab – All Materials Visibility – There was confusion about the option for suppressing packages that had no materials needing return at the header level where data would show under the detail area. Let the choice be visible regardless of the view.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Changed the description for the holding site to read as “Holding Site” instead of “Description”.
• Sample Testing – Holding Site Maintenance Screen – The underlying holding site master and search drop downs were not reloading after maintenance was performed.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order – Ordered Tests – The order category filtering check box was not operating correctly on this pop up screen.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order – Changed the screen to auto load the specimen orders at employee login.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Grid – Added a column to the grid for days left based on the warning days and the current date. This is based on the date/time being captured when the order step is changed.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Grid – Days Left font color – Changed the days left font color to be set to the warning days font color if the days left are overdue.
• Main Scanner Engine – Write Active Last Case – Set up the ability for configuration flags to write to the Active Last Case table for a requisition, bottle, cassette, or slide scan to feed the active last case scoreboard view.
• Universal Cassette/Slide - Write Active Last Case – Set up the ability for configuration flags to write to the Active Last Case table for a requisition, bottle, cassette, or slide scan to feed the active last case scoreboard view.
• Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Maintenance – Baud Rate Override Value – Added this value to the maintenance screen to allow for an individual machine to have a scanner baud rate entered that differs from the main scanner speed used with all other machines in an environment. This better supports mismatched equipment in a facility without having to reprogram scanners (if possible to reprogram). The baud rate is filled from a drop down of choices that is configured by the Assist administrator to cut down on random and incorrect data.
• Main Scanner Engine – Baud Rate Override Logic – Added logic to the main scanner engine to support the new baud rate override by configuration feature.
• Check In Module – Baud Rate Override Logic - Added logic to the check in module to support the new baud rate override by configuration feature.
• Universal Cassette/Slide – Baud Rate Override Logic - Added logic to both the universal cassette and slide module to support the new baud rate override by configuration feature.
• Accessioning Module – Baud Rate Override Logic - Added logic to the accessioning module to support the new baud rate override by configuration feature
• Admin Web Site – Assist Equipment Interface Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance and creation of the various scanner speed settings used in the new equipment baud rate override feature. This screen controls the drop down list used on the client configuration maintenance screen.
• Universal Slide POU – Pieces in History – Modified the slide POU screen to allow for writing the pieces data into the scan history instead of just showing it in a small font at the bottom of the screen.
• Universal Slide POU – Position Protocol by specimen check box not sticking when configuration changes – Modified this setting so that it will stay as the configuration is changed to better support sites with multiple LIS installations and configurations.
• Universal Cassette/Slide – Scan Classification Scan Ability to change. The scan classification drop down (i.e. Recuts vs. IHC vs. Special Stains, etc.) was only available for change via a mouse click. Gave the ability to put out scan sheets to change this value via scanner to reduce the need to touch the mouse.
• Universal Module – Tab Handling – Fixed issue where some of the information tabs could get wiped out. – The logic for suppressing tabs had an issue where the tabs could possibly continue to disappear as the employee bounced from one configuration to another. Cleaned up the way tabs are hidden to eliminate this possibility.
• Admin Web Site – LIS Master Maintenance – Accession Number Length – Added this field to the LIS master maintenance screen so that an override of the accession number length can be done at the LIS level instead of by accession prefix. This is part of the sample testing area where multiple inbound accession number formats are being tracked.
• Admin Web Site – Business Unit Maintenance – LIS Master drop down – Added the default LIS value via drop down so that the default LIS for a business unit can be specified.
• Sample Testing Module – Help Button – Added a help button to the top of this module to allow for the display of the various help text that is available explaining what the fields and columns are on the reports.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Extraction Selection criteria – Unassigned to an extraction checkbox setting to allow it to default on or off.
• Admin Web Site – Order Category Maintenance – Clinical Research Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen to allow order categories to be specified as belonging to clinical research projects.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Business Unit and All Business Units check box. Added a checkbox to the maintenance screen to all an order type to be associated to all business units and a drop down for the owning business unit for sites that have more than one business unit.
• Scoreboard – Multiple Shipment Grid – Upper left cell is the color blue – When the multiple shipment grid graph went above 144 cells, the screen was shown with the mouse cursor in the upper lefthand cell and it had the default color of blue. Research the clear selection to stop this from happening.
• Admin Web Site – Assist Help Details Maintenance – Added a help section number to more specifically outline the area that is referenced by the help text. Previously, the most specific the data could be was at the software module level.
• Admin Web Site – Assist Help Section Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of the newly created help sections. Previously, help text was maintained at the module level but this lack of further categorization made a bit of a disorganized mess in some modules. By added a section, the help data can be organized by tab (for example) to make it easier to find meaningful information.

August 2022

• Admin Web Site – Assist Formula Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the entry of the various mathmatical formulas that might be in use in the various screens of Assist. Some regulartory organizations require that the math being performed be explained to employees and this maintenance gives the ability to capture all of these formulas with a detailed description area along with an area for custom (i.e. not Assist explaining) so that an individual facility can explain in terms that might make more sense for their employes.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Formula Display – Added a button to the PCR batch grid to allow for the display of the formula screen based on the entry of a formula (discussed above) for the concentration calculations being performed.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Concentration value cleanup – The three concentration values on the PCR grid had differing appearences with rounding, number of decimals, etc. Added the ability to indicate the number of decimals in the configuration and then formatted all three columns to look the same to make more visually pleasing.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Entry screen – Created this screen to serve as a full specimen order processing screen. Previously, this feature was available via the “standard” method of selecting the grid value on the left and having the maintenance performed on the right hand side of the screen. There was so much data associated with a specimen order that this caused a “cramped” screen, so made the screen full sized.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Entry – Pathologist capture – Added a + button to the specimen order entry screen to allow for the quick addition of a pathologist to the pathologist master file (referring pathologist). Full maintenance (changes, etc.) still need to be done via the main referring physician maintenance screen.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Entry – Clinician capture - Added a + button to the specimen order entry screen to allow for the quick addition of a clinician to the clinician master file (referring pathologist). Full maintenance (changes, etc.) still need to be done via the main referring physician maintenance screen.
• Admin Web Site – Department Maintenance – Font Color and Employee Department Checkbox. Added the font color so that departments can be color coded on different screens and also added a checkbox to allow for a department to be categorized as an employee department. There were already category checkboxes for inventory, manufacturing, and chemicals.
• Admin Web Site – Employee Group Maintenance – Font Color. Added the font color so that employee groups can be color coded on different screens.
• Admin Web Site – Stored Comment Type Maintenance – Available in Communication Log Checkbox. Added this check box to the maintenance screen so that stored comments can be filtered on screens that allow for the use of stored comment types.
• Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Department Drop Down – Employee Department Filter. Modified the security maintenance screen to only show departments in the drop down list that are classified as employee departments.
• Admin Web Site – Research Project Status Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of status values used inside the clinical research project areas of Assist.
• Simple Print – Pad Zeros Bar Code Option – Added an option to allow the padding of the accession number to be controlled by an option in the config file.
• Admin Web Site – Research Project Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the research project type.
• Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance –Modified this screen to include a field for Extraction Code. This will be used to enforce interface files against extraction types.
• Sample Testing - PCR Concentration Interface – Unassignment – Completely changed the method of unassigning a file from a concentration assignment to make the screen perform better.
• Sample Testing - PCR Concentration Interface – Modified this screen to show the extraction type at the top of the screen along with the number of concentrations required (1 or 2).
• Sample Testing - PCR Concentration Interface – Auto Close – Changed the settings to allow for an auto close when it is a single concentration extraction and the data is provided. Do NOT auto close on a double unless two concentrations are provided. On a single, go ahead and close.
• Sample Testing - To Do Status Button – Rearranged the top of the main screen. Changed the overdue button to be longer but narrow. Added a “to do” button underneath that will be green/red based on the ticker and checking for communication log messages that are targeted to a department to which the employee logged into Assist belongs.
• Sample Testing - PCR – Object Assignment Pop up window (the x / x/ x button). If there were multiple order types for the accession, they could stretch across the header of the window and jumble things. Moved the display into a list box and now display them vertically instead of horizontally.
• Sample Testing - PCR Concentration Interface – Added logic to consider the extraction code for the type and make sure that the file indicator is the same reflecting a match between the equipment interface file and the extraction type.
• Sample Testing - PCR – Extraction Grid – “T” Button – This button reflects the count of order types against the aggregated accession number even though the grid shows the data at the order type level. Clicking on the button will show all of the orders on an order along with who entered those orders.
• Admin Web Site – Research Project Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of research projects. These are part of the research tracking part of Assist and represent different projects such as clinical research projects, drug studies, etc.
• Admin Web Site – Research Project Number Wheel Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of research project number wheels. These are part of the clinical research functional area of Assist and represent seperate number wheels that are used as “spin offs” of “regular” number wheels to be used for research projects.
• Interface Utility – CADFlow Interface Robot – Added a CADFlow AI robot to the interface utility to support the inbound receipt of STL and PTS (tooling files) for milling machine robots.
• Print Center – Full Accession Label – Print values into configuration – Modified this label routine so that the values for where to print objects can be placed in the configuration and are not hard coded into the screen.
• Sample Testing - Shipping Tab – Manifest Utility – The bold fonts were not present on the various group headings on the utility screen. Corrected this.
• Sample Testing - Shipping Tab – Manifest Utility – The shipment type and tracking fields were not named the same on utility screen vs. the underlying shipping tab. Made the two the same for the sake of consistency.
• Sample Testing - Manifest Printing – Added a setting to the configuration to allow for defaulting of the manifest to be either portrait or landscape. Placed the setting to portrait.
• Sample Testing - Manifest Printing – Moved the header down slightly to address reports that the page was not within margins.
• Sample Testing - Manifest Printing – Widened out the order type column to allow for longer type values to fit.
• Sample Testing - Manifest Printing – Added the ability to display the client part on the manifest based on the choice in the manifest. Set this choice to be on.
• Sample Testing - Manifest Printing – Added the outbound tracking number to the header of the manifest.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Step Maintenance - Added a communication log note field to the specimen order step maintenance screen to provide a default note that will be inserted into the communication log when a specimen order is moved to a different order step.
• Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance – Allowed Concentration Variance – Added this field to the screen to support a numerical variance that is allowed for extractions that have more than one concentration value. This will be used for editing/error checking of concentration data capture inside the PCR tab of the sample testing module.
• Admin Web Site – Body Source Maintenance – Specimen Order Flag – Added a check box to this screen to allow for body source values to be coded as visible in the specimen ordering area of Assist as opposed to standard histology.
• Admin Web Site – Communication Log Type Maintenance – Added drop down boxes for default employee group assignment, stored comment types, and default stored comments. This will all allows for better defaulting as communication log functionality migrates toward “to do” assignment of communication records to employees and groups.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Concentration Entry – Modified the entry of concentrations to pull the allowed concentration variance from the extraction type table rather than applying a single variance value across all extraction types to allow for better functionality.
• Admin Web Site – Business Area Maintenance – Added multiple checkbox to represent different areas of the business so that different data elements can be customized to only apply to the appropriate business area. The communication log messages will be the first area to have business area filters applied to them.
• Admin Web Site – Communication Log Source Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of communication log sources. This data element will become a manner of segmenting communication log entries by the business area to which the log items apply. A log source is assigned to a business area.
• Sample Testing – PCR Extraction Grid – Communication Log Indicator – Added an “*” column to the grid to capture whether or not there are communication log records for an extraction (PCR) record. An asterisk will be displayed if there are communication log entries in general. The back color will be green if the log entries are for the PCR business area. The back color will be red it the log entries are for the PCR business area AND they require acknowledgement but it has not been acknowledged.
• Admin Web Site – Research Project Tracking Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of tracking status values to be applied to individual resesearch project objects.
• Universal Cassette – Clinicial Research Window – Added a reprint button to allow for printing without needing to save an object. Also introduced a tracking status to allow for the delete button to move the status of an object to deleted rather than actually deleting it to allow for improved tracking.
• Admin Web Site – Research Project Tracking Report – Created this report to allow for full reporting over the clinical research project data.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Research Order Type Checkbox – Added a checkbox to the order type maintenance screen to allow for an order type to be categorized as available to the clinical research screens.
• Admin Web Site – Research Order Type Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of research order type data. This data represents the order types cross referenced to the research projects for which they are relevant.
• Admin Web Site – Research Project Summary Report  - Create this report to provide visibility to summary counts of the number of objects that were processed as part of research project tracking.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Interface Protocol Listing. Created this report to show a listing of the mapping of equipment to the protocols that are processed by that equipment. An example would a listing of stain protocols by staining equipment (i.e. Omnis, Bond, Ventana, etc.).
• Manufacturing Module – Start/End Task Logic – Modified the manufacturing module to allow for the capture of a start and end time stamp associated with the manufacturing tasks. Tasks are scanned after the case/accession and represent a work task. This provides the ability to get TAT by task.
• Manufacturing Module – Specimen Complexity Addition – Added the choice of specimen complexity to the main manufacturing screen. This allows for piece rate additions to assign appropriate work values to the types of specimens processed.
• Manufacturing Module – Task Scan cancellation – Added a button the screen to allow for the cancellation of a task once it has begun. This accounts for situations where a technician begins work on a specimen before realizing the task cannot be completed for a variety of reasons.
• Check In Module – Robot/Bulk Scanner Interface Capability – Modified the check in module to allow for two “scanners” to interact with the screen at the same time. The first scanner would be a traditional hand held scanner with the second being a “bulk” scanner or scanning robot. The screen will handle the inbound feed however data is fed into the screen.
• Universal Grossing – Clinical Research – Default label quantity in configuration – For the clinical research pop up screen, modified to allow for the default label quantity to be set in the configuration for additional flexibility instead of defaulting to 1.
• Universal Grossing – Clinical Research – Suppress Linear/2D Bar code choices. Added two checkboxes to the clinical research pop up screen to allow for the suppression of either the 1D or 2D bar codes on the label print routine if needed with the ability to default from the configuration.
• Universal Slide – QC Notes Too Small – There have been a few comments about the size of the font on the QC notes being too small. Reorganized a couple of the buttons in the button ribbon to provide more space for the notes label and increase the font size from 8.25 to 12. Specifically moved the employee time button so that the elapsed time tag could be placed underneath the ribbon bar to allow the notes label to stretch farther without running into other data.
• Check In module – Robot scanner auto flipping – Added the ability for the robot scanner to mix/match bar codes from multiple LIS platforms in a single bulk scanner feed.
• Check In Module – Robot Scanner Connection message – Added a message to the bottom of the screen to indicate the connection status (baud rate/port).
• Check In Module – Robot Feed Tab – Added a seperate listing of the robot feed on a seperate tab in the history area of the screen to show the bar codes received in order (and numbered) along with Red/Green color coding to indicate if bar code parsing was processed successfully or not.
• Admin Web Site – Research Clinical Participation Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of research clinical participation data. This is where a research project is enabled for specific clients to elminate the potential risk of specimens for the wrong client being included in a research project.
• Admin Web Site – Research Project Tracking Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the raw research project tracking information. This is the most granular level where accession numbers are assigned to a project.
• Universal Grossing – Clinical Research – Client Participation Enforcement – Modified the clinical research area of the grossing module to consider client participation when assigning specimens to a clinical research project.
• Admin Web Site – LIS Master Maintenance – Database Connectivity Information – Added connection data to support the ability to make alternative connections for interface connectivity at the LIS platform level.
• Admin Web Site – Collection Point Maintenance – Child Object. Added a drop-down list of the object types to indicate which object (i.e. Cassette, bottle, slide, etc.) is the “child” or lowest level matching object for each data collection point.
• Admin Web Site – Object Type Maintenance – Scan Type. Added this field to the object type maintenance screen to allow for a value that matches the object type or source of the items scanned into the transaction log. This allows for reporting of specific object types.
• Admin Web Site – Scan Transactions Hourly Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the number of objects scanned by hour for the various data collection points.
• Admin Web Site – Expiration Type Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the categorization of the types of expiration/licenses that can be tracked in Assist. For example, a Doctor Medical License would be an expiration type.
• Admin Web Site – Expiration Item Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of expiration items. An expiration item is a child of an expirate type. For example, and expiration item might be a doctor license for the state of Louisiana.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor License Maintenance – Added the expiration item drop down to the screen. Changed the screen around visually to improve the appearance. Added drop-down criteria for the expiration type and items. Added checkboxes to suppress inactive doctors and to hide expired license data. Also added a from/to date range to the expiration date to look for items that might be expiring in the near future.
• Doctor Module – Tab Suppression Cleanup – Modified the way that tabs are suppressed via code. An older method of disposing of unneeded tabs was being used. Cleaned this up for better future usage. Also changed the method for determining the tab to receive focus.
• Doctor Module – License Notification – Added a license button to the top of the screen. As the doctor logs into the module, it checks all licensure in Assist and displays a count of the licenses found. If any of them have an expiration date in the next X days (default of 30 but configurable), the button is displayed in red. If the button is clicked, also added routing to a newly added license tab where the licensure information is displayed. Additionally, the ability to display the cost of renewal and the web link to perform the renewal is provided (assuming someone has entered the data).

September 2022

• Stain Queue – Stain Drop Down Positioning – Changed the logic for the on demand scanning of slides. The protocol in the bar code was not positioning the stain drop down due to case sensitivity. Changed the screen to work regardless when pull up a stain value.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Show Record Number – Added this check box to the screen to allow for the equipment type record number to be provided as needed. Also added a check box for “Active Only” and a wild card description to the selection criteria.
• Universal Slide – Stain Queue Write – Modified the routine that writes to the stain queue to include fields to allow for the tracking whether or not a stain queue record came from microtomy or directly from the stain queue by adding an on demand field to the table and the history audit trail.
• Stain Queue – Robot Logic – Added logic to the stain queue to allow for the creation of stain files that are dumped on a “pending” file location to be picked up and sent to the staining platform by a robot program. Added fields to the stain request tracking table to track the file name, path, date/time stamp, etc. When this process is done to provide tracking of when the file is created and is ready to go to the equipment network. These time stamps can then be updated when the robot actually picks the files up and processes them.
• Stain Queue – On demand scanning – Modified this routine to include a Y/N flag to indicate if this screen/methodology was used to pass an IHC into the staining platform rather than the pass-through directly from Microtomy/Stain Queue to indicate when manual processing is being done instead of automated workflow processes.
• Stain Queue – On Demand Scanning – The scanned transactions that were being sent to the stain queue were not writing an audit trail entry. Changed this to provide full history audit trail tracking.
• Interface Utility – Stain Queue Interface – Created a new robot routine to read through the stain request tracking records and send files that have been created via the stain queue to a staining platform interface. This handles scenarios where the stain queue is used on computers that have no routing or connectivity to the various staining platform servers.
• Admin Web Site – Stain Queue Accession Maintenance – Modified this maintenance screen to set the “OnDemandEntry” field to “Y” if maintenance is performed on a stain queue entry to make sure to have the notification indicate that a web based override was performed on the stain queue record.
• Admin Web Site – Stain Request Tracking Report – Modified this report to include the new fields associated with transmission of the files via robot instead of on demand directly from the stain queue.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Processing Run Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment processing runs. This data reflects the time and capacity of equipment type runs of specimens and/or products. It is similar to the tissue size maintenance process but is being seperated to account for differences for ALL types of equipment and not just tissue processors. It is being seperated to allow for future equipment specific development without putting tissue processors at risk.
• Quality Module – Modified the logic to suppress tabs and added the ability for each of the tabs contained inside the quality module. Also added the ability to default to any of the tabs at screen launch.
• Manufacturing Module – Screen Handling Change – On logout scan, the user name was not getting cleared. Corrected this. On a new case scan, the start/end task scan were not getting set back to N/A. Corrected this.
• Check In Module – Added the employee totals button to the screen to provide the employee with visibility to their scan totals.
• Admin Web Site – Active Last Case Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to provide maintenance over this table which controls the scoreboard module view of active last cases.
• Accessioning Module – Interface Notification Button – This button to update the last LIS interface update did not work for PathQuest interface items. Extended the logic to allow for branching to different interface paths based on LIS/Interface.
• Universal Cassette Queue – Drop File Accession Length Check – When using the universal cassette queue in a drop file scenario, with multiple LIS platforms with different accession lengths.......the length was not toggling on each print. This caused leading zeros to be padded onto the base accession number with the length of the initial LIS rather than toggling to the correct size when the LIS changed.
• Main Scanner Engine – On a print queue automation scan, there were a few fields that were not getting propagated. Added them to the write routine even with simple placeholder values.
• Main Scanner Engine – Specimen Type History – Modified the routine where the specimen types are retrieved to load them into the scan history in addition to showing on the screen. This allows the employee to historically see what specimen types got captured for each block to better ensure accurate data.
• Main Scanner Engine – Alternate cassette identifier – Added logic to allow for different cassette identifiers for use with the same matching requisition and bottle. This is very useful for grossing deployments where the cassette identifier is changed at a later date and both “types” of cassettes need to scan during transition.
• Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Detail Maintenance – Print Template Value Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the screen so that individual detail values could be marked as a portion of the print template logic.
• Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Task Transaction Report – End Task Date Inclusion. Added the end task date to the manufacturing task transaction report.
• Print Center – Class 1 Label – Seperate external data pull to filter product listing. Provided the ability for the class 1 label routine to pull from a seperate external data source. Previously, this screen shared the same logic as the UDI label.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Listing Report – Cross Reference Bar Code. Added the cross reference bar code to the equipment listing report and also added the Asset number to the selection criteria.
• Manufacturing Module – Inventory Requests Issues – When an inventory request was entered with the “close on save” enabled, the request would get entered and the screen would close correctly. If the button was clicked a second time, the screen would load with a filtered inventory product screen that did not work correctly. This was fixed.
• Sample Testing - Manifest Utility – Modified the reprint routine to show tracking numbers at the detail level if they were specified at the detail level. FedEx number can be either at the header or the detail level. If at the header, they appear in the header of the manifest. If at the detail, they appear in the detail. Previously the detailed level Fedex numbers were getting ignored on the manifest.
• Sample Testing - Manifest Utility – From/To History date range – Previously, there was a hardcoded “30 days back” logic that was applied when the drop-down boxes were pulled for history. By providing an actual from/to selection criteria, this data can be modified as needed.
• Sample Testing – Manifest Utility – Manifest Number Reprint – Added a value to the screen for the manifest number. This will load if a value is clicked in the manifest drop down list, but can be keyed directly if the employee knows which manifest they want to reprint.
• Sample Testing – Manifest Utility – Consolidated Tracking Numbers – Added logic to concatenate the tracking numbers at the header and detail submission levels (based on configuration flag) to allow for all carrier shipment tracking numbers to be displayed on the header of the manifest (if there are multiple). The individual tracking numbers can be show on the detail lines for clarification if there are multiple.
• Sample Testing – Receving Tab – Accession Number must be numeric – Put a check on the save transaction to enforce that the accession number value entered is numeric.
• Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Manifest Print Changes - Consolidated Tracking Numbers – Added logic to concatenate the tracking numbers at the header and detail submission levels (based on configuration flag) to allow for all carrier shipment tracking numbers to be displayed on the header of the manifest (if there are multiple). The individual tracking numbers can be show on the detail lines for clarification if there are multiple.
• Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Client/Manifest Enforcement – Added a check to the manifest detail save routine to check if there are more than one client on a manifest and generate an error message if needed.
• Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Manifest Header Save – Corrected issue where the material submitted details could get saved without the manifest number getting applied to all of the detail records.
• Sample Testing – Communication Log Entry – Employee Group Assignment – Added the employee group assignment logic to the communication log entry screen to allow for the assignment of “to do” items to a specific employee group.
• Sample Testing – Communication Log Entry – Comments Change – Mandatory Addition – Modified the logic so that the change of the comments forces a new record to be written to the database instead of a change to keep a true log of the comments.
• Sample Testing – Object Conversion Tracking – The write routine was putting leading zeros on the accession numbers when they were added to the conversion table. Removed these from the logic.
• Quality Module – Free Form Checkbox Header – Added a “free form” check box to the header section of the quality module to allow for manual entry of the accession prefix, specimen (i.e. bottle) and part (i.e. cassette) identifiers.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor License Maintenance – Active Flag – Added an active flag and active license only criteria to this maintenance screen. This allows for the inactivation of doctor license records in scenarios where the records need to be maintenance of licene but where the license does not need to appear in the various places in Assist. For example, a doctor no longer works for the firm, but licensure tracking needs to be kept for historical purposes.
• Stain Queue -  On Demand Scanning – Protocol/Stain Lookup – If spaces were in the protocol/stain name that was placed into the bar code, the parsing engine that reads the bar codes was not “looking up” the bar code correctly. The scan parsing engine eats the blanks and creates a string that did not match the human readable in the drop down list. Changed the routine to consider the protocol WITH and WITHOUT embedded blanks when performing the lookup.
• Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Task Employee Summary – Created this report to provide visibility to a summary of task scan activity by employee. This includes task start/end calculations.
• Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Order Type Maintenance – SubAssembly and Finished Goods Checkboxes – Added these two fields to the screen to allow a manufacturing ordered to be classified as finished goods or sub assemblies.
• Admin Web Site – Inventory Category Maintenance – Finished Goods Checkbox. Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen to allow for an inventory category to be set up to be finished goods only. This will allow for segmentation of inventory master records in the Assist inventory module.
• Admin Web Site – UDI Label Type Maintenance – Finished Goods and Product Check Boxes. Added this checkboxes to the UDI label type maintenance screen to allow UDI labels to b designation as belonging to finished good products vs. Manufactured products. This allows for the triggering of the different UDI label templates to meet FDA requirements.
• Admin Web Site – Recipe Category Maintenance – Sub Assembly and Finished Goods check boxes. Added these checkboxes to the maintenance screen to allow a recipe category to be designated as belonging to sub assembly vs. Finished goods for use in the Assist inventory module.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Use Default Protocol check box and Default Protocol Value. Added a text field to the maintenance screen to allow for the designation of a value that should be used for a protocol for all slides for the prefix assuming the use default protocol check box is checked.
• Interface Utility Module – Missing Client Robot – Added an automated job that can be scheduled to compare material submission master records with no client number and attempt to update them from the LIS master table in case the client interface is lagging for some reason.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor License Maintenance – License Cost and License Notes. Added these two fields to the maintenance screen.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor License Report - License Cost and License Notes. Added these two fields to the report.
• Admin Web Site – Expiration Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the expiration tracking information for memberships and subscriptions that are tracking through Assist.
• Admin Web Site – Expiration Tracking Audit Log - Created this report to provide visibility to the expiration tracking audit log information for memberships and subscriptions that are tracking through Assist. The audit log represents all changes that are made to expiration records and provides detailed information on changes.
• Admin Web Site – Expiration Tracking Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability to maintain expiration tracking information. This is the area of Assist where subscriptions and memberships are tracked.
• Quality Module – Error Severity Maintenance – Modified this tab and maintenance screen to include the informational flag and font color. These two pieces of informational were previously not included in the maintenance screen.
• Admin Web Site – Inventory Maintenance – UDIFlag, UDITemplate, UDILabelDesc, and UDI UOM. Added these fields to the inventory maintenance screen to support interaction between the inventory control portions of Assist and the printing of UDI labels specifically geared toward finished goods inventory items.
• Admin Web Site – Protocol Structure Report – Human Text Override – Added this column to the report so that the human text alternative to the bar code value could be seen.
• Quality Module – Expirations Tab/Tickler – Added a new red/green button to the top of the screen to display any “expiration/license” data that might exist inside Assist tracking. These expirations can be medical licenses, memberships in organizations, really anything with a membership number and an expiration date. A tickler button is at the top of the screen to show the count of them along with green if they are all good or red if some number of them are expiring within the warning threshhold.
• Admin Web Site – UDI UOM Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of UDI unit of measure mappings. In the world of UDI labels, the governmental list of units of measure do not match the actual numeric value. In other words, there are numeric codes that represent the true UOM data. This maintenance screen allows for the maintenance of this cross reference data.
• Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – UDI Filter – Added a check box to the selection criteria on this screen to allow for filtering based on the inventory master items that have been marked as UDI items.
• Admin Web Site – Recipe Master Maintenance – Redistribute and Manufacture checkboxes. Modified this screen to allow for the specification of whether a recipe is for manufacture of a new product using sub-assembly components or represents the simple redistribution of an existing item with no sub assembly other than something simple such as repackaging.

October 2022

• Sample Testing – Default Tab – Added the ability to specify a default tab so that the screen can load in a custom manner.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Pop Up Screen - Close On Save Option – Added an option to the screen to show a check box for “close on save” and set a configuration variable to allow this to be on or off and to have the screen respond appropriately to the option.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Pop Up Screen – Communication Log Tree Severity Color – Modified the communication log tree to show the log message header in the severity color to have high severity items visually stand out more.
• Sample Testing – Holding Site Maintenance – When a new holding site is entered, or an existing one is modified, the underlying specimen order screen did not default to the newly added/maintained holding site immediately upon return from the pop up maintenance screen. Defaulted this to cut down on having to select the site under the premise that the newly added one would want to immediately be used.
• Sample Testing- Specimen Order Pop Up Screen – Date of Birth Checkbox – added a checkbox to the date of birth to indicate that the date HAS been specified and should be considered valid. The default on date controls is “today” and wanted a better way of indicating that the data had really been entered.
• Sample Testing – Specimen Order Pop Up Screen – Specimen Tests – Changed the error message to indicate on a NEW order that a save must be performed to create the order before you can being entering tests against the order. The message was a little misleading as to the issue previously.
• Admin Web Site - UDI Label Type Maintenance – Use Inventory Desc – Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen. It supports the printing of UDI labels for finished goods items where the description to print on the label should be the product description from the inventory master file and not a brand name associated with the UDI label header.
• Inventory Module – Finished Goods Functionality – Added a tab to the inventory module to support the tracking of finished goods. This tab largely mimics the manufacturing order tab with the exception that sub assemblies are not being created, finished goods (i.e. sales supplies, etc.) are being created. Supports the concept of manufacturing (i.e. kitted) finished goods as well as repackaged or redistributed finished goods.
• Inventory Module – UDI Label Printing – Added the ability on the new finished goods tab to allow for the printing of lot number finished goods UDI labels for items that fall under FDA control. The indicator for UDI is allowed at the inventory master maintenance level (discussed earlier in the change log).
• Admin Web Site - Equipment Master Maintenance – Equipment Bar Code Criteria. Added this criterion to the screen.
• Admin Web Site – UDI Label Revisions Report – Suppress Label Header, Finished Goods Flag, Product Flag, Use Inventory Description. Added all of these new reports to the revision report to make sure full visibility to the revision changes exists from a control standpoint.
• Admin Web Site – Department Maintenance – Timeclock Department Code – Added this field to the maintenance screen so that a timeclock department code could be tied to the department code for employees in Assist to better define the interface.
• Admin Web Site – Recipe Batch Maintenance – Modified the selection criteria to include From/To date, Status, Lot number, and batch name to make it easier to identify the records to change.
• Document Capture – Modified to allow for changes to the automatic file naming. Allows for optional insertion of a dash between the prefix and accession number. Only adds an 01, 02, etc. To the file name if it already exists. Allow for the creation of a file folder if needed but otherwise save into a single folder typically ordered by Year, Month.
• Document Capture – Forward after save – Added logic to allow for a file to be copied to an alternative path after saving the image. Added logic to show the copy path and throw a message to the screen to indicate that the copy was successful. Added fields to the database to keep all of this new data.
• Admin Web Site – Timeclock Platform Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation and maintenance of timeclock platforms. These represent the various types of timeclocks that might exist inside the organization and will part of the timeclock interface logic being introduced.
• Timeclock Robot – Paylocity Timeclock – Created this robot routine to upload the paylocity brand time clock into Assist. The data is loaded into the raw Timeclock punch data table in the database.
• Admin Web Site – Email Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the email type. This is the beggining of the introduction of stored email records as part of the notifications process.
• Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Team Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of manufacturing team types. This is part of the manufacturing module and allows for the logical grouping of teams (i.e. cells or assembly lines).
• Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Team Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of manufacturing teams. This is part of the manufacturing module and represents the grouping of employees together to work as a unit (ex. Cells or assembly lines).
• Admin Web Site – Email Library Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of email library items. This is part of the email storage to allow for forms to be created in email.
• Admin Web Site – Attachment Library Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of items in the attachment library. This is part of the attachment storage areas of Assist and represent forms and things of that nature that can be stored and attached to different activities/transactions.
• Admin Web Site - MFG Task Employee Summary – Time Clock Data – Modified this report to include timeclock data and also include multiple statistics.
• PM Module – Equipment Bar Code Scanning – Added multiple items associated with the cross reference bar code. Added it to the selection criteria on the equipment lookup. Added the ability to scan the bar code and pull up the item on the maintenance screen and on the main PM tab.
• Admin Web Site – Timeclock Punch Data Report – Created this report to provide visibility to raw timeclock punch data for sites that have a live interface into their timeclock platform(s).
• Admin Web Site – Active Last Case Layout Details – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the active last case layout details. This is a section of the Assist scoreboard module and allows for the mapping of machines/scan points to a big screen view of the last case that was processed. This screen is the mapping of those collection points to a scoreboard.
• Admin Web Site – MFG Team Type Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of manufacturing team type templates. This is the section of Assist manufacturing where a combination of scanning roles is defined. This is useful in determining what manufacturing tasks are being performed in a cell or assembly line.
• Admin Web Site – Batch Type Maintenance – FISH Batch Checkbox and control object count. Added a check box to this screen to allow for the marking of a batch type as a FISH batch. Also added a text box to capture the number of control objects that should be involved with the batch type.
• Admin Web Site – Batch Status FISH Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of FISH batch status values. This allows for the capture of Open, Pending, Closed status values for FISH batches.
• Admin Web Site – MFG Team Membership Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of manufacturing team membership. This is where the members of a team can be assigned via the web site instead of from the modules themselves.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Step Maintenance – Email Drop Down – Added this drop down list to the maintenance screen to allow for the assignment of automated email messages that can be generated in response to the specimen order step being saved against a case.
• MFG Module – LIS MFG Task Retrieval – Modified the logic to change where the retrieval for the outstanding tasks was performed. It needed to be moved to more accurately capture the tasks that should be retrieved.
• Manufacturing QC Module – Task Transaction Rework – The SQL statement to perform the cancellation of a manufacturing task transaction had a syntax error that was causing it to not launch correctly. Fixed this syntax error.
• Manufacturing QC Module – Rework MSP drop down – Modified the logic when this screen loads. If there is only one MSP for a product, pre-selected this product.
• Manufacturing QC Module – Rework Print On Save Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the rework entry screen. Having this checked allows for the printing of the rework paperwork automatically on save of the rework to save time.
• Manufacturing QC Module – Rework Request – Management Cancel Value – Modified the rework request save routine to add a “N” to the management cancel value that has been added to the database. This value can be set to “Y” via the web screen for management flagging of a rework as not warranted.
• Inventory Master Listing – UDI Data Fields – Added the various UDI data fields to the inventory master listing along with a UDI Only check box in the selection criteria to pull only a listing of inventory items that are marked as FDA UDI items.
• MFG Tasks Maintenance – Available QC Module Check Box – Added a checkbox to the manufacturing task maintenance screen to allow for the specification of whether or not a manufacturing task should be visible in the scanning tab of the module. This cuts down on visual clutter and reduces scanning/entry mistakes.
• Manufacturing QC Module – Available QC Module Drop Down Filter – Modified the loading of the drop down list on the scanning tab to take into account the available check box for the QC module.
• Manufacturing QC Module – Default scanning task – Modified the module to look at the default MFG task value from the client configuration and default the MFG task drop down on the scanning tab to match this task.
• Manufacturing QC Module – Button Change – On the MFG task scanning tab, changed the “Add” and “Delete” buttons to be smaller and carry the standard Assist buttons for add (Green +) and delete (red X). This makes the module more consistent with overall application design and saves screen space.
• Rework Request Report – Management Cancel Field – Added this field to the report to provide visibility to rework requests that are overridden by management and are cancelled.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Business Area – Added this drop down to the order type maintenance screen so that a relationship can be specified between an order type and the business area to which the order type applies. This will be used in a variety of filtering situations.
• Admin Web Site – Order Category Notification Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the specification of employee groups that can/should receive a notification when an order is placed against a specific order category. This is part of the inbound specimen sample testing module.
• Admin Web Site – Communication Log Source Maintenance – Modified this screen to make sure that the same business area is not used more than once to control the communication log assignments.
• Manufacturing QC Module – Login/Logout Buttons – After successful login, the logout button was not visible. Corrected this.
• Manufacturing QC Module – Task Start/Task End – Added the task start and end logic to the Manufacturing QC module to be able to track TAT on QC scans.
• Manufacturing QC Module – Specimen Complexity – Added the specimen complexity logic to the QC module to allow for the display and override of the specimen complexity information.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Banking Only Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen to provide for the ability to mark an order as “banking only”. This is useful for facilities that prepare specimens that will not be used up during testing, but rather are placed on slides (etc.) and stored/banked for future use.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Micron Depth Allowed and Enrichment Allowed – Added this checkboxes to the screen to allow for the capture of these data elements.
• Admin Web Site – Material Submission Template Detail Maintenance – Enrichment Ordered Checkbox – Added this to the screen to allow for enrichment orders to be included in a template when ordering by default.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Report – Enrichment Ordered – Added this column to the report to provide visibility to doctor orders placed with enrichment.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Audit Report – Administration Button – This button returned the employee to the “screen” main page instead of “reports”. Fixed this issue.
• Admin Web Site – Order Category Maintenance – Enrichment Allowed Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the order category maintenance screen so that it can be used to filter the enrichment checkbox on the order entry pop up screen in the sample testing module.
• Sample Testing – Enrichment Logic – added the logic throughout the entry process in the sample testing module to capture enrichment data.

November 2022

• Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Alternate Description – Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for an additional full description to be stored to cross reference descriptions and further describe a specimen.
• Check In – Equipment Assignment Changes – Duplicate Equipment Types - Added the ability for mulitple pieces of the same equipment type to be assigned to a session. Previously, there could only be one piece of a specific equipment type assigned, but for stations that have multiple devices that they work with, this was a problem.
• Check In – Equipment Drop Down – Changed the logic to only show records in the drop down based on the equipment assignment for the computer. Also added an “all equipment” check box to allow for the toggling of all equipment vs. Just the equipment assigned to the session.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – Equipment Capacity – Added this field to the screen to allow for the capacity of a piece of equipment to be tracked for use in the check in module.
• Equipment Maintenenance Module – Equipment Capacity – Added this field to the equipment maintenance tab to allow for the maintenence of the equipment capacity information.
• Grossing Notes Report – Grossing Notes and Clinical criteria. Added the grossing notes and clinical information wild card to the criteria.
• Universal Cassette POU – Rx Image button and check on scan – Added logic to look for an Rx image when a requisition is scanned if the automatic Rx Lookup check box is checked and also added a button to manually pull the data. If an Rx is “seen” at Requisition scan, turn the background of the button green.
• Universal Cassette POU – Protocol in bar code vs. Specimen type in DB logic. For sites that have a specimen type contained in the bottle bar code, there can be a conflict if the data in the bar code exists and is different from the specimen type already mapped in the database. Modified the logic to use the bar code specification UNLESS the DB holds a value from employee override or LIS interface in which case the DB wins the fight.
• Universal Cassette POU – Body Source Lookup – Modified the logic used for the body source lookup for sites that use the LIS Patient verification process. Allows for logic with pulling a short code out of the body site description to then use to pull the full description from the Assist body site master table.
• Check In Module – Run History Details – Modified the right hand section of the module. When a run/batch is selected from the drop down list, now the details associated with the batch are displayed (Start date, end date, unloaded date, equipment description, run description) before the details of the run (i.e. cases or accessions) to provide better information.
• Check In Module – MFG Task Batch Scanning – Added an entire functional area to the check in module to support manufacturing tasks and batch scanning. This supports sites that need to task scan against multiple cases before then submitting the entire batch into a piece of equipment for processiing.
• Admin Web Site – Business Unit Maintenance – From Department and From Phone – Added these two fields to the busiiness unit maintenance screen. These are part of the interactive form logic and are used to hold return phone numbers and departments inside the forms. This is especially useful when working with fax cover sheets.
• Admin Web Site – Attachment Library Maintenance – Interactive Form Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the attachment library maintenance screen. This will be used inside the various applications that make use of the form attachment library to use either static stored forms or to prompt for interactive information.
• Sample Testing – Interactive Form Logic/Pop Up Screen – Added logic to the specimen ordering screen to handle the display of the form attachment library. This functionality supports the printing/creation of forms such as fax coversheets and other types of forms associated with client interaction.
• Sample Testing – Interactive Form Checkbox – Added this checkbox to support forms that exist as both interactive forms AND as static forms so that the employee can choose on a case by case basis which version of the form to launch when it is selected from the library.
• Universal Microtomy – Always Protocol Settings – Added logic to the point of use slide routine to always default a protocol value into the bar code if neccesary. A default protocol (ex. “HE”) can be defaulted so that there is always a value in the bar code. This is driven by a configuration flag to turn the feature on AND a value is stored in the accession prefix table to turn it on by prefix with the default value allowed at that level so that it can be turned on at the data level.
• Universal Microtomy – Doctor order retrieval – no user id mapping – The doctor order logic needed there to be a valid cross reference ID between Assist and the ordering LIS. Modified the logic so that if no mapped is found, to just show the raw ordering identifier in the name column to have the routine work regardless of LIS mapping.
• Interface Utility – Order Type Interface – No Mapped User ID – Modified the order type interface robot. Previously, when a doctor order was being processed, a connection to the Assist doctor file was done via cross reference in order to load an order OR the order got saved with the requesting doctor reflected as “robot”. Changed this to simply show the unmapped ID value.
• Doctor Closeout – User Name for non mapped users – Using the same logic as indicated above for the robot, if the ordering doctor value was not mapped to an Assist doctor, just show the ID in the name field rather than “robot”.
• Doctor Closeout – User ID free form check box and text box/criteria logic. To support the logic of the ID being shown if there is  no user mapping, added a free form selection criteria choice to pull back a single ID instead of a selection from the drop down (which would indicate a mapping existed).
• Admin Web Site – Attachment Form Layout Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the attachment form layout data. These elements represent the form layouts for the electronic storage of attachments.
• Scoreboard – Doctor Order Closeout Board – User ID if no name. The scoreboard that shows doctor orders was modified to show the ordering doctor ID in the name field if there is no name mapped to the doctor.
• Universal Cassette POU – Patient Direct Print – In direct print mode (as opposed to drop file) there was no logic to include the patient name and to control the printing (i.e. X/Y, size, etc.). Added this to provide additional cassette printing flexibility.
• Universal Cassette POU Magazine/Specimen Type Interaction – Modified the cassette point of use logic to default the magazine from the specimen type when relevant. Previously, this worked using the block/slide instructions data in the middle of the transaction.
• Universal Cassette POU – Cache was displayed even direct print – Corrected this visual oversight where a cache directory was being shown even if the cache was not relevant for the configuration.
• Universal Slide POU – Slide bar code compare to LIS Office Queue – For sites that compare Assist generated bar codes to LIS bar codes, added the ability at slide scan to determine if the slide created is anticipated by the LIS and to write to the database if there is a discrepancy and write to the office queue for entry into the LIS.
• Admin Web Site – Office Queue Report – Full Bar Code – Added the full bar code field to the office queue report. This data can be useful when comparing LIS discrepancy comparisons.
• Office Queue – LIS Bar Code Discrepancy Queue – Full Bar code and Protocol changes.
• Admin Web Site – Control Tissue Maintenance – Histology, PCR, FISH, Flow, Cytogenetics checkboxes. Added these check boxes to the maintenance screen to allow for the categorization of the control tissue and the filtering when loading into drop down boxes.
• Admin Web Site – Training Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of training types. This is used in multiple modules of Assist and reflects the types of training (i.e. production, human resources, etc.) that can be tracked/performed.
• Admin Web Site – Training Media Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of training media types. This is used in multiple modules of Assist and reflects the types of training media (i.e. video, images, documents) that can exist.
• Check In Module – Run Count – Modified the check in process to update the run count by 1 every time the processing run button is clicked. This gives a count of the number of times the run processing has been done and can be tied into the preventative maintenance process.
• Admin Web Site – Training Media Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of training media. These are the training materials that can be accessed via the training functionality in Assist.
• Admin Web Site – Training Choices Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the assignment of training materials to employees, departments, and manufacturing tasks as necessary to meet the requirements of training programs.
• Office Queue Closeout – Criteria pass through to print log screen. Modified the routinie that launches the print log to take any criteria that has been entered on the underlying screen to the print log screen so that the criteria does not have to be specified a second time.
• Office Queue Closeout – Log Print – Add Protocol value and full bar code. – Modified the log print routine to include these two additional columns.
• Office Queue Closeout – Center log print pop up screen. Modified the print log screen so that it is centered on the parent screen when it is launched to be consistent with the other modules.
• Interface Robot – PathQuest Interface – Check for full bar code in office queue – Modified this robot to check for the full bar in the office queue before writing it into the list of doctor orders. This eliminates redundancy where the order got entered and passed into Assist because of an exception in the office queue.
• Universal Cassette POU – Specimen Type Abbreviation in description – Added a check box to the screen to allow for the opt in/out of showing the specimen type abbreviation in front of the specimen description when the drop down box is loaded.
• Universal Cassette POU – Molecular Object Scanning – Resolved an issue where a message was being sent to the screen notifying that an invalid object had been scanned on the vial object.

December 2022

• Check In Module – Equipment Processing Run Auto Close – The check for active processing runs was not working perfectly. If a run was active when the equipment was chosen, it would close it if the timeframe was exceeded but would not immediately notify that the equipment was available. If the equipment was selected a second time, it would reflect it as available. Adjusted so that both happen at the same time.
• Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Type Listing – Extended this report to include protocols and protocol details so that a full break down of the doctor order type and how it will be reflected in slide printing routines can be seen.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Order Only No Print Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for orders to be marked just as orders but not to print at Microtomy. This supports the use of orders outside of histology labs (i.e. PCR, Fish, etc.) where the order is entered but slides should not print.
• Admin Web Site – Scan Rate Report – Cleaned up the critieria section of the screen to make more consistent and visually appealing.
• Sample Testing – PCR Tab – “T” button. The pop up screen that is fired from this button did not filter to only show the orders for the extraction type that was selected. Correct this.
• Interface Utility – Pathway Interface – Override Interface Logic – Added logic to the Pathway interface to consider the override interface flag when loading LIS interface information. This flag, if found ON for an accession number will skip it from updates as it would indicate that the employee manually made an entry that they do NOT want overridden by the interface robot job.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Resequence Button – Modified the logic behind the resequence button so that it only resequences unstained slides. Previously, stained slides and paraffin blocks could also be resequenced, which does not make sense.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab - Override Interface Check Box – Modified the save routine on the receiving tab to include the override interface check box and to save this data into the LIS interface table to mark an LIS interface record as something that a subsequent run from an interface should not override.
• Universal Cassette – Pathway Location Identifier not triggering mismatch – Discovered an issue that could impact labs that use the Pathway LIS at grossing. If the same exact accession number, and suffix are process back to back, but with different location identifiers...and a mismatch is performed, the difference in location identifier was not noted. This was corrected.
• Check In – Processor Batch Drop Down load – User Filter. Modified the processor history drop down load to have a check box to provide the choice of opting to ONLY see the equipment runs for the logged in employee or all of them.
• Check In – Batch Task Scanning – Unload closes active batch. Modified the logic around equipment and task scanning batches to have the unload button actually close the batch.
• Check In – Button Bar Codes – Added bar code functionality for load batch, close batch, and positioning of the batch history to cut down on the need to interact with the mouse.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Batch Only Type Checkbox. Added a check box to the equipment type maintenance screen to allow an equipment type to be marked a an equipment type solely for the purpose of batching. This is relevant for scenarios were a “batch” of specimens are being worked on and the “equipment” is a tabletop, drying station, etc.
• Admin Web Site – Business Unit Maintenance – Default Delay Days – Addd the default delay days field to the business unit maintenance. This value will be used for defaulting the delay notification in client/customer communications when an order cannot be processed normally.
• Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Maintenance – Auto Release – Added this check box to the maintenance screen to mark a case hold reason as a value that will flag and immediately release. This is done to phase in/out case holds that also trigger QC information.
• Universal Cassette POU – Case Hold Auto Release Logic – Added logic to the patient verification process to immediately release a case from hold if it is set to “auto release”. This allows for the case to show in history as a hold with an immediate release to note the impact of introducing a case hold and also to generate a QC message.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Audit Log Report – Robot User name – For specimen type transactions that were generated by an interface robot, the records were not showing up on the report due to lack of a match to a user name. Added the value “ROBOT” to include these rows on the report.
• Admin Web Site – Timer Countdown Maintenance – Run Cancelled and MFG Task. Added a check box to allow for a timer run to be marked as cancelled and also the ability to put in a manufacturing task if needed.
• Admin Web Site – Timer Countdown Report – Run Cancelled and MFG Task. Modified this report to include the run cancelled field and the manufacturing task.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Tracking Report – Task Cancelled and Task Cancelled Date. Modified this report to include the task cancelled Y/N value and the task cancelled date if relevant.
• Admin Web Site – MFG Task Transaction Report – Task Scan Cancelled. Modified this report to include the task scan cancelled Y/N value.
• QC Module – Lab Operations Grid Click Criteria – The click of the lab information rows now loads the criteria for prefix and accession into the fields on the other tabs.

April 2021

• Accessioning – Specimen Type Drop Down – Font Color – Changed the drop down on the accessioning specimen type screen so that it can display the drop down font in the color that matches the specimen types.
• Admin Web Site – Stain Queue Accession Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the detailed stain queue accession number data via the web site. This allows sites to handle this maintenance without having to provide access to the stain queue module.
• Accessioning Module – Modified to include batch type when pulling back batch data for the sites that are making use of scanned batches.
• Scanned Batch Report – Batch Type – There is a criteria drop down for batch type on this screen. It was discovered that the batch type being shown was not the SCANNED batch type but rather was another type of batch that was not relevant for this data. Corrected this issue.
• Main Scanner Engine – Enforce Scan Order – Modified the screen to allow for the Enforce scan order to be disabled so that it can be seen, but employees cannot override it.
• Sample Testing – The protocol display screen for placing orders against inbound specimens was not ordered by sort order OR by order type description. Put the sort order in place.
• Inventory Module – Inventory Request Speed Entry – Added an employee drop down to the screen in case an employee does not have a badge. The drop down positions based on badge scan or user entry. This value gets saved to the employee requested field.
• Admin Web Site – Printer Magazine Cross Reference Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the interface of Assist with different LIS platforms. This screen allows for tying of different cross reference values to the various magazine values.
• Admin Web Site – Assist Rotator Maintenance – Description Criteria – Added this filter to the top of the screen to make it easier to get to the information needed.
• Admin Web Site – Inventory Details Maintenance – Cleaned up the critiera at the top of the screen and added the ability to suppress the product number and vendor description from the view. Also added the inventory code as a display option.
• Inventory Module – Inventory Requests – When a link is performed from the requests tab to the release tab.....when the inventory item is positioned, if there is only one active detail lot, go ahead and position the drop down to this item to save that click event since it is only choice instead of positioning to Not Specified.
• Inventory Module – Inventory Release Tab – There was a bug with the auto print of labels due to a change in the underlying database table. No error was produced but labels were not printing. This has been resolved.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Reference Code – Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for an additional form of specimen type interface where the code to be associated with the specimen type is hard coded into cassettes and needs a way to tie the disparate systems together.
• Universal Module – Reference Codes/Specimen Types – Added logic to allow for the mapping of reference codes from the bar codes for sites that support this feature, to the specimen type.
• Admin Web Site – Inventory Request Report – Issued Quantity – Added the issued quantity to this report to provide visibility to the requested quantity vs. The issued quantity.
• Admin Web Site – Inventory Request Maintenance – Issued Quantity – Added the issued quantity to this maintenance screen to allow for it to be modified when performing maintenance over
• Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Maintenance – Modified this screen to only show configuration types that are active. Previously all configuration types were shown. This change was actually made to the global routine that loads the configuration type drop down, so this impacts any/all screens that show configuration types.
• Admin Web Site – Plate Next Transfer Report – Modified this report to include the plate type that is shown on transfer transactions to provide more meaningful data.
• Admin Web Site – Object Request Priority Maintenance – Added font color to this maintenance screen to allow for customization of object requests to show different colors based on different priority values.
• Warehouse Module – Object Request Alert Button – Added a seperate screen to allow for warehouse requests to show a count as a little “button” inside the overall warehouse screen to alert employees to the fact that warehouse records exist.

May 2021

• Inventory Module – Inventory Release/Request Interaction – Added functionality to the inventory release screen to tie inventory requests to the release process to make more a more streamlined process of closing inventory requests.
• Admin Web Site – ESL Tag Data Staging Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen as part of the Assist electronic sales tags. This allows for the sending to tag data to the display panels. This will normally be done via a module, but this would be used for emergencies.
• Admin Web Site – ESL Link Staging Maintenance –Created this maintenance screen to allow for the tying of electronic sales tags to accession numbers. This will normally be done via a module, but this would be used for emergencies.
• Admin Web Site – ESL Tag Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of teh various types of ESLs that are in use.
• Admin Web Site – Order Closeout – Updated to include a “select all/unselect all” option when in the status change only mode. Also fixed a flaw with the screen refreshing when in status change mode.
• Universal Grossing – Modified the routine to bring forward the cassette magazine/hopper based on the specimen type mapping to the block instructions table.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – IHC Print Flag – Modified the slide recipe section of this screen to include an IHC Print Flag to allow a specific protocol record to be marked as needing to be routed specifically to an IHC printer.
• Universal Slide – Override Magazine – Added a check box to the screen to allow for a “hard override” to only print to the magazine specified. If the magazine is not visible (because it was not a magazine printer), it will be ignored.
• Universal Slide – Override Specimen Magazine – Added a check box to the screen to allow for an override of the magazine when protocols are used. By default, the magazine pulls from the protocol details. With this check box selected, the magazine will be pulled by default from the specimen type instead. This handles the issue where magazines are really driven by the client or color of the specimen instead of always pulling from consistent magazines.
• Universal Slide – IHC Print Flag – Added this check box to the slide recipe details section of the screen. This is used to indicate an override of the protocol detail to print to the “IHC Printer” for sites that are using the universal slide print screen.
• Distribution Module – List Prefixes change – Modified the method used for loading and tracking prefixes. Previously, they were loaded at the “header” level and then a call was made to the database to get details when they were needed resulting in multiple rounds trips to the database. This change loads the data at screen load and references it when needed from the initial load to reduce round trips to the DB and increase speed.
• Inventory Module – Maintenance Tab – Inventory Code – The first time the inventory code field was used, it positioned the drop down in the selection criteria area correctly. After this first time, after saving data, the inventory code was not right. Cleared the search criteira after save to resolve the issue.
• Admin Web Site – Case Rush Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of case rush types. These types were created to categorize the case rush values that could be specified to allow for better reporting and management of rush lists.
• Admin Web Site – Case Rush Maintenance – Case Rush Type – Added the case rush type to the case rush master file to allow for the categorization of case rush values.
• Admin Web Site – Warehouse Picklist Status Maintenance – Warehouse requests have been fleshed out further inside the warehouse module. This included more detailed information involving picklists. This screen was created to allow for picklist status values (ex. Open, Pending, Closed) to be associated with warehouse picklist items.
• Admin Web Site – Warehouse Organization Maintenance – Warehouse organizations were added to the warehouse picklist information. This was done so that a picklist item can be associated with an different organization (ex. Internal, Iron Mountain)
• Warehouse module – Warehouse Requests – A new warehouse requests screen has been added inside the warehouse module to allow for the capture and display of warehouse requests. This requests can also be automatically sent to picklists.
• Admin Web Site – Material Request Maintenance – Object Flags – Added object flags to the material request screen. This allows a material request value to specifically refer to a tangible object inside Assist.
• Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Allow Inventory Request Flag – Added this flag to the security maintenance screen to allow employees to be enabled for the inventory request drop down. This allows for filtering of drop down values to reduce accidental selection of the wrong employees.
• Inventory Module – Speed Inventory Request – Allow Inventory Request Filter – On the “Speed Request” version of the inventory material request screen, added the ability filter employee drop downs to only include employees that have been marked as inventory request employees.

June 2021

• Universal Slide Queue – Added an override magazine to the screen – Put this value on the screen to allow the slide queue routine to override the logic associated with protocols and specimens. For example, if a magazine is broken in a printer, it may be necessary to “re-route” traffic to a different magazine.
• Scanner Engine – Case Component – Group by and added color to the specimen type node. Visually adjusted the way that case component data is displayed to allow for color coding in the tree view.
• Universal Slide – Added case components logic – The same case component (chain of custody) information that is visible in the main scanner application was added to the universal slide POU screen and is accessible via a checkbox.
• Admin Web Site – Warehouse Picklist Maintenance – Adjusted the warehouse picklist process to allow for picklists to be saved. Previously, they were just printed “on the fly” from selected data. The adjustment to actually save them as database objects made it necessary to provide a screen to override or adjust them.
• Admin Web Site – Material Submission Type Maintenance – Return Required. Added a checkbox to the material submission type to allow for the default of the return required value. This is part of the sample testing module of Assist,
• Admin Web Site – Order Workflow Maintenance – Default Facility Location. When an order workflow record is created (ex. Histology, Flow, PCR, etc.), this modification allows for the physical location in the facility associated with the workflow to default.
• Admin Web Site – Material Submission Template Details – Default Print On. Modified the material submission template details screen to include a check box to “default print” different objects. For sites that perform sample testing and receive objects from clients that have to be labelled, this routine allows for the creation of placeholders for this objects without printing labels if needed and to reduce having to actually click the buttons to select them.
• Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Bottle Flag – The material type maintenance screen was changed to include the ability to mark material types (ex. Slide, block) as bottles as well.
• Admin Web Site – Client Master Maintenance – OverDueDays Field. Added the overduedays field to the client master maintenance screen. This allows the client to have a defaulted overdue days assignment that would override the default for the material type.
• Admin Web Site – Material Submission Template – Workflow Number. Modified this screen to include a default workflow for a material submission template. This is part of the sample testing module where templates can be created to represent standard combinations of objects (ex. Blocks, slides, etc.) that are received on inbound testing. This change allows the workflow to default at that level as well.
• Admin Web Site- Order Type Maintenance – Unstained Flag. Added an unstained flag to the order type screen, which is used for the processing of doctor orders and sample testing. This allows for unstained slides to be tracked separately from other objects since they represent an object that can be converted into a different objects (i.e. a stained slide).
• Admin Web Site – Order Category Maintenance – PCR Flag. Modified the order category screen to include the PCR Flag. This allows for order types to be categorized to apply for that lab where needed.
• Admin Web Site – Error Maintenance – Track Resolution – Added this flag to the maintenance screen to allow for indication of whether or not the error message needs resolution and should go into the resolution tracking table.
• Admin Web Site – Warehouse Pull Analysis Report – Created this report to show outbound warehouse/banking transactions along with when the object that was “checked out” was originally stored in the warehouse. This allows for better analysis of the data coming and going into the warehouse.
• Admin Web Site – QA/LIS Interface Stored Procedures – Create two stored procedures to allow for better interface/communications between Assist and LIS platforms.
• Admin Web Site – QA Resolutions Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of QA resolutions. These are the steps that have been taken to resolve a quality issue for which tracking of the resolution has been indicated (at the error level).
• Admin Web Site – QA Issue Resolution Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of QA Issue Resolution records. These are generated when an error is captured in the QA system that indicates tracking is involved to determine error resolution. This screen allows for overrides and changes to the data.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Printer Filter – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of accession printer filter records. This data is used to filter the printer choices shown in the universal modules. It allows for multi-site facilities to not list printers that do not exist in the facility to stop any accidental printing from the wrong data.
• Admin Web Site – Client Configuration – Default MFG Task/Default MFG Task Blank – Added the MFG Task and Task Blank flag to this maintenance screen to allow for machines to default to a manufacturing task appropriately when manufacturing tasks are getting tracked.
• Manufacturing Module – Load Default Task Logic – Modified the manufacturing module in Assist to pull in default tasks based on what was put into the client configuration screen.
• Accession Printers – Cache Directory – Added the ability to specify a cache directory at the printer level in Assist. This allows for each printer to be specified with a different network address to use for directing “drop files” that indicate what should print. Previously, this data could only be addressed via configuration.
• Universal Cassette POU/Queue – Added Cache directory logic – Modified the universal cassette module to pull the cassette cache from the accession printers database if it exists. If all of the cassette printers in an environment are exposed, this value can be used to point the data as appropriate.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Setting Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment setting templates. These are part of the Assist functionality to capture machine settings and represent the template or collection of variables that are going to be captured.
• Manufacturing Module – User/LIS Interface Check – Added the ability in the manufacturing module to pass the LIS Interface value inside Assist to the LIS to make sure that there is a valid user in the LIS/ERP for that employee. For sites that perform task tracking, this can be critical to make sure that completed task information is getting sent back into the LIS/ERP as necessary.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Setting Variables Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment setting variables. These are the machine variables that can be captured in conjunction with machine settings and represent all of the data elements that need to be captured. They can be combined with templates to give a list of all the data.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Setting Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment settings. This data represents the marriage of the equipment setting templates to the variables that can be captured.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Setting Tracking Report – Created this report to show the equipment setting data that can now be captured using the manufacturing module.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Default Bottle Quantity – Added the default bottle quantity field to the maintenance screen. This allows for the quantity to show on the label print routine and accessioning integration to handle variable bottle quantities by specimen type.
• Universal Cassette – Case Component Display – Added a screen to the side of the universal module to show all of the components for the case. This allows a grosser to have visibility to all of the specimen bottles that should exist for the case.
• Accessioning Module – Automatic Label Printing – Added the ability to automatically print labels via Accessioning. As soon as a requisition is scanned, the bottle print screen is presented using the default label quantity for each of printing.
• Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Maintenance – Track Resolution/Error Master interface – Added choices to indicate if a case hold reason requires specification of the resolution and allows for the mapping of case hold reasons to quality errors so that a hold can also generate a QC transaction.

July 2021

• Admin Web Site – Material Testing Source Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of material testing sources. This is part of the sample testing module in Assist and represents the source of testing (ex. Paraffin Block, Tissue vial, etc.).
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Extraction type – Extended the  order type maintenance screen to allow for the specification of the extraction type that should be associated with an order type. This is typically used in a PCR lab and represents how the specimen should be extracted for testing.
• Admin Web Site – Inventory Storage Location Maintenance – Employee Association
• Inventory Module – Inventory Storage Location – Position by the requesting employee
• Inventory Module – Receiving Label Print Quantity – The quantity was wrong and was pulling from the release tab quantity instead.
• Material Type Maintenance – Internal Material/Increment Part Count – Added two fields to the material type maintenance screen. This allows for the determination of whether material type is internal (ex. Histology generated slides) as opposed to client submitted. The “increment” check box allows for the materials to carry the same part number (ex. 6 unstained slides all with A1 on them) if relevant.
• Warehouse – Picklist Tracking – Added this feature to the warehouse module. Picklists have always been capable of being created, with the goal being to print a list of objects to be pulled from the warehouse. This feature addition gives the ability to scan against items on the picklist and track them.
• Warehouse – Warehouse Request – Special Projects – Introduced the concept of “special” projects to the warehouse module. These are basically “offline” specifications of a batch of Accessions that need to be pulled that would be special project types of things.
• Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of extractions types. These are used inside the sample testing module of Assist (specifically PCR types of specimens) where the type of extraction that needs to be performed is important to know/track.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Setting Tracking Eligible – Added the field to the equipment type table. This allows for equipment types to be specified as eligible for setting tracking which is a feature inside Assist where the tracking of what settings are placed on a piece of equipment at the time of scanning is performed.
• Admin Web Site – Material Template Details Maintenance – Specimen Type/Order Type – Added the ability inside the material template details setup to specify the specimen type and/or order type to allow for expedited entry of data into the “receiving area” of the sample testing module of Assist.
• Sample Testing – Material Template Details processing as outlined above. – Added the logic to the receiving process of the sample testing module to take defaulted specimen types and order types into consideration. This modification allows for expedited entry when defaults are known.
• Admin Web Site – Warehouse Picklist Report – Created this screen to report on the objects that were included in picklists. Previously, picklists were just a grouping of accessions that were printed but not saved, so there was no need to include the ability to report against them. Picklists can now be saved, so this reports allows for this data to be seen historically. The report can branch to show both summary and detail views of picklists.
• Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Replication Maintenance – Number Series Order was added to the maintenance screen. This allows for the replication of specific number series inside a number wheel for sites that have an active order interface. Previously, the entire number wheel had to be included in any interface and this was limiting.
• LIS Interface – LIS/PQ Interface orders load to Order Closeout. Added interface order loading into the LIS interface robot for the PathQuest LIS.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Setting Values Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment setting values. These are the values that are captured using the equipment settings features in some of the modules. This screen allows for captured settings to be adjusted as needed outside of the main scanning modules where the data was originally captured.
• Interface Utility – Accession Notes Acknowledgement Robot – Created this robot to automatically close accession notes if they are open and older than the days past specified.
• Universal Slide Queue – Modified to handle Alias that is missing to avoid the dash by itself. This was happening when the alias print was turned on, but there was no alias on a record when printing via the slide queue.
• Universal Slide Queue – Auto Purge – Added logic to allow for the purging of slide requests by using days back settings for both active and printed status slides.
• Universal Module – Demographics Tab – Client Code – The client code was missing from the patient demographics tab. Added it.

August 2021

• Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance – DefaultTubeCount – Added the default tube count so that label quantities can be defaulted based on the extraction type.
• Admin Web Site – Batch Type Maintenance – ExtractionBatch and PCRBatch – Added these two values to the batch type maintenance screen to allow for the designation of a batch as a PCR batch or an extraction batch.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – The Lease P/O number fields was showing null values if nothing was specified. Cleaned this to only show blanks as it should.
• Admin Web Site – Micro Dissection Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of micro dissection types. Micro dissection types are used in the sample testing module of Assist in the PCR lab area.
• Admin Web Site – Recipe Master Maintenance – Recipe Code – Added this field to the selection criteria to make it easier to retrieve recipes out of the list if there are a lot of them.
• Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Manufacturing only and Ingredient only filter – Added to the selection criteria to make it possible to filter the entries on the inventory master file by these values.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Human Text Override Field – Increased the allowed size of this field to 30 characters instead of 10. This does not impact the bar code on the slide.
• Inventory Module – Label Validation Tab - Auto Load On Scan – Added a check box to allow the employee to control whether or not all label validation transactions matching the selection criteria are performed when a label is scanned.
• Inventory Module – Recipe Details Lookup – Added a checkbox to allow for the choice of whether or not the recipe codes are included in the drop down box. Also added a recipe code lookup box to allow for retrieval by code.
• Admin Web Site – Extraction Batch Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of extraction batch status values. Extraction batches are used inside the PCR functionality inside the sample testing module of Assist. This status values drive the statue of a batch of extractions.
• Admin Web Site – Digital File Locations Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of digital file locations. These represent the UNCs where digital files can be stored and are part of the digital dashboard feature set for digital pathology inside the warehouse module.
• Doctor Order Closeout – Print Log Pop up screen – The print log screen inside the doctor order closeout loaded with defaults that were different from the defaults on the selection criteria for the closeout screen itself. Made sure that the settings that were on the underlying screen came forward to the print log pop up screen.
• Inventory Module – Receiving Tab – Label Quantity matches Inventory Quantity – The label quantity and inventory quantity were set so that they will be teh same thing. The inventory quantity adjusts automatically to reflect the exact number of objects that are being placed inside inventory. The label print quantity for automatic label print was staying 1. Made a change to tie the two together.
• Inventory Module – Inventory Order Tab – P/O Number – Added the purchase order number field to the inventory order tab so that it can be stored with the inventory order if needed.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Critical Equipment Flag – Added the critical equipment flag to the equipment type table so that critical equipment can be specified at the type level. This value will also reside at the equipment level with the type default the value.
• Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Type Abbreviation – Extended this field to allow 10 characters instead of 5.
• Admin Web Site – Digital Distribution Status – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of digital distribution status values. These status values are used to specify if a digital object (i.e., slides) are distributed or not after being placed into the digital queue by the slide imaging solution.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – Critical Equipment – Added this field to the equipment master to allow equipment records to be flagged as critical for different reporting in the Preventative maintenance module. This defaults from the value on the equipment type table, but can be overridden at the specific equipment record level.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Case Breakdown Report – The from/to accession number criteria was coded expecting a from and to number. Some of the data in the database contains bad scans which are not numeric. This was causing an overflow error. Changed the criteria to consider them alpha values.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Report – From/To Accession range and Prefix Criteria – Added prefix and from/to accession number ranges as selection criteria.
• Admin Web Site – Void Transaction Report – Moved the selection criteria around to make the screen more visually appealing.
• Admin Web Site – Distribution Detail Report – Auto Override On Flag – Added this field to the report to provide visibility for when distribution transactions are generated with the auto override flag on to manually perform distribution.
• Inventory Module – Release Label Print – The quantity that was printing on the release auto labels reflected the QUANTITY of labels and not the quantity of products contained in the release (ex. 100 screws in a bag, the quantity needs to print as 100). This was corrected.
• Inventory Module – Inventory Orders Picklist – The picklist had some field overlaps if the item description was of a certain length. Redesigned the report to line up better.
• Inventory Module – Transfer Tab – Storage Location – Storage Location – Added this third form of transfer transaction.
• Facility Location Transactions – Moved this report from the inventory section to under lab scanning.
• Inventory Accession Assignment Report – Changed the selection criteria to make the report a little more visually appealing. There were also some issues with table names that was causing the report to not work perfectly. These were resolved. Also collapsed the accession number fields of Prefix, Accession, MultiBottle, and MultiCassette into the FullAccession field.
• Admin Web Site – Inventory Accession Summary Report - Changed the selection criteria to make the report a little more visually appealing. There were also some issues with table names that was causing the report to not work perfectly. These were resolved.
• Sample Testing Module – Added the template definition button to allow for an inquiry to show the full definition of material submission templates that have the various components (i.e., Slides, blocks, etc). That compose a template to help the data entry employee with making the right choice.
• Sample Testing Module – PCR Tab – Extraction Batch Status – Added this option to the selection criteria to help in filtering PCR testing requests.
• Sample Testing Module – PCR Tab – Worklist Printing – Added the ability to print worklists and to tie the printing of a worklist to the automatic changing of the extraction batch status to reflect “on order”.
• Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – UseConversionTracking – Added this flag to the material type maintenance screen to indicate whether or not a material type should generate conversion tracking records when processed.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – UseConversionTracking - – Added this flag to the material type maintenance screen to indicate whether or not a material type should generate conversion tracking records when processed.
• Admin Web Site – Object Conversion Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of object conversion status values. These status values are used inside the sample testing module of Assist where submitted materials are “consumed” by different departments and are turned into other objects (i.e. slides submitted for PCR). These status values would be things such as “Available” and “Used”.
• Assist Auto Notification Application – Created this simple application to allow for the automatic capture of various notifications with interfaces between equipment and Assist. Where an equipment vendor has the ability to launch an application at an error condition, this application can log the equipment and issue number associated with the transaction to provide detailed information about the event log types of interactions with equipment.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Listing – Critical Equipment – Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Issue Tracking Report – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
• Equipment Maintenance Module – Maintenance Tab – Critical Equipment Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the equipment maintenance tab to allow for the maintenance of that value.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Activity Report – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Due Report – Critical Equipment – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance History Report – Critical Equipment – Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Reports – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Missing Maintenance Report – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Repair Tracking Report – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Retirement Report – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Notification Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment notification types. These are part of the assist auto notification application and allow for the specification of the type of notification that is being generated.

September 2021

• Interface Module – LIS Replication Engine – Modified this engine to allow for the disabling of LIS Interface records before the routine loads new ones.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Automatic Notification Report – Created this report to all for reporting over the equipment automatic notifications. These notifications are generated by equipment agents for equipment that are being monitored.
• Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Audit Log – Created this report to allow for reporting over the LIS interface audit data. This table holds transactional counts of the LIS interface when it is run and allows for “heartbeat” data visibility.
• Admin Web Site – Rework Reason Maintenance – Cross Reference  - Added this cross reference field to the rework reason table so that the data can be cross referenced to another application.
• Admin Web Site – Quality Inspection Point Maintenance – Created this report to allow for the maintenance of quality inspection points. These represent physical locations in a facility where a quality check can be performed and allows for the stratification of quality tracking by location.
• Admin Web Site – Digital File Suffixes Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the file suffixes that can be captured and worked with inside the digital pathology section of Assist.
• Warehouse Module – Digital Dashboard – The digital dashboard module was created to allow for the handling of digital files on the actual digital imaging machine.
• Admin Web Site – ESL Base Station Inquiry – Created this report to provide visibility to the electronic sales label base stations that are present in a facility.
• Admin Web Site – ESL Change Log Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the ESL change log. This log reflects all of the changes to electronic sales labels.
• Admin Web Site – Database Table Listing – Created this report to allow for reporting over the entirety of the Assist database.
• Admin Web Site – Notification Address Maintenance – Added the notification type to the selection criteria to make it easier to view only the data that is needed. Added a description to the address so that some context or identifying information can be provided on the email address that is added.
• Universal Module – Slide POU – Modified the way the “Position Protocol by Specimen” check box is handled. Changed it to set initially based on configuration and then not set it again as configurations are toggled through. This allows the user to control the settings appropriately even when toggling back and forth between the screen views.
• Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Maintenance – Generate Office Queue – Added this check box to allow for a case hold reason to automatically generate a office queue transaction from inside the patient validation process.
• Admin Web Site – QA Issue Resolution Maintenance – Case Hold Record – Added the case hold drop down to this screen to allow for the specification of a case hold record that is associated with a QA Issue resolution transaction.
• Admin Web Site – QA Issue Resolution Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the QA Issue Resolution information.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Equipment Filtering Flag – Added this check box to the maintenance screen to allow for order types to indicate whether or not they should be tethered to equipment types. This is useful for labs that indicate what equipment was used in the processing of the order type if relevant.
• Admin Web Site – Reserved Resource Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of reserved resources. These resources represent objects, rooms, etc. that can be reserved for employee use.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – Date In Service – Added this field to allow for the specification of a date in service value as opposed to the date purchased, etc. This allows management to keep track of when a piece of equipment started actually being used.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Reporting – Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Repair Tracking Report – Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance History Report – Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Due Report – Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Activity Report - Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Downtime Report - Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Listing - Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Missing Maintenance Report - Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
• Admin Web Site – Case Void Transactions Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the case void transactions.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type/Equipment Type Filter – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of the assignment of order types to equipment types. This is used to filter choices of equipment that can process or run the various order types where this is tracked inside Assist.
• Accessioning Module – Label Print – Corrected an issue where if a site was toggling between a “normal” LIS format label and Pathway formatted labels, that the location identifier could get “stuck” going back to normal format from Pathway causing the prefix not to load correctly.
• Universal Cassette Queue – Resolved an issue where the universal cassette queue was not loading if the sort order was set to load in accession number order instead of arrival sequence.
• QC Module – Login/Logout Button – Changed the icon on the login and have them both visible (but disabled) at all times.
• Print Center – Flow Label – Created this label screen to allow for the printing of labels for a flow lab.
• Admin Web Site - Material Type Maintenance – Order Type Added the default order type to the material type maintenance screen. This will be used inside the Assist sample testing module to automatically create default orders when material types are received.
• Sample Testing Module – Delete Order Type – Fixed an issue where the “X” button to delete the assignment of an order type to a slide was not working. There was a simple typo in an SQL statement.
• Admin Web Site – ESL Tag Inquiry – Created the ESL tag inquiry to provide visibility to show the tags that exist in the system. This is basically a list of the mapping between the types of tags and their MAC addresses.
• Admin Web Site – Special Handling Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of special handling types. These values represent the groupings of special handling data when used with shipments from clients or holding sites.
• Admin Web Site – Client Maintenance – Default Holding Site – Added a default holding site to the client master. This allows a client to be associated with a holding site (ex. Iron Mountain) for when the direct request of blocks/slides are being performed for testing in a reference lab.
• Admin Web Site – Case Hold Closure Utility – Created this utility to allow for the bulk removal of case hold transactions. A record of the removal is written into the audit log as the case holds are removed.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Reference Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen reference types. These types represent the types of reference materials that might be associated with an accession. Examples might include specimen pictures, pathology reports, requisitions, etc.
• Admin Web Site – Client Maintenance – Added the capture of the last maintained date and user fields and show on the screen.
• Admin Web Site – Client Interface Exceptions – Created this report to provide visibility to the client “code” values that exist in the LIS interface table in Assist that do no have a matching value in the client master file. There are three “code” fields that can be used by an Assist installation and this report allows for inquiries to be run against all of them.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen order status values. These values are used to mark open, closed, pending status on specimen orders.
• Admin Web Site – ESL Event Log Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the data captured by the electronic sales labels event log.
• Admin Web Site – ESL Log Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the data captured by the electronic sales labels log process. This data is typically messages sent to the base stations at the electronic tag level.

October 2021

• Admin Web Site – ESL Label Status Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the ESL Label status information. This shows all of the technical details associated with electronic sales labels.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of the specimen order type data. This data is used in the “inbound” sample testing area to delineate the types of orders that are being received and can be tied to doctor order types if needed.
• Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – SuppressVialLabel – Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for the specification of the option to suppress vial label printing when PCR vial labels are printed for doctor orders.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Tracking Maintenance – Cleaned up the criteria to make more visually appealing. Added the current date to the from/to date criteria to reduce the likelihood of accidentally pulling more data than intended. Added a few fields to the database write for values that need to default.
• Scanner Engine – Case Void Check – Added the ability for the cassette scan to check the void transactions table and refuse a scan transaction if the case has an active void transaction indicated. Also modified to write any void transactions into the void transaction table instead of simply clearing the transaction table.
• Scanner Engine – Measurements – Modified the embedding scan to pull specimen measurements out of the grossing notes portion of the Assist database.
• Check In Module – Case Void Check - Added the ability for the cassette scan to check the void transactions table and refuse a scan transaction if the case has an active void transaction indicated. Also modified to write any void transactions into the void transaction table instead of simply clearing the transaction table.
• Inventory Module – Inventory Request Picklist – The picklist that can be printed from inside the inventory module had some column overlap if the inventory item was long. Modified the routine to pull the column positions from the configuration to allow for site by site customization and implemented this change.
• Admin Web Site – MFG Task Maintenance – Suppress Scoreboard – Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for a task to be designated as needing to be suppressed from showing up on the various scoreboard views.
• Preventative Maintenance Module – Equipment Maintenance Tab – Added the date in service field.
• Admin Web Site – Rework Request Report – Created this report to provide visibility to rework requests if rework is being tracked as part of a facilities quality assurance program.
• Universal Slide – Material Type – Modified the slide print routine to allow for the printing of material type descriptions if the sample testing module of Assist is used and information on material type is being passed to the doctor order screen.
• Sample Testing – Exceptions Screen – Added a summary view in addition to the normal detailed view. This provides the ability to see what exceptions give the most “bang for the buck” on clean up activity.
• Sample Testing – Batch Drop Downs – Provided configuration flags to allow for the batch drop downs to be loaded as LIFO or FIFO.
• Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Fresh/Fixed Checkboxes – Added these two check boxes to the screen to allow for the specification of whether a material type represents fresh specimen (ex. Bottles) or fixed specimen (ex. Paraffin blocks).
• Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance – Fresh/Fixed Checkboxes - Added these two check boxes to the screen to allow for the specification of whether an extraction type represents fresh specimen (ex. Bottles) or fixed specimen (ex. Paraffin blocks).
• Admin Web Site – LIS Extraction Type Maintenance – added multiple “type” checkboxes to allow for the specification of exactly what kind of exception type has occurred (ex. Client, Specimen, ordering physician, etc.)
• Universal Module – Added the ability to capture the computer name when printing from the cassette or slide queue to allow for keeping track of what machine printed a cassette or slide.
• Universal Module – Slide POU – Modified the way the “Auto Print Orders” check box is handled. Changed it to set initially based on configuration and then not set it again as configurations are toggled through. This allows the user to control the settings appropriately even when toggling back and forth between the screen views.
• Sample Testing – Modified the notifications screen to handle facility location for filtering the available notifications based on the client configuration facility location.
• Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Procedures Report – Created this report to allow for visibility to the LIS Procedures data that is coming over via the LIS interfaces where procedures and processing instructions are tracked.
• Admin Web Site – PCR Batch Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of PCR batches.
• Manufacturing QC Module – Modified this screen to provide the ability for the end user to opt in/out of whether or not the scanning of a manufacturing task should reposition the end user to the task scan screen.
• Admin Web Site – Epredia Imager Analysis – Created this report to provide visibility to the offloaded database raw data from the Epredia digital imaging platforms for sites that make use of this equipment for digital slides and have the interface active.
• Universal Slide Module – Alias Patient Lookup – Modified the patient name lookup function. If a client accession is driving the process (i.e. a client block instead of internal LIS) of printing slides, modified to also attempt to lookup the patient name based on the alias accession information.
• Universal Slide Queue – Patient Color Fix – There is a feature where the accession number column in the grid can be a different color if no patient name is found. The query had a flaw that was not retrieving the data correctly.
• Interface Utility – LIS Orders – Modified this routine to write to the order master audit table when it writes to the order master table.
• Interface Robot – Client Load – Modified the routine that loads client data. Put a “Y/N” loaded flag on the DB so that we can keep track of which records have been loaded and a date/time of when. Also added more checks to try and stop duplicates and added a skip flag just in case.
• Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Added a pop up confirmation button if an accession is scanned back to back without the header save button being pressed in between.
• Accessioning Module – LIS Interface Heartbeat – Added the ability inside the accessioning module to have visibility to the status of the LIS interface. A button shows the last time the interface ran. Clicking the changes the screen to see the number of times the interface job has run and the counts of transactions loaded.
• Universal Cassette – Bottle Scan – Modified the bottle scan transaction to allow, by configuration variable, to either reflect the cassette value that was on the screen at the point of scan OR to reflect it in the database as “N/A”.
• Admin Web Site – Epredia P1000 Database Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the database files that have been read into the Assist database for sites that have integrated Assist/Epredia digital pathology
• Manufacturing Quality Module – Rework Error Log Capture – Added logic to the manufacturing quality module to allow for the capture of errors into the database when rework entry is performed. This helps in triage of problems associated with rework entry.
• Admin Web Site – Rework Request Error Log – Created this report to provide visibility to the rework request error log transactions that are being captured inside the manufacturing quality module.
• Admin Web Site – Epredia P1000 Database Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over the database files that are read into the Assist database for sites that have integrated Assist/Epredia digital pathology interface. The settings can allow for the reload of data.
• Admin Web Site – Client Accession Prefix Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over the client accession prefix screen. This is used as part of the process of enabling the scanning of client submitted cassettes/slides into Assist.
• Admin Web Site – Epredia P1000 Settings Control Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over the Epredia settings control area that handles digital scanning of slides. This maintenance screen controls the settings and profiles that are loaded from XML files into the database.

November 2021

• Manufacturing Module – Personal Configuration Override Logic – Added the ability to have alternative configuration settings load based on computer or employee log in value.
• Universal Module – Specimen Type – The specimen type drop down was set to load based on the description field which means only alpha order. Added the sort order field in front of the alpha to allow for alternative sorting.
• Manufacturing Quality Module – MFG Task/Product positioning on rework – Modified the quality module for manufacturing.  Changed to have the MSP position to the correct task that was scanned against from the LIS Scheduling rather than forcing the employee to know which main sales product had the task against it.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Control Required – Added this flag to the screen to allow for the indication that a control slide is required with this protocol/stain.
• Admin Web Site – Control Tissue Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of control tissue. Control tissue is part of the control tracking portion of Assist and represents the types of tissue that can be placed on controls (ex. Tonsil, Liver, etc.). These are kept seperate from specimen types to provide more functionality.
• Admin Web Site – Control Pretreatment Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the creation of control pretreatment information. This data is part of the Assist control tracking feature set and represent any pretreatments that must be performed with control slides as part of antibody testing.
• Admin Web Site – Antibody Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of antibody master records. This data is part of the Assist control tracking feature set and represents the list of antibody “dictionaries” that can be in place in a laboratory.
• Admin Web Site – Antibody Detection Kit Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of antibody detection kits. This data is part of the Assist control tracking feature set and represents the detection kits that are part of the antibody/control methodologies used in laboratories.
• Admin Web Site – Tissue Micro Array Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of tissue micro arrays. This data is part of the Assist control tracking/antibody tracking feature set. It represents the header level of tissue micro arrays where multiple tissue types are pulled from multiple tissue blocks to form an array.
• Admin Web Site – Tissue Micro Array Details Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the details associated with a tissue micro array. For each TMA, there are the details of the various tissues that will make up the array. This detailed maintenance allows for the listing of the various “sub” tissues that make up the tissue micro array.
• Admin Web Site – Control Prefix Maintenance – Modified this screen to better handle the control prefix maintenance. Several new fields were added. The ability to control both next slide AND next block has been included. Also the prefix data has been cleaned up to include just the character values and a number of digits and notes.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Interface Protocol Routing – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment interface/protocol mappings. This is part of the stain tracking feature set inside Assist and represents the ability to map protocols to different staining platforms. This allows for the policing of not accidentally submitting stains to the wrong staining platform if a site has multiple equipment profiles in place (ex. Omnis, Bond, Ventana).
• Admin Web Site – Control Object Status Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of control object status data. This data is part of the control tracking feature set in Assist. This allows for controls to be marked as available, consumed, destroyed, etc. For sites that need to explicitly track controls and how they have been used.
• Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Suppress Doctor Orders Checkbox – Added this check box to the material type maintenance screen. This allows for the suppression of doctor orders to be done to ensure that doctor orders are not accidentally submitted into Assist when a sample testing order is entered with a doctor order, if that material will not actually go to histology for processing (ex. Receipt of a unstained slide already with tissue).
• Admin Web Site -  Equipment Interface Maintenance – Default Printer and Print Log Interface – Added the ability to indicate that an equipment interface will be a “log printing” interface rather than the automatic submission of data to a staining platform. For sites that do not have an interface, but still want to use the Stain Queue functionality, this allows for the printing of this “worklist” to relieve the stain queue.
• Sample Testing – Suppress Doctor Orders Feature – Added the ability to not send doctor orders into the Assist ordering portion of the application if the material type being received has been flagged as “doctor order suppressed” as outlined above under the Material Type Maintenance change.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Interface Maintenance – Auto Close Days – Added a field for “Auto Close Days” to this maintenance screen. This will be used in the Stain Queue to indicate BY INTERFACE how far back to go for the purge of stain queue transactions that still have an open status. This is an attempt to cut down on “noise” if stains are not being released in a timely manner or have been abandoned.
• Admin Web Site – Control Prefix Maintenance – Block Next Control Number – Added this field to allow for the tracking of “next block number” in order to support control block tracking in addition to stains.
• Stain Queue – Modified the stain queue to support auto purging based on days back logic on the equipment interface. Also added a  print log button to allow for the printing of stain queue logs. Modified the “flush” process to flush by interface type  (i.e. staining platform). Added the equipment interface (i.e. staining platform) to the selection criteria to filter only one platform at a time for sites that use more than one staining system.
• Universal Slide – Stain Tracking Changes – Write stain at cassette print in addition to or instead of slide scan. The unique identifier that gets placed into the slide bar code has always worked based on the subsequent submission of a second stain against an accession/part. If multiple of the same types of protocol are issued all at once, the numeric tracking (i.e. 1,2,3 etc.) were not getting written because this generation was performed when the slide was scanned, not printed. The feature was moved to the print routine to handle this with an extra check made at slide scan to also capture if it is not there from the print.
• Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Conflicts Report – Created this report to serve as a predictive report of when there could be conflicts with private labelling (i.e. alias values) of blocks/slides. The report will identify cases where multiple alias values have been entered into Assist so that employees can carefully review the conflicting data on the specimens to make sure that the data is accurate.
• Admin Web Site – Object Type Maintenance – Uses Controls – Added this check box to the maintenance screen to allow an object type to be identified as the type of object that has controls.
• Admin Web Site – Object Control Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance and creation of control objects (i.e. cassettes and slides).
• Interface Utility – LIS Conflicts – Created a “robot” job to allow for the capture of LIS conflicts (as identified above under the “conflicts report”). This robot writes these same conflicts into an office queue for resolution and tracking.
• Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Maintenance – This screen had a couple of issues with the selection criteria. The “Active Only” check box was not working appropriately. It was ALWAYS pulling active only. The prefix criteria was also being ignored.
• Universal Module – Time Tracking – Abandoned Time Buckets – There can be situation where a login/logout combination of data gets abandoned which can cause spurious data with large time buckets. The logic had been put in place to to set the “to” date/time to the current date/time to reflect the active time buckets. This is causing issues with a TRUE abandoned bucket reflecting the current time as closure. Modified to ignore the time bucket based on a sanity check of 8 hours.
• Admin Web Site – Epredia P1000 Settings Details Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the setting details that have been read into the Assist database for sites that have integrated Assist/Epredia digital pathology
• Admin Web Site – Epredia P1000 Settings Control Report - Created this report to provide visibility to the settings control data that have been read into the Assist database for sites that have integrated Assist/Epredia digital pathology
• Print Center – Requisition Label Screen – Added a check box to allow the requisition to be set as free form entry.
• Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Request Exceptions Report – Created this report to show the exceptions that have been logged into the Assist LIS interface database table for sites that have an order request (i.e. doctor orders) interface live.
• Admin Web Site – Epredia P1000 Profile Details Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the profile details that have been read into the Assist database for sites that have integrated Assist/Epredia digital pathology.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Digital Capable Checkbox – Added this option to the maintenance screen to allow for filtering of prefixes based on whether or not they can participate in digital processing.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Digital Capable Checkbox – Added this option to the maintenance screen to allow for the marking of specimen types to allow for specification of whether or not they can participate in digital processing.
• Admin Web Site – Slide Protocol Maintenance – Added fields for billing code and digital capable to support automated billing and digital processing.
• Admin Web Site – Login Screen – Admin Flag – The “administrator” check box under security was no longer stopping non-administrators from logging into the web site. Corrected this flaw to take performance back to the intended.
• Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Diagnosis Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen type diagnosis information. This is part of the digital pathology portion of Assist and determines when a specimen type/protocol is expected to have an AI diagnosis before allowing for automated distribution to take place.
• Admin Web Site – Diagnostic Source Version Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of diagnostic source versions. These versions would represent the different versions of the artificial intelligence engines that are used for diagnoses cases and can be used with an effective date to determine which version was “active” at the point that a case/slide was diagnosed.
• Universal Cassette – Grossing Capture – Body Site Wildcard Logic over the LIS Patient Verification table – Added logic to allow for the marriage of the LIS Patient verification process to grossing notes. If the body site is provided via the LIS interface in the patient verification but the code for the site is included, this logic allows for the data to be mapped AFTER a wildcard found in the data.
• Admin Web Site – Slide Protocol Maintenance – Print On Slide Field – Added this field to allow for a difference between the human readable slide protocol value and the value that is printed on the slide. Previously, there was not the option to have seperate values.
• Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Print on Slide Protocol Logic and Sequence Number – Modified the accession slide count maintenance screen to factor in the new “print on slide” field that was added to the slide protocol maintenance table.
• Admin Web Site – Conference Room Schedule Listing – Created this report to allow for the display of all meetings that are scheduled against conference rooms as part of the ESL feature set that is being introduced into Assist.

December 2021

• Admin Web Site – Inventory Lot Issue Report – Inventory Code Criteria – Added the inventory code to the selection criteria for this report.
• Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – ESL Tag Number – Modified this maintenance screen to include the ability to indicate an electronic sales label to allow for PM information to automatically be sent to a tag attached to a piece of equipment.
• Equipment Maintenance Module – ESL Tag Number - Modified this maintenance tab to include the ability to indicate an electronic sales label to allow for PM information to automatically be sent to a tag attached to a piece of equipment.
• Admin Web Site – ESL Link Audit Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the ESL links that have been performed over time. It shows what cases have been assigned to a tag over time and how a tag has been used.
• Scoreboard – Embedding Production Totals – Start/End Time – Changed the scoreboard view to allow for embedding data to show start/end times rather than just “today” or “hours back”.
• Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Transfer to Shipping – Modified the view to send data from the inbound/outbound tab to the shipping tab.
• Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab – Tied the bulk comments into the communication log. This allows for more integration of the comments from the inbound/outbound tab.
• Admin Web Site – Special Character Replacement Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of  special characters and how the characters can be replaced inside the various modules such as the digital dashboard.
• Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Update Maintenance – Updated this screen to clean it up visually and to add an “Active Only” flag to the selection criteria.
• QC Module Extra Module – Added logic to capture the launch of the software inside the application utilization tracking table to keep track of what computers are using the module.
• Admin Web Site – Application Utilization Report – Added the machine name, com port, and version number to the report to reflect the new fields that have been added to the tracking.
• Admin Web Site – Installation History Report – Cleaned up the criteria on this report to make it cleaner.
• Admin Web Site – Application Utilization Report – Added an export button and added a “detail/summary” toggle to provide two different views of the data.
• Admin Web Site – Auto Update Bulk Update Screen – Created this screen to allow for the bulk update of all of the data set for the auto update feature of Assist to more efficiently mark all of the records that need to be updated.
• Warehouse Module – Application Utilization Tracking – Added the ability to track the launch of the module by writing records into the application utilization tracking table.
• Sample Testing Module – Application Utilization Tracking – Added the ability to track the launch of the module by writing records into the application utilization tracking table.
• Admin Web Site – Accessioning/Distribution TAT Report – There was an issue with the calculation on the running total. It was appending data instead of adding which was throwing off all the data on the report. Fixed this calculation issue.
• Universal Module - Added logic to capture the launch of the software inside the application utilization tracking table to keep track of what computers are using the module.
• Universal Slide – Doctor Order – Added a sort order choice so that an employee can have doctor orders print in order date or by accession number order.
• Universal Cassette – Cassette Queue – Modified this routine to allow for the printing of specimen class information on a cassette. This ability existed in the legacy cassette queue but had not been brought forward into the universal.
• Admin Web Site – Inventory Transaction Costs – Created this new report to provide a view of inventory and the transactional costs associated with the items.