An integrated system for the automation of the clinical chemistry laboratory.

A user programmable microcomputer-based integrated system for automatic analysis in the clinical chemistry laboratory is presented. Friendly user-instrument interaction helps the operator when defining tests and analytical conditions or entering sample data and test requests. Quality control data are retained for the automatic production of various statistical lists and graphs. Routine operator intervention is limited to reagent preparation, sample loading onto the autosampler plate, definition of the tests to be performed on each of the samples and data validation before the generation of reports. Finally, connection with an existing laboratory management system is provided by means of a standard serial interface.