Given the number of responses I have received on this topic, here is a little more detail for public consumption about data management on the XL cytometer. One of Coulter's best kept secrets is that the XL software was designed to store and retrieve data in Sybase SQL tables. Patient demographics, specimen info and hematology data can be loaded into the tables and accessed by the XL at sample runtime to create reports. Rather than printing reports, results such as percent, mean, cell number, etc... can also be written to the SQL tables. ODBC drivers can be obtained from Sybase which will allow interaction with these tables using any ODBC compliant application. Examples of such applications are MS Access and MS Excel. Over the past several years I have developed a number of MS Access applications to automate management of XL data in a clinical setting. These applications provide: 1) bi-directional communication (ASTM or HL-7) with hospital LIS; 2) automatic XL worklist file creation; 3) result review, flagging and electronic sign out; 4) databasing of specimen and QC data; 5) Custom report generation. Once in the tables data can be easily moved into a spreadsheet for analysis. I've also used the SQL system often to manage data from large research projects. I'm available to discuss this further with anyone interested in more detail. gary Gary Durack University of Illinois Biotechnology Center voice (217) 244-0559 fax (217) 244-0466 durack@uiuc.edu http://www.life.uiuc.edu/biotech
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