Installation and Operation of LabScanner

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Installation

The LabScanner distribution (a Stuffit file for Mac, a Zip file for Windows) includes the LabScanner program, three configuration files (Settings.lsc, ImportFormats.fmt and DemoRules.rul), a text file named Pat_data that contains anonymized patient data for testing LabScanner, and a folder called docs that contains LabScanner documentation in html format. LabScanner should be placed in a folder in an appropriate location on the hard drive. The configuration files must be in the folder with LabScanner (if they are not, LabScanner will creat a new, empty Settings and InputFormat files). Pat_data and the docs folder can be anywhere, but it's usually convenient to keep them in the folder with LabScanner. The docs files can be viewed and printed from a standard Web browser.

Windows users may notice one or more directories called "XtraStuf.mac" after unpacking the archive. These include file data that is used in the Mac installation but not Windows and they can be safely deleted (though they won't cause any trouble if left alone). They do not appear in Mac installations.

Quick overview of typical operation

1. Be familiar with the general concepts presented in the LabScanner Overview.

2. Export a text (ASCII) file from the laboratory information system or other source containing the data that will be evaluated (see Input Files). For initial testing, you may use the enclosed sample data file "Pat_data." You may also enter patient data directly, in which case you do not need a data file for import.

3. Set or modify the input data format in LabScanner, if necessary (see Importing or Entering Patient Data). The data format in the distributed version of LabScanner is already set to work with "Pat_data." Once this is set for a particular kind of data file, it doesn't need to be changed unless the nature of the imported file changes. The input data format isn't needed if you intend to enter data manually.

4. Choose or modify rules for scanning the patient data, if necessary (see Rule Management). A demo rules file (DemoRules.rul) that works with the demo data is distributed with LabScanner. You will need to open this rules file from the Rules Menu before loading the patient data file the first time LabScanner is run. Once this rules file is loaded, you can set it to load by default so that it opens automatically in the future, if you wish.

5. Load the desired data into LabScanner as either a flat or a tab-delimited file, or enter the data manually (see Importing or Entering Patient Data). Load "Pat_data" as a flat file for intial testing and experimentation. Pat_data has been anonymized to protect patient identity and therefore shows sequential patient and physician numbers rather than names.

6. Search the patient list to generate a sublist of patients to evaluate, if desired (see The Patient List and Data Scanning).

7. Scan the patient list using the stored rules to generate a sublist of patients with data patterns of interest (see The Patient List and Data Scanning).

8. Display individual patients for inspection and analysis (see Patient Display).

9. Choose and save patients to archive files if desired (see Archiving Patients).

10. Choose patients for report printing and print desired reports (see Report Printing).

11. Display rule statistics for the group of patients; export statistics for printing or further analysis if desired (see Scan Statistics).