Freezerworks Unlimited log in – 00:00

Welcome to the Freezerworks Unlimited Quick Start Guide.  This is a 30-minute video that will walk you through a simple setup of Freezerworks Unlimited.  To open Freezerworks, double-click your Freezerworks icon.  For the demo version, leave the serial number blank.  Enter admin for username and leave password blank.  This is the interactive Configuration and Setup guide.  Use it to follow and keep track of all the steps for configuring Freezerworks.  Use the System Admin and other menus above as well, and for help anytime, locate Freezerworks Help under the Manuals menu.  Here, you'll find helpful tips and additional guidance.  We are going to do a quick and basic setup of our Freezerworks demo.  Go to Sample Management – Add New Samples.  There are no fields yet, neither sample fields here above nor aliquot fields here below.  We are going to build this screen with User Defined Fields, but before we do, let's first create a freezer. 

Freezer Configuration – 01:52

Freezer configuration is located in the System Admin menu.  A demo freezer is already configured.  Let's take a look at that.  A freezer in Version 5.1 can be divided into sections.  The demo freezer is called freezer, DEMO Physical.  It consists of only one section called DEMO.  DEMO section has a standard Rack – Box – Row – Column configuration.  Here is a screen for creating exceptions to your setup.  In 5.1, you can usually handle exceptions to your configuration by creating additional freezer sections.  Here is a screen for configuring your box and a screen that displays your freezer in an expandable tree.  Let's now leave the demo freezer and create a new freezer.  

Select Add New, give your freezer a name, and then add any other descriptive information you would find useful regarding this freezer.  Then select Add New to create the first freezer section.  If your freezer structure is uniform throughout, you will only need to create one section for it.  A freezer section can have up to five subdivisions, select from a predefined list of subdivision names or add new names to the list. We’ll add Shelf to our list here.  For each subdivision, indicate if they are ordered numerically or alphabetically.  Indicate how many of each subdivision is in the freezer section.  Five shelves are in this freezer.  Each shelf has 10 racks, each rack has eight boxes, and each box has 81 positions.  Now, let's name the aliquot, for example, vial, bag, and cassette.  Each vial is given a unique position in the freezer and box.  Indicate here if the aliquot position uses one subdivision like position, or two, for example, row and column.  At Configuration Picture, check to see if Freezerworks accurately set your box graphic.  At View Configuration, we can check our freezer set up, 10 racks per shelf, eight boxes per rack, and 81 positions in each box.  Everything looks good, so let's press Save.  No more freezer sections needed. Our new freezer is complete.  Let's save and exit this option.  We now have two freezers, let's close this screen.  Consult your User’s Help Guide for more freezer setup examples.  

Creating Users – 06:05

Next step, create users.  Admin is the superuser and cannot be deleted.  He can, however, be renamed. There are three tabs in the Users screen: User, Preferences, and Access Level.  Let's add a new user, Joe.  Select the options Joe needs access to, Joe won't be allowed to delete records.  Let's save Joe and then cancel.  As you create users, you can place them into Groups who will share their own screens, views, freezers, and formats.  Let's put Joe in the Default Group.  When we add Joe to this group, he will share access to the same screens, views, freezers, and formats as other members in the group.  Double-click a user to add him to the group.  

User Defined Fields Configuration – 07:40

Next step, we’ll create User Defined Fields.  First, we'll show you how to create a customized auto-generated sample identifier for your lab.  We'll call it Sample ID.  Freezerworks will give each new sample record this unique ID number.  Sample ID will be a nine-digit number with an “H-” prefix.  Since this is a Sample Level field, we’ll associate it with Samples.  Your lab can also use the automatic system generated numbers, Freezerworks ID and Freezerworks Globally Unique ID.  Freezerworks assigns each sample these numbers automatically; we'll talk more about these IDs later.  Now, let's save this field and add a Sample Date.  Select Date for the Field Type.  Next, our Protocol field will include a list of acceptable protocol identifiers.  Let's create a list of protocols our lab is studying.  We do this at the Define Drop down List.  Here are two protocols.  UDFs can have default values.  At the Default Values tab, let's make protocol 1002 our default protocol.  Let's now add a Patient Identifier, which will make a six character field. Add Clinic, another field with a drop down list of acceptable entries.  Default values can be based on other UDFs.  Our default Clinic is North, unless Protocol is 9999, then make the Clinic Central.  

UDFs can belong to sample or aliquot records.  Let's store our types at the aliquot level.  We’ll create an aliquot field called Aliquot Type.  Our types will include Plasma, Serum, Urine, and DNA and we'll make it a required field.  Tool Tips give the user important data regarding a field when the user hovers over it with the cursor.  With Formatting, we can give each UDF value a color.  Let's do this for each of our Aliquot Types.  Now, we'll place our UDFs on a Sample Entry Screen and start entering samples.

Sample Entry Screen – 14:05

At Configure Layouts – Samples Entry, we’ll configure the Default Input screen.  Let's fill in that blank entry screen we saw earlier.  We add our sample fields by selecting Samples – Add Fields.  Let's give the screen a name at the top using Free Text.  Drag and drop the UDFs onto the screen template, sample fields at the top, aliquot fields down below.  To place aliquot fields on the screen go to Aliquots – Modify Page.  Now, select the aliquot fields you want displayed.  As you select them, you will see them appear on the aliquot record area below.  We want Freezer Position, Aliquot Type, the Unique Aliquot Identified or Freezerworks assigns each aliquot, and other aliquot field both UDF and system maintained.  Each field is sized to fit the maximum field length, but we can lengthen them further to see the entire field name.  The alignment tools will help straighten out our UDF.  Press Done and then Save the screen.  We can create multiple entry screens for multiple purposes here, and assign them to groups.  

Adding Samples – 17:35

We are now ready to enter samples.  Go to Sample Management – Add New Samples and here's what our data entry screen looks like now.  Notice that this record is being assigned a Freezerworks ID as well as a Globally Unique or GU sample ID.  The GU number is generated using your Freezerworks serial number to be completely unique.  This allows Freezerworks users to share data, yet maintain unique numbers.  Since this copy is a demo copy and was not assigned a serial number, the GU number is identical to the Freezerworks ID.  We also see that Sample ID, our customized lab auto-generated number, is assigned to this sample according to our specifications (which include an “H-” prefix).  The Protocol default is 1002 and the Clinic default is North, just as we set it up.  

Now, we'll assign aliquots to our sample.  The first three aliquots for this sample record will go into our DEMO freezer.  This is the Next Assignable Position or NAP, it's where we last stopped in this freezer section.  We can move it anywhere in the freezer we want to assign vials.  Freezerworks will display the box contents when we update the display.  These vials are Plasma.  Press Save.  The next free positions in the freezer are assigned to these aliquots.  Now the screen will clear to add more aliquots to the sample.  We’ll add two aliquots from this sample to another freezer.  Again, we can start where we last stopped at this freezer or move to another area.  Let's put the Serum from this sample in this freezer.  Our last aliquot is a Urine sample, we'll put it in Freezer 1.  When finished, press Cancel to return to the sample screen.  And here are our six aliquots for this sample.  

Notes on this sample can be added here.  As vials are moved out, enter Transactions records here.  You can indicate which aliquot was taken out, when, where it went, and why.   Let's save our record and then look at the Audit Trail.  All entries and modifications are tracked here for 21 CFR part 11 compliance.  Let's delete the aliquot we created the transaction for.  Highlight the vial and press Delete.  We’ll clear the position and keep the historical data.  The Audit Trail records our aliquot removal.  If aliquots are taken out and brought back to the freezer, we may want to check out the aliquot instead.  Change volumes, hold or clear positions, and create a Transaction.  An icon indicates checked out status.  Let's make a sub-aliquot of an aliquot.  Highlight the vial and select Sub-Aliquot.  Assign the Freezer Position and save.  Unique Aliquot IDs and Parent Aliquot IDs trace aliquot relationships.  To view the family tree of aliquot pedigree, select the Lineage tab.  To save a record and enter a new record, select Save & New.  Let's test our default values we set when the Protocol changes.  As we determined earlier, when the Protocol becomes 9999, the Clinic is defaulted to Central, like so.  

Explore Freezers – 24:54

Let's exit this screen by pressing Cancel.  This is our list view the list of samples we create.  We’ll dress it up later, but first, let's view our new aliquots from a freezer perspective.  Let's go to Explore Freezers.  Our freezers are displayed here, along with those freezer subdivisions that have aliquots in them.  Let's view the Box picture.  Double-click an aliquot to view the complete record.  The selected aliquot will be highlighted.  Here we can change the field displayed with each vial, for example, to Aliquot Type.  Vials can be color-coded based on any User Defined Field.  Set colors for the entire system at System Properties, or for any Freezer or Freezer Section at Configure Freezers – Location Defaults.  We are going to set our colors at the Freezer Section level here.  If the Aliquot Type is plasma, then the vial color will be red.  Let's refresh our display screen now.  Highlighted aliquots can have data displayed here, based on your configured layouts you create.  And you can manage all your aliquots in a box by a highlight and a right-click.  You can also add new samples and aliquots directly from this screen, highlight the empty cells you want to fill and press right-click.  Here's our new sample record with the seven aliquots we selected.  Here they are in the box.  Press Done to exit.

List View Configuration – 28:02

Let's improve on our list view to show more fields.  View Inventory – View All.  Currently, we only have the system maintained Freezerworks ID displayed here.  Go to System Admin – Configure Samples List View. Create as many list views as you need and assign them to groups.  Let's add some fields to our Default View.  Double-click in Available Fields to include them in your Selected Fields, and now let's create a new list view.  You now we have two different ways of viewing our samples listings.  The buttons on the left give you quick access to options for the samples you are viewing here, such as printing reports and lists or export to Excel.  Double-click on any row in a list view to see the entire record.

Conclusion – 30:20

We've done a quick setup in a half an hour, but there's much more to explore like a full suite of search options.  Batch features for heavy data entry and management tasks.  There's Import and Quality Control check on freezers.  Move Samples makes it easy to click and drag boxes and vials from freezer to freezer, highlight vials and then locations to move them to.  And there's also a full-featured Shipping module.