Shipments and kits

Specimens collected at a site have to reach the central lab, and the sites need supplies to collect them in the first place. Both journeys are tracked as custody events, so the record answers “who had this, and when” across the handoff between organizations — not just within one freezer room.

Shipments: the custody handoff

A shipment moves a batch of specimens from one location to another through three recorded phases (requirement CoC-06, ADR-0007):

1. Pack — assemble the specimens into a shipment, with a carrier and optional tracking number.
2. Ship — mark it in transit; the specimens are now in a transfer state.
3. Receive — the destination confirms arrival.

Each phase writes a transfer custody event on every specimen in the batch, and the packing and receiving are separated: the sender and the receiver are distinct steps, so the chain shows an unbroken hand-to-hand transfer rather than a single unverified jump.

Collection kits

Kits run the same lifecycle in the other direction — outbound, empty containers sent to a site so it can collect specimens (ADR-0011):

• Assemble a kit with its contents (for example, 24 EDTA tubes),
• Ship it to a destination site,
• Deliver it, confirming arrival.

The kit carries an audited lifecycle from assembly to delivery, so a study coordinator can see which sites have collection supplies and when they arrived.

Note

Kit → collected-sample linkage and par-level kit inventory are not built yet — see the roadmap. Today a kit tracks the outbound container; the specimens collected into it are accessioned as their own records.