Replace it
Tens of thousands of pounds to solve a data problem on an instrument that is working exactly as it should.
The problem
Three bad options, and a fourth one.
Every clinic has at least one instrument that nothing will talk to. It works perfectly. It cost a great deal of money. And every result it produces gets typed in by hand.
Keep typing
Every result transcribed by hand, every transcription a chance to introduce an error, and no audit trail worth the name.
Wait for the vendor
Ask a large supplier to support an instrument they did not sell you, and see how the roadmap conversation goes.
The fourth option is to have the connection written. It is usually the cheapest of the four by a wide margin, and it is the only one that leaves you with the instrument you already trust.
How it works
From sample message to live connection.
01
Tell us what you have
Make, model, and how it currently gets data out: a serial port, a network socket, a USB cable, a printer feed, or a data-management application sitting between you and it.
02
We capture the wire
We look at what the instrument actually sends, on your bench or from a sample capture you send us. Most instruments speak a recognisable dialect. Some speak something entirely their own. Both are workable.
03
We write the driver
Results, quality control, operator identity, reagent lots and error states, mapped properly rather than scraped. Quality control stays separated from patient results, as it does for every other device.
04
You verify it against the printout
Run tests on the instrument and compare, line by line, against what landed in the record. Nothing goes live until that comparison is clean.
05
It stays supported
The driver becomes part of the platform. It is maintained, versioned and carried forward like every other connection, at no additional charge.
Older instruments
The analyser nobody supports any more.
Instruments outlive the companies that made them, the software that drove them and the operating systems that ran that software. A discontinued analyser is not a broken analyser. It is usually a perfectly good instrument with a dead conversation partner.
These are some of the most satisfying connections we build, because the alternative quote is almost always a capital purchase.
Usually enough to work with
A serial port on the back.
An ethernet socket and a manual nobody has opened.
A printer output.
A file it drops on a shared folder.
Any one of those is a way in. Send us a photo of the back panel if you are not sure what you are looking at.
What you get
A real connection, not a workaround.
Results, mapped
Each analyte mapped to your test library, with units, and landing on the correct patient record.
Quality control, separated
Control runs recognised as controls and routed into the QC console, never into a patient record.
Operator identity
Where the instrument carries it, the operator on each run is captured and retained.
Lots and errors
Reagent lot numbers and instrument error states captured where the instrument reports them.
Onward to your LIS or EHR
Once it is in Catenix it travels the same route as every other device on the bench.
Maintained from then on
The connection is versioned, tested and carried forward with the platform. It does not become your problem later.
Questions, answered
What clinics ask before commissioning one.
What does it cost?
It depends entirely on what the instrument does and how it communicates. A device that speaks a well-behaved standard is a very different job from one that only prints. Tell us the make and model and we will quote properly rather than guess.
How long does it take?
Most connections are a matter of days once we have seen what the instrument sends. The part that takes longest is usually arranging access to the instrument or a sample capture, not the engineering.
Do you need the analyser in front of you?
Not usually. A capture of what the instrument sends is normally enough to build against, with a verification run on your bench before it goes live.
What if the instrument only prints?
A printer feed is still a data stream, and it is often the only output an older instrument has. It is a harder job than a proper interface and we will say so in the quote, but it is frequently possible.
Do we own the connection afterwards?
The driver becomes part of the Catenix platform and is maintained as part of it. You are commissioning the connection, not buying exclusivity over it, which is why it costs a fraction of what a bespoke software project would.
Will it interfere with the analyser?
No. Catenix reads what the instrument chooses to send. It does not alter how the instrument tests, measures or reports, and it does not interpret what comes out of it.
A clear boundary
Catenix is connectivity, workflow, record-keeping and data display. It does not interpret results, calculate clinical values, classify or flag results clinically, or provide clinical decision support. A custom connection captures and carries what the instrument reports. It does not change how that instrument measures.
Tell us what you are running.
Make, model and how it currently gets data out. We will tell you whether it can be connected and what it would take.