Automatic calibration of laboratory instruments

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having executable instructions stored thereon, that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

• retrieving, from a data structure, a plurality of sets of past quality control parameters,
• wherein each set comprises a timestamp and either (i) an output value or a past calibration factor and a recovered value equal to an output value adjusted by the past calibration factor;
• responsive to determining that (i) a number of the plurality of sets is greater than a threshold and that the timestamp of each set is within a time threshold:
• calculating a representative value of either (i) the output values or the recovered values,
• accessing an expected value, and
• calculating a calibration factor such that an application of the calibration factor to the representative value equals the expected value;
• and
• updating the data structure with the calibration factor.

A method for calibrating a module of a laboratory instrument, the method comprising:

• retrieving, from a data structure, a plurality of sets of past quality control parameters, wherein each set comprises a timestamp and either (i) an output value or a past calibration factor and a recovered value equal to an output value adjusted by the past calibration factor;
• responsive to determining that (i) a number of the plurality of sets is greater than a threshold and that the timestamp of each set is within a time threshold:
• calculating a representative value of either (i) the output values or the recovered values,
• accessing an expected value, and
• calculating an updated calibration factor such that an application of the calibration factor to the representative value equals the expected value;
• updating the data structure with the calibration factor;
• and
• performing a quality control test using the updated calibration factor.