Granted Patent B2

US 12,393,905 · App. 18/531,990 · Granted Aug 19, 2025

Inventors: Joseph Rose (Grand Blanc, MI); John Easler (Green Cove Springs, FL); James Williams (Matthews, NC); Jeff Raines (Harrisburg, NC); Nghia Tran (Kansas City, MO); Dustin Scholz (Kansas City, MO); John Christopher Penrod (Kansas City, MO)

Assignee: CERNER INNOVATION, INC.

G06Q10/0832G06Q10/0833

Abstract

Claims (72)

1. A laboratory lockbox system comprising:

a base unit;

a vault unit including one or more compartments to store one or more specimens;

a fluid connection between the base unit and the vault unit;

at least one temperature sensor configured to measure an internal temperature of the vault unit;

a cooling mechanism configured within the base unit and configured to, based on at least the internal temperature received from the at least one temperature sensor, activate cooling functions to self-regulate the internal temperature to a first temperature;

one or more presence sensors configured to detect a presence of a specimen within the one or more compartments of the vault unit and generate a load status based on sensing a specimen, wherein the load status includes one of a loaded status or an unloaded status;

a control unit operably connected to at least the vault unit and the one or more presence sensors, wherein the control unit is configured to:

receive an indication of a change in the load status from the vault unit;

determine whether the change in the load status changes a specimen pickup workflow;

upon determining that the change in the load status changes the specimen pickup workflow, generate an optimized pickup workflow based on the change in the load status of the vault unit;

wherein in response to the load status changing from the unloaded state to the loaded state, the optimized pickup workflow is generated to include a courier route to a location of the vault unit to pickup the specimen;

wherein in response to the load status changing from the loaded state to the unloaded state, the optimized pickup workflow is generated to remove the courier route to the location of the vault unit;

generate a notification of the optimized pickup workflow at one or more remote computing devices separate from the vault unit; and

transmit the notification of the optimized pickup workflow to a destination device.

2. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 1 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:

receive the internal temperature of the vault unit as measured by the at least one temperature sensor; and

communicate the internal temperature to an electronic health record (EHR) for storage.

3. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 1 , wherein the control unit is further configured to generate and transmit a signal to a remote computing device to remove the vault unit from the optimized pickup workflow in response to the loaded status being unloaded.

4. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 1 ,

wherein the control unit is further configured to monitor the specimen pickup workflow; and

modify the specimen pickup workflow to include the vault unit into the specimen pickup workflow in response to:

determining that (i) the vault unit is not scheduled for a pickup based on the specimen pickup workflow and that (ii) the vault unit is designated in a loaded status.

5. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 1 , wherein the specimen pickup workflow comprises a schedule of one or more specimen pickups from one or more vault units.

6. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 1 , wherein the control unit is configured to monitor the load status at predetermined intervals of time.

7. A laboratory lockbox system comprising:

a vault unit including one or more compartments to store one or more specimens;

at least one temperature sensor configured to measure an internal temperature of at least one compartment of the one or more compartments in the vault unit;

a cooling mechanism configured to, based on at least the internal temperature received from the at least one temperature sensor, activate cooling functions to self-regulate the internal temperature to a designated temperature;

one or more presence sensors configured to detect a presence of a specimen within the one or more compartments of the vault unit and configured to generate a load status based on sensing a specimen, wherein the load status includes one of a loaded status or an unloaded status;

a control unit operably connected to at least the vault unit and the one or more presence sensors, wherein the control unit is configured to:

receive an indication of a change in the load status from the vault unit or the one or more presence sensors wherein the load status is detected by the one or more presence sensors;

access, via a network communication to a remote computing device, a specimen pickup workflow and determine whether the change in the load status is different than a status associated with the vault unit in the specimen pickup workflow, wherein the specimen pickup workflow is maintained by the remote computing device;

upon determining that the change in the load status changes the status in the specimen pickup workflow, generate an optimized pickup workflow based on the change in the load status of the vault unit;

wherein in response to the load status changing from the unloaded state to the loaded state, the optimized pickup workflow is generated to include a courier route to a location of the vault unit to pickup the specimen; and

wherein in response to the load status changing from the loaded state to the unloaded state, the optimized pickup workflow is generated to remove the courier route to the location of the vault unit;

generate a notification of the optimized pickup workflow at one or more remote computing devices separate from the vault unit; and

transmit the notification of the optimized pickup workflow to a destination device.

8. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 7 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:

receive an internal temperature of the vault unit as measured by the at least one temperature sensor operably connected to the one or more compartments in the vault unit; and

communicate the internal temperature to an electronic health record (EHR) for storage.

9. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 7 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:

generate and transmit a signal to a remote computing device to remove the vault unit from the optimized pickup workflow in response to the load status being the unloaded status.

10. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 7 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:

monitor the specimen pickup workflow; and

modify the specimen pickup workflow to include the vault unit into the specimen pickup workflow in response to:

determining that (i) the vault unit is not scheduled for a pickup based on the specimen pickup workflow and that (ii) the vault unit is designated in the loaded status based on the one or more presence sensors.

11. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more remote computing devices comprise one or more mobile devices.

12. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 7 , wherein the control unit is further configured to: monitor the load status at predetermined intervals of time from the one or more presence sensors.

13. A laboratory lockbox system comprising:

a vault unit including one or more compartments to store one or more specimens;

at least one temperature sensor configured to measure an internal temperature of at least one compartment of the one or more compartments in the vault unit;

a cooling mechanism configured to, based on at least the internal temperature received from the at least one temperature sensor, activate cooling functions to self-regulate the internal temperature to a designated temperature;

one or more presence sensors configured to detect a presence of a specimen within the one or more compartments of the vault unit and generate a load status based on sensing a specimen, wherein the load status includes one of a loaded status or an unloaded status;

a control unit operably connected to at least the vault unit and the one or more presence sensors, wherein the control unit is configured to:

receive an indication of a change in the load status from the vault unit;

access a specimen pickup workflow and determine whether the change in the load status is different than a status in the specimen pickup workflow, wherein the specimen pickup workflow is maintained by a remote computing device;

upon determining that the change in the load status changes the specimen pickup workflow, modify the specimen pickup workflow based on the change in the load status of the vault unit;

wherein in response to the load status changing from the unloaded state to the loaded state, modify the specimen pickup workflow to include a courier route to a location of the vault unit to pickup the specimen from the vault unit; and

wherein in response to the load status changing from the loaded state to the unloaded state, modify the specimen pickup workflow to remove the courier route to the location of the vault unit.

14. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 13 , wherein the control unit is configured to:

generate a notification of the modified specimen pickup workflow at one or more remote computing devices separate from the vault unit; and

transmit the notification of the modified specimen pickup workflow to a destination device.

15. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 14 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:

receive the internal temperature of the vault unit as measured by the at least one temperature sensor; and

communicate the internal temperature to an electronic health record (EHR) for storage.

16. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 13 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:

generate and transmit a signal to a remote computing device to remove the vault unit from the modified specimen pickup workflow in response to the load status indicating the unloaded status.

17. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 13 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:

modify the specimen pickup workflow to include the vault unit into the specimen pickup workflow in response to:

determining that (i) the vault unit is not scheduled for a pickup based on the specimen pickup workflow and that (ii) the vault unit is designated having the loaded status based on the one or more presence sensors.

18. The laboratory lockbox system of claim 13 , wherein the control unit is further configured to monitor the load status at predetermined intervals of time from the one or more presence sensors.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (9)