US 12,393,905 B2
Intelligent laboratory lockbox system
Joseph Rose, Grand Blanc, MI (US); John Easler, Green Cove Springs, FL (US); James Williams, Matthews, NC (US); Jeff Raines, Harrisburg, NC (US); Nghia Tran, Kansas City, MO (US); Dustin Scholz, Kansas City, MO (US); and John Christopher Penrod, Kansas City, MO (US)
Assigned to CERNER INNOVATION, INC., Kansas City, KS (US)
Filed by CERNER INNOVATION, INC., Kansas City, MO (US)
Filed on Dec. 7, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/531,990.
Application 18/531,990 is a continuation of application No. 16/896,923, filed on Jun. 9, 2020, granted, now 11,857,017.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/859,989, filed on Jun. 11, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2024/0164463 A1, May 23, 2024
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06Q 10/0832 (2023.01); G06Q 10/0833 (2023.01)
CPC G06Q 10/0832 (2013.01) [G06Q 10/0833 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A laboratory lockbox system comprising:
a base unit;
a vault unit including one or more compartments to store one or more specimens;
a fluid connection between the base unit and the vault unit;
at least one temperature sensor configured to measure an internal temperature of the vault unit;
a cooling mechanism configured within the base unit and configured to, based on at least the internal temperature received from the at least one temperature sensor, activate cooling functions to self-regulate the internal temperature to a first temperature;
one or more presence sensors configured to detect a presence of a specimen within the one or more compartments of the vault unit and generate a load status based on sensing a specimen, wherein the load status includes one of a loaded status or an unloaded status;
a control unit operably connected to at least the vault unit and the one or more presence sensors, wherein the control unit is configured to:
receive an indication of a change in the load status from the vault unit;
determine whether the change in the load status changes a specimen pickup workflow;
upon determining that the change in the load status changes the specimen pickup workflow, generate an optimized pickup workflow based on the change in the load status of the vault unit;
wherein in response to the load status changing from the unloaded state to the loaded state, the optimized pickup workflow is generated to include a courier route to a location of the vault unit to pickup the specimen;
wherein in response to the load status changing from the loaded state to the unloaded state, the optimized pickup workflow is generated to remove the courier route to the location of the vault unit;
generate a notification of the optimized pickup workflow at one or more remote computing devices separate from the vault unit; and
transmit the notification of the optimized pickup workflow to a destination device.