It is possible that when installing or running the application for the first time an administrator permissions window or a firewall windows will pop up. You should not worry much about it, and just accept it since the application will need the permissions to connect to internet to write the necessary files on your hard disk.
To start the installation, you have to execute the ARIS_Setup file, which is the installer of the application, available in different languages (notice that this is different from the language of the application itself).
This will open a window where you can select the language of the installation instructions.
Simply choose the language you are most familiar with.
ARIS installer language selector
Once you select the language and click on the accept button, on the following screens you only have to click on the Next button. Notice that the Create a desktop shortcut is selected by default, we recommend selecting it.
Select Create a desktop shortcut for easy access to the application
The next step is to click on the install button in the next window. This will install all the necessary files for the application to function properly.
Click Install to start the application installation
If everything went well a final window will show a satisfactory message, as it can be observed in the following image. To finalize the installation press the Finish button of the window.
If you created a link in your desktop, just double-click it. Otherwise, go to the folder where you installed it (C:\Users\Public\ARIS by default in MSWindows) and double click ARIS.exe. The execution will open the ARIS services that will run in the background, you will find a new icon at the hide icon menu in the Operating system toolbar (typically on the bottom right of the screen). In addition, it will also open a new browser tab with the application running. Please be patient, this will take a while as the application needs to wait first for the services to start up in the background in order to work properly.
To guarantee the confidentiality of patients' data, ARIS will encrypt the database. Thus, the first time ARIS is started, an encryption key will be asked to the user. Notice that this key cannot be modified and needs to be kept in a safe place outside the laptop (necessary to restore a backup).
Window to enter the database encryption key
ARIS will require this encryption key every time the program is started. For this reason, the user will decide how to provide it: manually introduce it every time (only Admin and Supervisor will be able to do it) or store it in a file in the local disk (easier to manage, as anyone can start ARIS up, but hacking the database would be easy). Despite the choice, still remember keeping the encryption key in a safe place. Notice that in case of losing the encryption key, all data stored in the database will be lost.
On logging for the first time, a warning appears highlighting that there are no users in the system.
Hence, access is automatically granted and a new System Administrator is created with the provided username and password (any values are accepted at this stage and recorded for further use in the system). The username can not, but the password can be modified at any time.
Congratulations! you have successfully installed and executed the new ARIS application.
You should see a browser tab with the application running like this
As a first important note, the system has three different roles with different and complementary functionalities.
Consequently, the first necessary thing is to create two more users with the other two roles Laboratory Technician and Laboratory Supervisor.
Once the other two users are created, it is important to notice that the initial setting contains some real values for most of the features like laboratory areas or services, but not for other configurable lists of values like regions, locations or health facilities which only contain a fake exemplary instance.
This exemplary instances should be replaced by real ones before starting to introduce patients and requests in the system.
This should be done through the Configuration functionalities by the System Administrator and Laboratory supervisor.
ARIS allows other devices in the same network as the PC/laptop running the application to connect to the system and to work cooperatively.
However, ARIS executes by default on “localhost” (i.e., the computer you are currently using, which is a way to access services or resources on your own machine without going over a network), and thus not allowing other devices (even if they are in the same network) to connect to this address. In order to make ARIS available to your network through a WiFi Connection, you need to modify the IP address as in the instructions.
To upgrade the application you will only need an Internet connection. Once you are connected to the Internet, if there is a new version of ARIS, a pop-up window will appear the next time that you open the application showing three options asking you to update it. The behavior of these options is described below:
· Update now: This option will open a window with a progress bar and a button that you must press to start the update of the software, once this is updated (should take a few minutes), a message window will appear with a successful message, when you click on Accept the program will start with the last version.
· No (Defer for 30 days): If you click this option, the software will not be updated and no update message will appear until 30 days have passed.
· Remind me later: Clicking on this option will not update the software, but the next time you launch the system, the update message will appear again.
Close option when clicking on the ARIS icon to close services
When yo want to close the application you will need to follow two easy steps:
The first step is to close the browser tab where the application is running. This will only close the visual part of the application (i.e., opening again the browser and providing the same URL will still take you to the application), so be sure to execute the second step to actually interrupt the services running in the background.
In the second step you will need to right click on the ARIS icon located at the "hide icon menu" in the operating system toolbar, then click on close. This will finalize the services that were running on the background, it is important to finalize the services or otherwise you will not be able to reopen the application again (also this is the way to reset ARIS in case of any unstable behaviour).
The first step to work with ARIS, once the software is properly downloaded and installed (see Installation and Upgrades), the users have to create each an identity (username and password). Entering these both credentials will allow the access to the software and the screen will show now the main page of the system.
If the username or password is incorrect, a red information box will pop up above the log in now button.
It is crucial to remember that the system has three different roles with different and complementary functionalities.
Consequently, at least three users need to exist, one with each different role System Administrator, Laboratory Technician and Laboratory Supervisor.
Since the interface is through a browser, we have all of its typical features.
Among others saving usernames and passwords (some browsers even do it by default).
Notice that in this case, this is not a good practice and should be avoided.
The sidebar contains information about the user's account and is a tool to navigate between the different functionalities of the system.
At the very top of the orange sidebar, the software's name is displayed in a bold white font.
Just below the title, there is a small box that informs the user of the account currently in use, by means of the user's name and role corresponding to this username.
Underneath, there is a list of the different functionalities listed below.
User administration and edition of software parameters.
System information
Software license, version and credits.
Most of these functionalities have subsets of actions that can be accessed through the small downward arrow to the right of the name. To change between actions, simply click on the desired functionality and the display will change.
This downward arrow is present when there is a menu with different options to choose from. The user can filter the options by typing out normally in the box. The options displayed can be manipulated through the Configuration functionality.
Asterisk
The red asterisk represents a mandatory field. In other words, if a box contains an asterisk, it must be filled in order to keep doing the desired task. The current action in progress will not conclude until all the corresponding fields are filled.
Delete
This button is generally found in the Configuration functionality. It allows the user to delete predefined instances of the different concepts, such as the regions or locations available in the creation of patients. There are exceptions to this action, the instances of some concepts are not deletable. For example, it is not possible to delete patients, requests or users.
Editing
In general, there is not any icon associated to the edition of elements. By simply clinking on the corresponding row, its details are displayed. These are then editable, except in the case of patients, that are read-only until a button to enable modifications is pressed.
The exception to this rule is the details of a test. In this case, this icon corresponds to the possibility of showing and potentially changing the results and notes of the test, as well as more information about the corresponding sample. This happens in the Analytical tests tab reached through either Introduce results, Validate results or Historical requests.
Search bar
There is a search box at the top of most of the forms that contain tables with lists of elements, like the search patients or create requests tabs. This search box allows the user to filter by different fields like name, phone, health facility ID, creation date or last modification date. To choose one of these, the user must click on the downwards arrow found to the right of search field and pick the desired field (this possibility is not available if the table contains only one column to be searched). Once the field is chosen, the user can type out the information corresponding to the search field in the box on the left.
There is a system parameter that establishes the minimum number of elements required for the search box to be shown (i.e., tables with a small number of elements may not require a search functionality).
Locked item
This icon appears attached to elements of a list that cannot be directly selected or deselected. This happens with groups of tests or profiles. Thus, choosing a group of tests does not allow removing any of its components, as they are an indivisible set.
The language in use is displayed in the top right corner of the page, the user is able to change it depending on their preference by clicking on the text and choosing the language desired. There are currently two options of language for the system; English and Spanish.
Profile
When clicking on this icon, found in the top right corner of the page, two options will show up. The first, is the log-out option, when pressing on this option, the page will change to the log in page, through which the user will be able to change the account they are using. The second icon, called change password, when clicked will produce a pop-up window where the user might change their password.
Change password
There are two ways of changing the password associated with the username:
The password can be changed by the user. All they have to do is press on the profile icon, click on change password, and a screen will come up with the title Change password. Next, the user must just fill in the required boxes with their current password, their desired password and, finally, confirm their new password.
Another method to change the password would involve accessing the system administration functionality and going to the users tab. Once in this tab, the administrator can choose any other user, and click on edit user. Then, at the bottom of the page, the administrator can find two non-obligatory fields named password and repeat password. These must be filled in order to change the password.
Bluetooth (not visible by default)
By default, this icon is hidden, because most laboratories are not going to use this functionality (only those participating in the IMAGING project).
To make it visible, the value of the corresponding system parameter needs to be modified.
For this, a System Administrator needs to log in and go to Parameters.
There, they need to set 'bluetooth_enabler' to Enable.
This will make the icon visible to all 'Laboratory Technicians'.
When a Laboratory Technician clicks this icon, the system will enable the Bluetooth connection of the system, and the users will be able to connect their mobile device to ARIS. This capability is used to transfer images from the Mobile App in case of automatic tests. When Bluetooth is active, the icon will turn orange. From the moment the icon is orange, all the behaviour is managed from the Mobile App (i.e., from ARIS interface, you can only enable or disable the Bluetooth and everything happens in the background). On clicking again, the feature will be disabled and the icon will be grey.
The basic information unit is the patient.
Before creating any analytical request, the corresponding patient record must exist.
This will survive the livespan of the request, and will contain all their history.
This page is divided in a form with the basic information of the patient, involving the obligatory () entry of the name, last name, gender, birth date and phone, as well as multiple tabs with additional non-mandatory information.
Documentation information → Information such as the number of clinical history or the type and number of an identifier card.
Birth information → Complementary information such as the birth region and locality. Added to the previously introduced birth date and the automatically calculated age of the patient.
Contact information → Additional contact information.
Residency information → Apart from the basic residency information, it contains a checkbox at the bottom, Add provenance region?. This option is for when a patient, although local, has come from outside the country. When the box is ticked, two more boxes appear on the forms, Provenance region and Provenance city.
Extra information → Other data such as parent's names. The Reserved 1, 2 and 3 are boxes whose names can be modified through the System administration if the laboratory requires any specific information from the patients.
Requests → This actually not a step in the creation or update of the patient, but just a read-only tab containing all the requests of the patient.
Once the mandatory information is entered, the Save values button at the bottom right of the page will be available.
The patient's contact number is listed in this column
Here, the internal, automatically generated identification number can be found
This column informs about when the patient's information was first inputted into the system
The last time the patient's information was altered in the system is shown here
Arrows appear next to each heading in the table when the mouse is hovered over them to manipulate the order the information is showed in for each heading.
On clicking on any row, a new form will appear with the age, gender, phone and internal identifier of the patient as well as tabs with the information on the patient's documentation information, birth information, contact information, residency information, extra information and requests. From this page, the patient manager or laboratory technician can also edit the patient through the edit patient button at the bottom right of the page. To return to the search patients page, there is a Return button at the bottom left of the screen.
Notice that to avoid inconsistences in the system, patients once created cannot be deleted.
The e-mail address as well as the Identifier document number are optional. Nevertheless, if provided, they identify a patient (i.e., they do not allow repetitions).
Besides this, to guarantee the existence of an identifier for each patient, a consecutive number is always automatically generated and internally assigned by the system.
Moreover, patients of similar name, parent names, age and telephone number are detected as potential duplicates at creation time.
On happening this, a warning is displayed, and the patient manager or laboratory technician can either modify the corresponding data or move ahead with the creation.
Notice that two patients are not considered similar (i.e., they are considered different) if either:
Their age difference is greater than ten years, or
Their name is different enough (more than 50% characters), or
Their parent names are provided and at least one of them is different enough (more than 30% characters differ considering the three names together), or
Their telephone numbers are different enough (more than 50% of the digits).
Requests are the most important entities in ARIS, whose main purpose is to manage them.
They are always associated to a given patient, who must have been created before hand.
During their lifespan, requests go through some different states that determine the functionalities offered for them in the system.
These states are depicted in the diagram, and their labels are modifaiable and configurable at State of the request.
On creation, the state of the request is Registered, and allows to provide the basic information, as well as associate different tests to it.
After indicating that some of the samples have been delivered, the state changes to Processing and the data of the request cannot be modified anymore.
Other samples can be delivered later, but at this point, results can be provided for the tests whose sample was already delivered.
Once all non-cancelled tests have a result, the state of the request changes to WithResults.
At this state, results can still be modified, but they are expected to be eventually validated.
A request with all its non-cancelled tests being validated is considered Validated.
At any time, a request, its samples or its tests can be cancelled.
A sample with all its tests cancelled is considered cancelled, and a request with all samples cancelled is considered cancelled, too.
During the lifespan of a request, it is available to all the laboratory technicians, except for the validation, which can only be done by a laboratory supervisor or a specially authorized laboratory technician.
This form is divided into tabs. The tab the laboratory technician is on is indicated by the label of the tab turning orange. Above, it can be found the Requesting centre mandatory field, alongside with the additional Requesting unit field and the Urgent checkbox. To create a request, the following steps must be executed:
Select a patient → The first tab involves searching and selecting a patient. The search grid can be narrowed down with the search field. Once a patient is selected, the main and important information about this patient will be displayed at the bottom of the form in a table. Until the patient has been selected, the laboratory technician cannot save the new request.
Analytical tests → In this tab, the laboratory technician must choose which tests are requested and required for the patient. Groups and profiles will appear in case the proper parameter is enabled. More than one element from each list may be chosen, but at least one test must be requested one way or another. Tests selected as part of a group or profile (highlighted in purple) cannot be deselected individually.
Biological samples → This tab informs the laboratory technician of the type of sample that must be taken, depending on the tests chosen in the previous tab. There are no required fields in this tab, but if the laboratory technician wants to add a comment, there is a comment box for each sample.
Basic information → In this tab, other optional fields are provided like physician, the room or bed of the patient. Additional information like a diagnostic orientation or the pregnancy status can also be indicated.
At any moment, the Save values button cannot be used if any of the required fields is not filled in.
This form is for editing requests whose samples were not yet delivered.
Clicking on any part of the row will bring the laboratory technician to a form similar to the create one, with all of its tabs and similar format and behavior.
Similarly to the previous form, this also displays a list of either Registered or Processing requests, for the laboratory technician to choose one of them.
Deliver samples form
Once a request is chosen, five tabs are shown. The patient's data, potentially analytical tests already done in this request, its list of biological samples, the request data, and tests in previous requests.
Just the biological samples allows some interaction. The other ones are read-only (if enabled at all).
Each of the samples shown contains a field to provide comments, and it can be either checked as delivered or cancelled by click the corresponding red button.
On the delivering of a sample, its origin or incident can be optionally provided.
On cancelling, a pop-up dialogue allows, providing some justification for this.
It is important to notice that the tests associated to the request cannot be changed once the first sample as been delivered.
As in the previous cases, a list of requests is shown.
In this case, this list contains all requests in Processing state.
Clicking the corresponding button at the bottom, it is possible to download a worklist with all pending tests in these requests, to work on them off-line.
Form to Introduce Results
Once the laboratory technician has chosen a request, five tabs are shown with the patient's data, its list of analytical tests, its list of biological samples, other request data, and potentially previous tests of the same patient.
Just the analytical tests allows some interaction. The other ones are read-only.
Besides the same search box present in all the tables in the system, there is also the possibility of filtering the tests by group of tests (if any was chosen for this request).
A red button in the top right corner allows cancelling the request.
The table of tests contains the following columns:
Name → Shows the name and the code of the kind of test. It is coloured red if either the test or its sample was cancelled.
Result → Allows to introduce the result of the test.
Generic test note → Shows the informative note associated to the kind of test, if any.
Result within range → Indicates whether the result of the test is in the expected range of values for the kind of test (green check) or not (red cross).
Referred → Indicates whether the test is done or expected to be done in another laboratory (green check) or not (red cross).
Automatic (not visible by default) → Indicates whether the test is done or expected to be done automatically (green check) or not (red cross). Automatic tests are done by means of the Robotized microscope and the Mobile App. Their results should not be typed manually, but uploaded through Bluetooth. This feature is enabled through the corresponding system parameter. If enabled, the field is editable here to allow overwriting the automatic results.
The test has some note → Indicates whether the test has some associated note (green check) or not (red cross).
Test details → This should show an icon to navigate to further details of the test. However, if the test or its corresponding sample was cancelled, the corresponding message in red will be shown.
Cancel test → Icon to cancel the test. If the test is cancelled. A red cancelled label appears.
Test details
On the laboratory technician accessing the details of the test, we gain access to visualize many other things (i.e., units of the result, inferior reference measure, superior reference measure, the user who introduced the results, as well as details provided for the corresponding sample on delivering it).
Moreover, this also allows changing if the test is automatic or deferred, indicate some incidence on the sample, or provide some note (notice that the content of this note will be visible to the patient in the report of the request).
It is important to notice that any of the information provided in this form will not be persisted in the disk until back in the list and saved from there.
If the result of the test was provided automatically (which is not enabled by default and only available in the context of the IMAGING project), the corresponding image and its associated note will be shown at the bottom of the details of the test.
This functionality, available only to the laboratory supervisor or a laboratory technician authorized to validate, uses exactly the same interface as introducing results, but the table shows one more column, Validated, with a checkbox for each test.
These can be checked one by one, or all at once, by choosing a concrete group of tests in the dropbox at the top.
On doing the latter, a button to check all the tests of the group will appear.
Besides doing it in the list, the results can be overwritten and the test validated from the details of the test.
Together with displaying all the information related to the test in read-only mode, the corresponding form also offers the possibility of adding a note to the test, as well as changing whether the test is automatic/referred or not, cancelling the test or the whole request.
It is important to notice that the tests will not be really validated until the bottom right button is pressed to save the changes.
This functionality, available to both laboratory technician and supervisor allows to see any request in the history of the laboratory.
They can be filtered out by the state and the date of the request.
By clicking on the corresponding row, all the details of the request can be visualized.
At the bottom left of this form, there are two download buttons.
Clicking any of them will generate and download the corresponding file (i.e., CSV or ZIP).
The checkboxes in the Downloaded fields tab indicate which fields will be included in each of these files.
Moreover, the ZIP file is password protected.
The password used is indicated by the system parameter zip_password, whose value can be seen and modified from Parameters tab.
Additionally, the field separator and decimal characters used in the CSV file can also be configured in the same tab.
Some extra text ...
This provides a very basic analytical functionality based on counters.
It basically allows the laboratory supervisor to keep track of the number of tests performed (potentially grouped) and some basic elements related to the requests.
This form contains a filter at the top of the screen, which allows the laboratory supervisor to choose the parameter for the database search.
There are nine filter fields available, at most (only those being used in the existing requests are shown).
From (request's creation date): the data taken will only contain requests created after this date.
Until (request's creation date): the data taken will only contain requests created before this date.
Test request state
Laboratory area
Requesting centre
Requesting unit
Patient's gender
Patient's provenance region
Patient's provenance location
Not all filters are always visible. If the ARIS database does not contain values for a specific element, the filter for this element will not be shown to the laboratory supervisor.
This tab groups together all the tests that belong to each laboratory area and shows the laboratory supervisor the number of each one.
At the bottom left of this tab, there is a download button. When clicked, this button will download every piece of information found in the screen into the laboratory supervisor's computer.
This tab groups together all the kinds of tests and shows the laboratory supervisor the number of each one. It also informs the laboratory supervisor as to which laboratory area each kind of test belongs to.
At the bottom left of this tab, there is a download button. When clicked, this button will download every piece of information found in the screen into the laboratory supervisor's computer.
This tab groups together all the tests that belong to each gender and shows the laboratory supervisor the number of each one.
At the bottom left of this tab, there is a download button. When clicked, this button will download every piece of information found in the screen into the laboratory supervisor's computer.
The configuration functionality allows the user to manipulate ARIS, adding or changing some of its aspects for a better customization.
These have been divided into two groups, depending on the knowledge needed to use them.
The first group is absolutely generic and both laboratory supervisor and system administrator should be able to provide the required information.
However, for the second group, more specific biomedical knowledge will be needed, and consequently only the laboratory supervisor is allowed to do it.
This form controls the values of all non-free text fields (i.e., those that appear when clicking on an arrow) within the system. Through each tab, the user is able to create, edit and delete the values of one of these fields.
If the laboratory is not interested in one of the values, but the user does not wish to delete the information from the system, it can be simply disabled, so it will not be shown in the corresponding drop-down menu. This is done by unticking the Active checkbox.
This is a very important feature, since deleting some configuration value will produce a cascade effect that will delete all other configuration records pointing to the deleted one (e.g., deleting a region will delete all its locations).
Patients or requests will not be deleted, but the corresponding information will not be displayed any more (e.g., after deleting a region, this information in the patient will become empty). ⇔
List of tabs:
Regions (initially empty)
Locations (initially empty)
Units
Health Facilities (initially empty)
Physicians (initially empty)
Gender
Identification cards
State of the request
Some of them also include hierarchical information. Thus, physicians point to health facilities, health facilities point to locations and these to regions. This information is used in the forms to show the right available values depending on the parent choice in the hierarchy.
From the state of the request tab, only the label field can be edited. Notice that this indicates the different phases a request goes through in the application during its lifecycle, and not only a passive value to be stored.
The Laboratory areas, Kinds of sample, Sample incidents, Sample origins and Pregnancy phases tabs, have exactly the same effect as the ones under the generic configuration (i.e., they simply provide the available values in drop boxes).
However, the following tabs have further effects in the behaviour of the forms.
This is without doubt the most crucial concept in the configuration, since it defines the available kinds of tests in the laboratory.
They are identified by a name, but also contain a code that will always be shown next to the name.
To facilitate the management of the laboratory, kinds of tests are assigned to a laboratory area, which will be used both in the generation of reports for the patients, and in the analysis of data regarding the performance of the laboratory itself.
Each kind of test is then related to a kind of sample.
Only after that kind of sample is provided by the patient, the corresponding test will be allowed to have an associated result.
Each test must have a datatype, which indicates the kind of result it will accept, this being either numerical (integer or real) or enumerate.
For numerical test results, units of the test can be indicated for informative purposes, together with upper and lower bounds of the result can be defined.
These will be automatically checked.
Only results within the declared boundaries will get a green tick next to them.
Those outside the boundaries will be detected and automatically marked with a red cross.
Validating the value will rely anyway on the laboratory supervisor.
However, a note can be provided here to indicate exceptions to the boundaries or any information that is considered relevant to either the technician or the supervisor.
Finally, there are two specific boolean fields:
Referred → Indicates that an action or test is performed in another hospital. The option marked in the configuration only determines the default of this field for each test. It does not impede the laboratory supervisor from choosing differently in the Requests forms.
Automatic → Enables the kind of test to be partially automated. The result of the test is not manually obtained by a person, but by an AI. If this option is disabled in the configuration, the laboratory supervisor will not be able to mark it otherwise in the Requests forms. However, if it is enabled, the laboratory supervisor will be able to choose if they desire for the test to be done automatically or not in the Requests forms.
In this tab, groups of tests can be formed for a quicker selection when choosing which tests to perform on a patient. When creating or editing a new group, a Group Of Tests Information form must be filled in or modified. In this form, the group must be given a name and the laboratory supervisor must choose the tests included in the group from the box provided. In the left-hand side list, the groups are in alphabetical order and if the laboratory supervisor wishes for a quicker option, there is a search bar on top of the box to write down and filter the tests.
Simply clicking on the name of a test adds it to the group, hence appearing in the right-hand side list.
The analytical tests groups are also used to sort the tests in the generated report of a request.
In this tab, profiles of tests can be formed for a quicker selection when choosing which groups of tests or individual tests to perform on a patient.
When creating or editing a new profile, an Analytical Profile Information form must be filled in or modified.
In this form, the profile must be given a name and the laboratory supervisor must choose the tests and the groups included in the profile from the lists provided.
The groups and tests are in alphabetical order and if the laboratory supervisor wishes for a quicker option, there is a search bar on top of the box to write down and filter the tests and groups.
Choosing a group selects in the corresponding list all the tests belonging to it.
Then, these cannot be individually removed from the profile, but only by removing the group.
Moreover, a test added later to the group will automatically appear as part of any profile containing that group, which is indicated by a lock icon next to the test name.
Analytical profiles do not have any effect in the report generated for a request.
Enumerate datatypes can be defined here (integer and real numbers are always available).
These are simply lists of potential results that can be used in any kind of test.
The order of the values later in the dropdown lists will not be alphabetical, but their order of insertion in the value list (this can be useful to fix an order, if there are many values).
Editing the laboratory areas order from the reporting areas tab
This tab allows ordering the elements in the PDF worklist and in the report of a request.
The tests appearing in them will be firstly sorted by laboratory area, then groups of tests, and finally individual tests.
This is done by choosing one of the three elements, which will lead to another form with a list and two vertical arrows on the left side of the image.
Any number of elements can be simultaneously selected by simply clicking on them.
Then, the arrows will allow moving them up or down in the list, and hence in the generated PDF documents.
This groups all knobs that allow to manage and adapt the behavior of ARIS to the needs of the laboratory and user preferences.
They are grouped in two to facilitate their access.
The first one is more generic and allows both laboratory supervisor and system administration to access some basic stuff.
The second one is only available to the system administrator, since it is considered to require more advance technological skills.
When clicking on the edit or New user buttons, a form pops up on the screen. The information necessary to create a user consists of a Username, Name, Middle name, password and the person's Role within the system.
This Role will determine the functionalities available to the user.
A note, without any effect in the behaviour of the application, can be added to indicate any relevant information to the system administrator.
This same form allows the system administrator to modify the password of any other user.
For security reasons, this password must contain some number, some capital letter, some small letter, and at least eight characters.
Since they are used for auditing changes in patients and requests, the users cannot be deleted from the system.
However, they can be declared not to be active, which would prevent them from logging in, but still keep track in the database of all their past actions.
The access log shows the user which user has done an action within the system and exactly when. The timestamp is in the format Year-Month-Day Hour:Minute:Second
Example of access log
There are three actions recorded by the access log, successful log in, wrong user and failed log in. This last action refers to the wrong password being used.
ARIS allows the laboratory supervisor to download all the information in the database into a single file in their computer.
There are two possible download options, depending on the format of the generated file being plain CSV or compressed and password-protected ZIP.
These documents will contain information on the requests, and by extension, on the corresponding patients.
Thus, due to patient confidentiality, not all the personal data should be in the downloaded file.
The checkboxes in this form allow the laboratory supervisor as well as the system administrator to decide which fields will be downloaded in each one of the formats.
Additionally, the system provides two configuration parameters to customize the structure of the CSV file: csv_delimiter, which defines the character used to separate data fields in the CSV file, and csv_decimal, which specifies the character used to represent decimal values in numerical fields. It is essential to configure these parameters according to the settings used by the system and the spreadsheet software (e.g Excel) to ensure proper data interpretation. Using an incorrect delimiter or decimal separator may result in formatting issues when opening the file.
This tab displays information about the different existing instances in the application.
Some examples are: the number of patients, users, requests or genders.
This information comes directly from the database and is automatically updated after every modification in the system.
It can be useful to investigate potential performance problems in case of extremely large numbers.
To facilitate the reading and identification of the different kinds of instances, the information is divided into three sections: Data, Administration and Configuration.
This tab is displayed and works, in the same way as the State of the request tab in the Configuration functionality.
The roles are unchangeable, but their labels (not the corresponding functionality) can be customized.
Each role has different actions allowed within the application, chosen due to the tasks the people are expected to carry out.
Thus, there are five roles within the system, which indicate the functionalities that a user can perform, as can be seen in the following table.
Parameters determine the behaviour of some functionalities.
Thus, they cannot be created or deleted.
However, their values can be updated to customize the system.
At this point it is important to highlight the on updating them, the data type must be respected.
Providing a value of the wrong data type (e.g., a string instead of an integer) can provoke the malfunction of the whole application.
The following table contains the list of existing parameters together with the corresponding data type and a brief description.
System parameters
Name
Data type
Description
attribute_reserved1
String
Label of the first field of free use in the requests (write 'DoNotShow' to hide it)
attribute_reserved2
String
Label of the second field of free use in the requests (write 'DoNotShow' to hide it)
attribute_reserved3
String
Label of the third field of free use in the requests (write 'DoNotShow' to hide it)
backup_frequency
Integer
Minimum amount of hours that need to pass for the system to generate a new copy of the database
backup_history
Integer
Maximum number of copies of the database kept (once reached, the oldest copy in the folder is deleted)
bluetooth_enabler
String
Indicates the availability of automatic tests through Bluetooth connection (accepted values are 'Enabled' and 'Disabled'), which is only used in the IMAGING project
csv_decimal
String
Specifies the character used to represent the decimal point in numerical values in the generated csv file (accepted values are . and ,)
csv_delimiter
String
Specifies the character used to separate fields in the generated csv file (accepted values are ; and ,)
default_language
String
Language set by default on logging in (the same for all users)
filename_background
String
File containing the image displayed in the background
filename_favicon
String
Icon of the system used in the browser tab
filename_sidebarlogo
String
File containing the logo displayed at the bottom of the sidebar
filename_worklistlogo
String
Logo used in the worklist reports
groups_profiles
String
Shows groups and profiles for analytical tests (accepted values are 'Enabled' and 'Disabled')
log_history
Integer
Maximum number of days to keep registries in the access log (those older than this will be automatically deleted)
max_image_volume
Integer
Maximum number of megabytes used to store images (once reached, the oldest ones in the folder are deleted)
name
String
Caption to appear at the top of the screen (in the navigation bar), as well as in the worklist and reports
report_subtitle
String
Subtitle to be used in the worklist and reports
table_default_paging
Integer
This indicates the initial paging of all the tables (accepted values are 5, 10 or 25)
table_min_rows_for_search
Integer
This is the minimum number of rows a table must have to show the corresponding search field
timeout
Integer
Time (in minutes) after which the connection to the backend requires a new log in
version
String
Version of the system
zip_password
String
This is the password that will be used to generate the downloaded zip file
ARIS provides a powerful and simple mechanism to keep data safe.
Thus, in case of disk failure they can be easily recovered.
However, is it crucial to remember that this mechanism is absolutely useless if the backup is not regularly extracted from the hard drive of the computer to a safe external storage device. This is the responsibility of the system administrator.
The backup process for ARIS application involves regularly creating backups of the application's database to ensure data safety and the ability to restore the system in case of any issues. Notice that the database is encrypted, so the encryption key will be necessary to restore it (this was set during Initial configuration). Here is a step-by-step guide on how the the backup is performed and how to customize it:
1. Access technical administration page: Log in to the application as an administrator and go to the Technical Administration section, then find the parameters tab. This section provides access to the backup-related parameters and settings.
2. Set Backup Frequency: In the parameters tab, locate the backup_frequency parameter. This parameter determines how often the backups will be created. Modify this parameter according to your requirements. For example, if you set it to "6", a backup will be created every six hours. By default it will be set as 23 so it will create a backup daily.
3. Set Backup History: Locate the backup_history parameter in the same tab. This parameter defines the number of backups to retain. Modify this parameter to specify how many backups you want to keep. For instance, if you set it to "5", the system will retain the most recent five backups. By default the parameter is set to three, so the system will only preserve the three most recent backups.
Parameters of backup settings inside the parameters tab
4. Find the Backup Folder: The backup files will be stored in the ARIS/Backend/Database/Backups folder. Here you will find all the backup files with the creation date as name.
Backup folder with three backup files
The backup process will be done automatic, you just need to modify, if you see it necessary, the parameters presented above. Every time ARIS is launched, it will generate a backup depending on the backup_frecuency parameter and keep as many in the hard drive as the backup_history parameter indicates. During this process, you will be asked if you would like to create a copy of the backup in an external device (a.k.a USB drive), which recommended for safety reasons; if accepted, you will then need to choose the folder where the copy will be stored.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: You should realize that creating backups is absolutely useless if you do not regularly copy them out of your machine (e.g., to a USB). Also, the encryption key should be kept somewhere else to be able to restore the database, since the backup will not be accessible without it.
1. Locate the last available backup: You should have extracted it to some external storage device, but if the hard disk didn't fail, you will find it in the backup folder C:/Users/Public/ARIS/Backend/Database/Backups (by default).
2. Delete Existing Database: Ensure that the "sql_app.db" file in the Database folder is either deleted or moved out of the folder. This step ensures that the restored backup will replace the existing database.
sql_app.db file at the end of the folder
3. Locate the Desired Backup: In the Backup folder (ARIS/Backend/Database/Backups), locate the backup file you want to restore (filename indicates the date with format yymmddhhmmss.db). Choose the most recent backup or the one that suits your needs.
4. Copy Backup File: Copy the selected backup file.
5. Paste and Rename: Paste the copied backup file into the Database folder. Rename the backup file to sql_app.db. This step ensures that the restored backup file becomes the active database file for the application.
6. Restart ARIS
By following these steps, you can perform regular backups of your application's database and restore the system using any of the previously created backup files. It is important to review and update the backup_frequency and backup_history parameters in the Technical Administration section to align with your data retention and backup requirements.
7. Provide encryption key
Since the backup was encrypted, you should provide the corresponding encryption key, which was created during the Initial configuration.
) entry of the name, last name, gender, birth date and phone, as well as multiple tabs with additional non-mandatory information.
⇔ 
