JP4901528B2 - Automatic analyzer - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an automatic analyzer that measures the chemical and physical properties of biological samples such as blood and urine, and more particularly to an automatic analyzer that includes storage means for storing in-device information.

  Automatic analyzers that measure the chemical and physical properties of biological samples such as blood and urine may be urgently required to perform measurements due to the characteristics used for diagnosing diseases. For this reason, it is required to operate continuously regardless of day or night.

  On the other hand, in addition to measuring unknown samples in automatic analyzers (automatic analysis systems), predictions from multiple causes are possible due to the increase in the types of substances to be measured, the sophistication and complexity of measurement methods. There is an increased possibility of difficult failures. When such an unknown failure is encountered, it is desirable to investigate the cause by stopping the operation of the system in which the failure has occurred. However, if a medical institution or laboratory that owns the system still requires new measurements after a failure, the system will continue to operate unless the problem is fatal. At the same time, it is desirable to analyze the failure separately. In this case, a case where an analysis is performed based on information stored in the system, or various conditions relating to the measurement of the system are newly set in a separate system, and a reproduction experiment is performed.

  In such a system, system settings, management of consumables and waste used in the system, calibration for individual items to be measured, selection of measurement items for each sample, measurement results for each sample and measurement of known samples In some cases, functions such as periodic implementation and long-term management are installed. For this reason, it is necessary to have all of the above information in order to perform a reproduction experiment with a device other than the one that really caused the problem.

  In such a system, in recent years, a personal computer system using a general operation system such as Microsoft Windows (registered trademark) can be used as an operation unit as a user interface for performing the operation. Peripheral devices that made use of its expandability became available.

  Therefore, considering the case where the solution takes time as described above, the following methods can be mentioned. For example, a method of copying a medium storing system information in an external system and analyzing it in another system, or a method of storing only information that seems to be necessary for reproduction or analysis of the system in the external storage means. .

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an analyzer that includes a plurality of storage devices and backs up information.

JP 2001-281258 A

  In the technique described in Patent Document 1, a backup operation is executed according to a predetermined rule. For example, the backup operation is performed with a condition that the state of the apparatus changes, such as during an operation such as start of measurement, start of STAT, pause, pause release, etc. before automatic power OFF. It also describes starting backup manually.

  However, the duplication work by batch processing of files containing such information requires duplication of a huge amount of information as the system becomes larger and more complex in recent years. There is a possibility that the system must be temporarily paused at the time of replica creation, and there are cases where it is difficult to implement in reality.

  Further, when the copied information is taken out from a medical institution and analyzed, for example, it is necessary to selectively delete information related to personal information from the viewpoint of protecting personal information.

  The present invention solves such a system information backup method in view of the actual state of clinical examination.

  As a method, at least two or more storage media that always hold system information are prepared, and this writing operation is performed at a timing that can be regarded as simultaneous, thereby eliminating the need for replication work at the time of failure. Further, at least one storage medium can be removed from the system, and the storage medium can be removed at any time. Further, a file containing personal information can be specified in advance, and when a storage medium is removed from the system, it is deleted or encrypted so that it can be read only when connected to the system. With this configuration, the system can perform failure analysis and the like externally and protect personal information without stopping the system. Further, when a sufficient processing speed of the system cannot be obtained, the backup operation is performed at a preset timing in consideration of the operation status of the entire system.

  According to the present invention, in obtaining information about the system from the system, it is possible to obtain substantially no downtime of the system.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The system includes a keyboard 101 as an input means, a display screen 102, and a CPU system 103. The CPU system 103 is connected to an analysis unit 110. In the analysis unit 110, a portion 111 for installing the sample container, an information reading means 112 attached to the sample container, a means 113 for sorting the liquid sample stored in the sample container, and a sample collected are processed. Means 114, means 115 for measuring the chemical and physical properties of the processed sample, and means for transmitting the measurement results to the CPU system 103 are provided. The CPU system 103 includes a hard disk 104 as a first recording medium and a hard disk 105 as a second recording medium. In addition, this system is connected to the upper information system 120 by the communication means 121. Here, the selection content of the measurement item for each specimen transmitted through the communication means may be referred to as “request content”. As the sample processing means 114, an automatic analysis system such as that disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-46842 can be used.

When the sample container is installed on the portion 111 where the sample container is installed, the sample container is read by the sample container information reading means 112, and the information is sent to the CPU 103 via the analysis unit 110, and the CPU 103 is the communication means 121. The host information system 120 is inquired together with the system ID via. The higher-level information system 120 that has received the inquiry stores the measurement items determined prior to collecting the sample from the patient in advance, and among the stored information, the measurement item corresponding to the system ID is stored via the communication unit 121. Sent to CPU103,
The CPU 103 sends the measurement item to the analysis unit 110. Note that information regarding the sample and information regarding the sample and the request may be directly performed on the system by the input device 101. The analysis unit 110 links the liquid sample sorting unit 113, the sample processing unit 114, and the measurement unit 115 related to the analysis to obtain a measurement result. The measurement result is sent to the CPU 103. The CPU 103 records this simultaneously on the first recording medium 104 and the second recording medium 105, displays it on the display screen 102 recorded on the first storage medium 104, and displays the higher-level information system via the communication means 121. 120.

Here, FIG. 2 shows an outline of information stored in a file in the system. The file system 201 is composed of a plurality of files, and the processing information 202 as a personal information file associates information regarding the attribute of the sample with an internal processing number that can trace the sample within the system. Other files are files that do not contain personal information directly, and the request information 203 records the relationship between the internal processing number and the measurement item. In the result information 204, the relationship between the internal processing number and the measurement result is recorded. The other information is information required for system measurements, and is based on measurements of substances with known concentrations that have been performed in advance for individual measurement items and combinations of components related to measurement. Calibration information 205, article management information 206 for managing the remaining amount of reagents and consumables used for measurement, apparatus operation information 207 for recording the actual operation of the apparatus in the event of a failure, and substances having a known concentration for the measurement system There are quality control information 208 and the like for periodically measuring and proving that each analysis item can be appropriately measured. The information shown here is only a general analysis system, and there may be other information necessary for the system. In addition, the file structure shown here explains that although personal information is necessary for the system, virtually all processing can be performed with the internal processing number inside the system. In this way, it is shown that the data element including the personal information can be stored limited to a specific file.

  In such a configuration, the removal disk selection screen is displayed on the disk selection screen 301 by the storage medium removal screen as shown in FIG. 3, and the main hard disk 302 is removed when the first hard disk 104 is removed from the system. When removing the second hard disk 105, the secondary hard disk 303 is selected. Since it is necessary for the system to have at least one hard disk, here is the screen to remove one of them. Further, a check box 304 is provided for erasing the personal information, and an instruction to erase the personal information can be given from this screen. When canceling the processing at this time, a cancel button 305 or 307 is pressed. When removing the recording medium, 306 is pressed. By such an operation, the system can appropriately remove the recording medium.

  Also, the KEY information 401 is stored in the first storage medium 104 as shown in FIG. 4, and the encryption process is performed in writing and reading from the processing information file 202 including personal information from the CPU 103 as shown in FIG. 501 can also be provided. In this case, the processing information file is generally stored as data that cannot be decrypted by encryption at the time of writing, and can be decrypted together with the key information by the CPU 103 via the encryption process 501 when it is read again. It can be used as data. With this configuration, the check box 304 is not necessary for removing the storage medium in FIG. However, regarding the assignment of these functions, it is necessary to consider means for safely storing key information in view of the occurrence of a failure or the like in the first storage medium 104.

  Next, system deadline processing will be described. The deadline processing is performed or set by a person who mainly performs management of the system in a time zone where the possibility of emergency inspection or the like is low in a facility using the system. Here, it is assumed that the final deadline timing is executed at the time of 6 am on 2006/07/25. Actually, the deadline may be set in advance or may be implemented after the fact. If a deadline is to be executed for data before this with respect to the deadline at the time when the measurement or the like is already completed, a deadline time 602 is set and a deadline start process 607 is executed. In addition, when the deadline is set to be executed periodically, the periodic process check box 603 is set, and the execution frequency 604 is selected and executed. What is necessary is just to determine according to the condition of a facility about implementation frequency. For example, when the amount of sample processing is large, an operation method of executing every other half day or daily is conceivable. In addition, if the working database is sufficiently wide, the deadline may be implemented on a weekly basis. When the deadline processing is performed, as shown in FIG. 7, the files after the final deadline are left as operation files 702 on the first recording medium 104. It is assumed that the actual system operates based on the operation file 702. On the other hand, the second recording medium 105 stores an operation file 703 equivalent to the operation file and operation files 704 to 708 stored by the previous deadline. The file shown in each block actually has a directory structure, and preferably has a structure equivalent to that shown in FIG. By holding the structure itself in this way, it is possible to execute data analysis, storage, backup, and restoration measures without any special processing.

  As shown in FIG. 8, regarding the details of the deadline operation, when a deadline start 802 is performed, a storage area is first secured 803 in the second recording medium 105. It is desirable that the name of the storage area is, for example, 704 that clearly indicates the deadline time. After securing the area, the current file is copied 804 to the storage area 704, and when the copying is completely completed, a check 805 is performed. Delete 806 the completed information. As a result, the file is stored without excess or deficiency, and the process ends 807.

As shown in the second embodiment, if it is only for storage purposes, the copying timing does not have to be simultaneous in millisecond order. Therefore, the system is set to copy sequentially, and the processing status of the system For example, when the state of communication between the CPU 103 and the analysis unit 110 is frequent, the processing is not performed, and at a preset time, for example, at a relatively marginal time after a busy time period, Copying may be automatically performed on the second storage medium. As a storage medium, a hard disk drive is considered the best at present from the viewpoint of capacity, reliability, and access speed. However, an alternative semiconductor memory,
CD-ROM and DVD-ROM may be used. In the case of a write-only medium, it can be seen that the backup was made explicitly by setting the medium in advance and automatically writing and ejecting when the deadline has passed.

  In addition, the measurement results and statistical information of the quality control sample are likely to be reviewed over a long period of time, so it may be desirable to store the past data in the operation file for a long period of time. Select and set the file to be saved appropriately according to these applications.

The figure explaining the connection form of the analysis system and storage medium in Example 1. FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a file configuration of a system according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a screen for removing a storage medium in the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an arrangement of key information for protecting personal information in the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an encryption process according to the first embodiment. The figure explaining deadline information in Example 2. The figure explaining the structure of the file by the deadline information in Example 2. FIG. The figure explaining the deadline process in Example 2. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Keyboard 102 Display screen 103 CPU system 104 1st recording medium 105 2nd recording medium 110 Analysis part 111 The part which constructs a sample container 112 Sample container information reading means 113 Liquid sample fractionating means 114 Sample processing means 115 Measuring means 120 upper-level information system 121 communication means 201 file system 202 processing information 203 request information 204 result information 205 calibration information 206 article management information 207 apparatus operation information 208 accuracy management information 301 disk selection screen 302, 303 selection button 304 personal information deletion check 305 Cancel button 306 Recording medium removal button 401 KEY information 501 Encryption process 602 Deadline time 603 Periodic processing check box 604 Execution frequency selection box 607 Deadline start processing 702 Operation Airu 703 copying 805 copying completion check 806 terminates copied information deletion 807 treated equally the storage area of the operation file 704-708 stored operation file 802 deadline starts 803 secured storage area 804 operation file

Claims (6)

In an automatic analyzer comprising at least two storage means for storing information including measurement results of biological samples,
The storage means is at least
Storing the information including the measurement result, grouping the information obtained in a predetermined period, and deleting at a predetermined timing;
Second storage means for storing information stored and grouped in the first storage means at the predetermined timing;
An automatic analyzer characterized in that at least the second storage device is removable to the outside. The automatic analyzer according to claim 1, wherein
The information including the measurement result includes the measurement result and information for specifying the measured sample provider,
And the information memorize | stored in said 2nd memory | storage means is equipped with the control means which controls so that the information which specifies the provider of this sample may be deleted and memorize | stored, The automatic analyzer characterized by the above-mentioned. The automatic analyzer according to claim 1, wherein
The information including the measurement result includes the measurement result and information for specifying the measured sample provider,
An automatic analyzer comprising control means for controlling the information stored in the second storage means so that the information specifying the sample provider is encrypted and stored. In the automatic analyzer in any one of Claims 1-3 ,
The information including the measurement result includes an operation state of the automatic analyzer and an amount of members held in the automatic analyzer. The automatic analyzer according to claim 4,
The quality control information is stored in the first storage means. In the automatic analyzer according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
An automatic analyzer comprising: means for designating at least one of timing and frequency of deleting grouped information from the first storage means.

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