Case study — Electrolytes
Electrolytes over Ethernet, handled as serial.
- Machine
- EXIAS Electrolytes
- Connection
- ASTM over Ethernet, via virtual COM port
- Client
- Hospital in Lusaka
- Year
- 2026
The problem
The EXIAS measures the electrolyte panel: sodium, potassium, chloride, and ionized calcium. Unlike the older analyzers it transmits over the network, but its results were still ending up on paper and being retyped.
How we connected it
The EXIAS streams ASTM messages over Ethernet. A virtual COM driver on the host presents that network stream as an ordinary serial port, and the receiver listens and parses each transmission as it arrives, feeding the same pipeline as the serial analyzers.
A catalog file maps the analyzer's test mnemonics onto the HMS electrolytes form. Adding a future test type is a catalog edit, not new code.
One pipeline, two transports
Network and serial analyzers flow through the same review and submission path.
Catalog-driven mapping
Test names and aliases live in a config file the lab can extend without a developer.
Isolated by design
Runs as its own instance on its own machine, sharing nothing with other analyzers.
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
- Ethernet
- Virtual COM
- Electrolytes
- Windows
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