Laser-Scatter Measurement Instrument For Organism Detection And Related Network

A network for collecting and using biological data related to pathogen within fluid samples, comprising:

• a plurality of instruments that are at remote locations, each of the plurality of instruments for testing a forward-scatter signal that is used to determine the presence of a pathogen in a fluid sample from a patient;
• a first database for storing a set of raw test data for each fluid sample from the plurality of instruments, each set of raw test data being stored in a manner that is indexed to a test sample ID, the first database lacking any private patient information;
• a second database for storing an event record that associates the test sample ID and a patient ID;
• a report-generator software module that accesses information from the first database and the second database to develop a test report for each patient;
• and
• a data-mining software module that accesses information from only the first database to determine or predict trends from the raw test data.

A network for collecting and using biological data related to pathogen within fluid samples, comprising:

• a plurality of instruments that are at remote locations, each of the plurality of instruments for testing a forward-scatter signal that is used to determine the presence of a pathogen in a fluid sample from a patient;
• a first database for storing a set of raw test data for each fluid sample from the plurality of instruments, each set of raw test data being stored in a manner that lacks private patient information;
• and
• a data-mining software module that accesses information from only the first database to determine or predict trends from the raw test data related to at least one of the group consisting of:
• (i) an indication of or a detection of an emergence of one or more incidents of infection from the pathogen in any healthcare site or geographic region, (ii) an indication of or a detection of a certain type of pathogen in a certain geographical region has become or may be becoming resistant to a certain antibiotic, (iii) an indication of or a detection of a certain type of pathogen in a certain hospital or care unit has become or may be becoming resistant to a certain antibiotic, and (iv) an indication of or a detection of the susceptibility or resistance of the pathogen to an antimicrobial agent, molecule, or combination or sequence of exposure of antimicrobial agent or molecule with or without the active involvement of the proximate healthcare providers or clinical microbiologist.

An optical measurement system for use in detecting of a pathogen within a fluid sample, comprising:

• a light source for producing an input beam;
• a removable cuvette assembly for receiving the fluid sample, the cuvette assembly having an input window for receiving the input beam and an output window, the cuvette assembly remaining in a fixed position within the system during operation;
• a sensor located outside the removable cuvette assembly for receiving a forward-scatter signal exiting from the output window, the forward-scatter signal being caused by the input beam passing through the fluid sample containing the pathogen;
• a heating system that permits a controlled incubation temperature for the fluid sample;
• and
• a moveable optical bench undergoing translational movement, the light source and the sensor being mounted on the movable optical bench, the translational movement of the optical bench permitting the fluid sample within the cuvette assembly to be placed into a path of the input beam such that the sensor receives multiple forward-scatter signals for the fluid sample over a period of time.