Case study — Hematology
Full blood counts, straight off the wire.
- Machine
- Nihon Kohden Celltac
- Connection
- Serial RS-232, ASTM handshake
- Client
- Hospital in Lusaka
- Year
- 2026
The problem
The full blood count is the busiest test in the lab. Every result the Celltac printed had to be retyped into the hospital management system, line by line, all day.
How we connected it
The Celltac transmits results over an RS-232 serial cable using the ASTM E1381 handshake. The receiver runs the full ENQ/ACK protocol with checksum verification and retry logic, then maps the analyzer's observation codes onto the HMS full blood count form.
A technician reviews each mapped result on screen and submits it to the patient's record.
Modest hardware
Installed on a desktop computer next to the analyzer, and can run on a device as small as a Raspberry Pi.
More than one analyzer per host
Labs with a second Celltac run a second receiver instance on the same machine.
Full protocol handling
ASTM E1381 handshake, checksums, and retries, so a noisy line never means a lost result.
Like every Tensai Health Receiver deployment, results are encrypted at rest, personal data is scrubbed from logs, every action lands in an audit trail, and data is purged after submission.
- ASTM
- RS-232
- Full Blood Count
- Linux / Raspberry Pi
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