Clinical Lab Interface programming

Question

Hi,

I am a .NET programmer.

Are there any web based resources to pick up Clinical laboratory interface programming, using Serial Ports and ASTMH protocol ? Or any books ?

When i googled i found the ASTMH site which apparently publishes the standard. My specific problem is that i have developed a C# program to connect a Lab Info System (LIS) to a Software application called Remisol2000 ,which is an aggregator software for multiple Beckman Coulter lab systems. My interface program is not getting the ACK handshake acknowledgment from Remisol2000. I thought i could get some 'how to' or tutorial since this is my first LIS interface. I could check to see if i have made any mistake in my approach.

Thanks, Chak.

Answer 1

Perhaps it might be as simple as the serial port settings on your application? Serial comms require the baud rate, stop bits and parity settings to match on both sides of the link.

If they don't match then the sending application will send its information down the wire - with no acknowledgement from the receiver.

You may want to start by using a terminal program to communicate with your hardware directly. This will at least confirm that your serial port is configured correctly for the recieving equipment - and allow you to check the next layer up in the stack, which is your own program.

Note that older hardware might well be expecting ASCII control codes like ENQ and responding with codes like ACK. You'll need to use the corresponding char in C# for this - respectively, (char)5 and (char)6.

Answer 2

hello Chack,

I have the same project for laboratory instrument interfacing. But, I don't know how to start and what hardware requirements to interface to any device/instrument. Do you have any idea?

Thanks,

Rock