• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.16-25
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• 2016

Turnaround time (called, TAT) for imaging test, which is necessary for making a medical diagnosis, is directly related to the patient's waiting time and it is one of the important performance criteria for medical services. In this paper, we measured the TAT from major imaging tests to see it met the reference point set by the medical institutions. Prediction results from the algorithm of classification regression tree (called, CART) showed "clinics", "diagnosis", "modality", "test month" were identified as main factors for timely processing. This study had a contribution in providing means of prevention of the delay on medical services in advance.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2024

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, congestion within container terminals has led to a significant increase in waiting time and turnaround time for external trucks, resulting in a severe inefficiency in gate-in and gate-out operations. In response, port authorities have implemented a Vehicle Booking System (VBS) for external trucks. It is currently in a pilot operation. However, due to issues such as information sharing among stakeholders and lukewarm participation from container transport entities, its improvement effects are not pronounced. Therefore, this study proposed a deep learning-based predictive model for external trucks turnaround time as a foundational dataset for addressing problems of waiting time for external trucks' turnaround time. We experimented with the presented predictive model using actual operational data from a container terminal, verifying its predictive accuracy by comparing it with real data. Results confirmed that the proposed predictive model exhibited a high level of accuracy in its predictions.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.66-74
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• 2012

Test turnaround time (TAT) is the lead time from reception to reporting. In the complete blood cell count (CBC), 4 units of the XE-2100 (Sysmex Corp., Japan) processed around 80% of quantity, 1 unit of the LH-780 (Beckman-Coulter Incorp., USA) processed around 10% and 1 unit of ADVIA-2120 (Siemens AG, Munich, Germany) processed around 10%. We analyzed the change in the TAT for the CBC for over 7 years, from January of 2005 to December of 2011. The delta check made alterations of delta to WBC, hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelet and metamyelocyte, however, did not made them to band neutrophil, eosinophil, basophil and monocyte. The panic value check made alterations of panic value to hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelet and monocyte. In the criteria of currently slide review, LH-780 and ADVI-2120 analyzers prepared suspect flags of "Blast, Imm NE2, Immature granulocyte, Imm NE1, Left shift, Variant lymphocyte, Atypical lymphocyte, Platelet clumps and NRBC". The New slide review in the XE-2100 analyzer altered the preparations of a smear slide more than a "Platelet clumps flag(${\geq}200unit$), a single flag excluding the "Platelet clumps flag (${\geq}250unit$) and a multiple flag (${\geq}200unit$)". Also, below the 240 unit, medical technologists prepared manual slides selectively according to their evaluations. The automatic reporting rate was 33.4% without alterations, whereas it was 41.0% without alterations, and was thus improved by 7.6%. The slide review rate was 15.2% before using the Q-flag limit, whereas it was 12.1% for a reduce 3.1%. TAT was 45 minutes without the creation alterations of the delta and panic value checks, whereas it was 35 minutes after making alterations of the delta and panic value checks and thus was shortened by 10 minutes. We came to the conclusion that the establishment and operation of delta and panic value checks and slide review criteria suitable for laboratory environment can reduce unnecessary smear slides, re-checking, re-sampling, re-testing, telephone inquiries and concentrated workloads during specific times of the day.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.75-79
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• 2016

Purpose The ASAN Medical Center, Nuclear Medicine performs TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone) and FT4 (Free Thyroxine) tests 8 times per day. Accordingly, 70 ~ 80 kit tubes are consumed every day for the measurements and the time consumed for reagent dispensing averages over 170 seconds, where the TAT (turnaround time) may be effected when the number of test samples is larger than expected. Therefore, the following test was conducted with the purpose to reduce the number of kit tubes consumed, and reduce the time for reagent dispensing. Materials and Methods The test is based on applying the same reagent for tests where the number of samples is 30 or less. The test for TSH was conducted 9 times from July $1^{st}$ 2015 to July $10^{th}$ 2015. The test for FT4 was conducted 4 times from June $18^{th}$ 2015 to June $22^{nd}$, 2015. Standard Solution No.2 (0.153 uU/mL) and No.5 (4.96 uU/mL) was selected as the two-point standards for the TSH test, and Standard Solution No.3 (0.777 ng/dL) and No.4 (2.044 ng/dL) was selected as the two-point standards for the FT4 test. 38 test samples were subject to correlation analysis. Results For TSH, the result of the normal test shows ranges of 0.20 ~ 0.37 uU/mL for Control1, 0.53 ~ 0.71 uU/mL for Control2, and 6.77 ~ 7.94uU/mL for Control3, while the result of two-point calibration curve test shows ranges of 0.18 ~ 0.27 uU/mL for Control1, 0.53 ~ 0.71 uU/mL for Control2, and 7.30 ~ 8.52 uU/mL for Control3. For FT4, the result of the normal test shows ranges of 0.85 ~ 0.94 ng/dL for Control1 and 4.23 ~ 4.57 ng/dL for Control2, while the result of two-point calibration curve test shows ranges of 0.61 ~ 0.75 ng/dL for Control1 and 3.88 ~ 5.71 ng/dL for Control2. For TSH, the CV% of the normal test for Control1, Control2 and Control3 are 10.5, 3.3 and 3.6 respectively, while the CV% of the two-point calibration curve test for Control1 and Control1 are 12.4, 8.2 and 5.1 respectively. The result shows an outstanding correlation of TSH: y = 0.9985x - 0.0459 $R^2=0.9986$. For FT4, the CV% of the normal test for Control1 and Control2 are 0.70 and 0.71 respectively, while the CV% of the two-point calibration curve test for Control1 and Control1 are 8.7 and 16.2 respectively. The result shows an outstanding correlation of FT4: y = 1.2674x - 0.1133 $R^2=0.9824$. Conclusion The two-point calibration curve can be efficiently applied for TSH in cases where the number of test samples is not large, since the number of samples to be re-tested increases when the result is abnormal from the calibration curve. The two-point calibration curve test should not be applied for FT4 where the results do not consistently comply with the quality assessment range. Depending on how the two-point calibration curve is applied, up to 5 test tubes can be conserved per test, and the reduced time for reagent dispensing is anticipated to have a positive effect on the TAT (turnaround time).

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.210-216
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to evaluate GDH & Toxin (GDT) tests for the identification of the presence of Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) as well as to detect whether any toxin was present in the feces of patients suspected of diarrhea associated with C. difficile. Data related to the results of toxin and culture (TC) tests and GDT tests conducted on patients with diarrhea and suspected CDI between January 2017 and august 2018, positive test rates, patient ages and sexes, whether the patients were hospitalized, and turnaround time (TAT) were analyzed retrospectively. Of the 7,554 total tests conducted for CDI diagnosis, 1,010 TC tests (14.9%) were positive, while 92 GDT tests (12.0%) were positive. Of these positive cases, 815 (80.7%) identified through TC test and 80 (87%) identified through GDT test were inpatients. also, among the patients with positive test results, 497 (49.2%) diagnosed through TC test and 45 (48.9%) diagnosed through GDT test were aged 61 years or older. The total time required to complete a TC test was 83.6 hours, while the time required for a GDT test was 11.2 hours, equating to an approximately three-day difference between the two tests. The detection of toxin-producing C. difficile is important in CDI diagnosis, but the commonly used Enzymeimmunoassay (EIA) toxin tests with low sensitivity result in delayed CDI diagnosis time. Therefore, primary screening tests for CDI diagnosis using the GDT method and secondary tests using additional methods are considered most effective.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.233-240
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• 2021

Evaluation of the resected margins of the frozen section during breast-conserving surgery can determine the presence of cancer cells in a short time and have a significant impact on the scope of surgery and the prognosis of the patient. However, breast tissue is composed of adipose tissue, which affects the accuracy of the test. In this study, a new method was applied to the resected surface of the frozen section in which wiping the surface of the frozen section block with alcohol was expected to expose the parenchyma to the surface as the adipose tissue would melt momentarily. Indeed, of the total of 98 cases, 37 cases showed a better exposure ratio of the parenchyma in the improved frozen section test than in the previous frozen section test. Of the 37 cases with increased visibility of parenchymal sections obtained by this method, two cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) were detected. Although there are limitations such as turnaround time (TAT), the diagnostic accuracy of histopathologic examination of the frozen section may improve through this method and may have a direct impact on patient safety, and should therefore be researched further.