[Histonet] FW: Cerner AB&T

[Morken, Timothy]

Jose, do you have Cerner Copath already? If so, and you plan to keep it, AB&T is probably the best option. If you try to use a third-party system like Vantage or Cerebro with Copath, Cerner will require that you buy AB&T anyway as the middle-ware. Then you would need to support two separate systems. You also may not be able to have two-way communication, that is, writing back to the Cerner database from a third party application (for instance, cannot order blocks or stains in the third party system and have it be written to the Copath database. All blocks/stains must be entered on the Copath side and then they are picked up by the third party system). 

We have Copath Plus v14 and we have been using AB&T for 3+ years. It works very well, but took a lot of work to implement. We barcode from specimen receipt thru grossing, histology, IHC and Special Staining, to block and slide storage and tissue storage and disposal. 
Cytology as well. All seamlessly. We use the Copath 2D code to run our Leica and Ventana stainers without the need to program those stainers - stain orders are sent to the stainers from Copath and they "wait" for the 2D-coded slide to show up. 

We print cassettes at each gross station and slide labels (General Data StainerShield) at each microtome when the blocks are scanned. That has worked very well. 

AB&T has a "status monitor" that allows you to see how materials move thru the lab - for instance it shows how many blocks are in "grossed" status" or "cut" status at any given time. You can click on the number on the monitor to see exactly which cases are in that status. You can also track all materials of a case very easily with one report. 

We have pretty much eliminated paper from the lab with this system.

The only downside I have seen is that Copath does not have a good statistics reporting tool. They only provide static reports, and "raw data" that must be exported to Excel to do any analysis. You can get third party reporting tools that tap into the Copath tables and build our your own live stats reports but they are pretty expensive.

We have also used AB&T to make our own materials tracking system for our courier system, and chemical tracking in the gross room. It is very flexible in that way. 

Tim Morken
Pathology Site Manager, Parnassus 
Supervisor, Electron Microscopy/Neuromuscular Special Studies
Department of Pathology
UC San Francisco Medical Center

-----Original Message-----
From: deGuzman, Jose R via Histonet [mailto:histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2018 2:10 PM
To: histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Cerner AB&T

Hello Histonetters.

I'm looking for opinions from users of Cerner's Advanced Barcode labeling and Tracking Software. I'd like to know your experience working with the software, and if you've worked with another software.

Thank you.

Jose de Guzman

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