FIELD SAMPLING, WHEN
“CLOSE ENOUGH” ISN’T AN OPTION

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Work > Biosearch

Biosearch is a Belfast laboratory testing samples for hospitals, government bodies and industrial clients across water, food, agriculture and environmental sectors. When a sample is misattributed or arrives in unknown condition, it isn't just an admin problem. It can invalidate a result that someone is relying on to make a regulatory or clinical decision.

They came to us with more than 100 field samplers collecting data on paper, then re-keying it into the lab's systems back at base.

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THE PROBLEM

It looked like a paperwork problem. It wasn't.

The paper process was slow, but the real cost was downstream:

No Scalability

A growing client base meant the model didn't scale. More samplers meant more re-keying, more errors, more turnaround pressure.
Unshared Knowledge

Critical knowledge about how samples should be handled lived with the samplers, not in any system.
Flawed Intake

The lab couldn't see what was coming until it arrived. No way to prepare, no way to flag a defective sample before it had already moved through the chain.
Double Sampling

Every sample was logged twice. Once on paper in the field, once into the lab system back at base. The errors that crept in between were the kind that mattered.

What Biosearch needed wasn't a digital version of the paper form. They needed the lab to have eyes on the field, and the field to be guided by the lab's requirements, in real time.

WHAT WE BUILT

Three connected pieces, each built around how Biosearch actually operates:

01. A mobile app for field samplers (iOS and Android).

Samplers receive their assigned jobs, capture sample data against the right job, and submit from the site. The workflow is guided so it's harder to record something incorrectly. It works offline. Field sites don't always have signal and the work doesn't stop when they don't.
02. A web platform for Biosearch and their partner organisations.

Jobs are created and assigned in advance. The lab can see what's coming end-of-day, in what condition, and prepare accordingly. Partner organisations can track their own work without phoning in.
03. LIMS integration.

Sample data flows directly into the existing Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). Captured once, in the field, and trusted everywhere else it appears.

The integration was designed around Biosearch's existing data and compliance posture rather than
asking them to change it.

WHAT CHANGED

47,000+ samples and 58,369+ tests processed per month.

01.

15.5% productivity increase across the organisation.

02.

In under six months, the platform was live with 50+ partner organisations and 100+ samplers using it daily.

03.

Defective samples flagged before they reach the lab, not after.

04.

The lab can plan its day against the work that's actually coming in

The paper process is gone. More importantly, so is the gap between what the field knew and what the lab knew.

WHY IT WORKED

We started by trying to understand the business, not the brief. Before any code was written, we spent time on site with the people doing the work, learning where the day was lost, where the errors crept in, and where the operation was being held back from growing.

What Biosearch needed wasn't a vendor delivering an app. They needed a partner who would take the time to understand their operation properly, and who would still be there as that operation evolved. That meant building a platform that fits how the lab actually works, removes the time being spent on the wrong things, and gives Biosearch the room to scale without rebuilding the way they run.