2022.07.31 03:28
analogy about blood and urine tests
A long time ago, I started - and didn't finish - writing an analogy about blood and urine tests. Here it is:
Imagine a blood test lab working like this. A patient would come in and bring a blood sample. Because, let's imagine, every patient would take their own blood sample at home using a single-use lancet bought at a pharmacy. The lab staff (called technicians or analysts) would start doing the tests while the patient sits and waits for the results. The analysis could take various amounts of time - sometimes a few minutes, sometimes even several hours - and the patient would wait. The patient - let's imagine - can't leave the lab during this time, because if the analyst finishes analyzing the sample and the patient isn't there, the analyst will throw the results away. This doesn't mean that in the meantime, no one else can get their blood tested. The lab has many rooms, each with an analyst working, and if one analyst is busy, you can go to another.
A urine test lab would work similarly - let's imagine.
Let's also imagine that there's an office that issues temporary (valid for 60 days) work permits for special conditions. To get such a permit, you need to have blood and urine test results. This office - let's imagine - works like this. The applicant has to come in with the blood and urine test results, fill out an application, attach the results to the application, and give it to the clerk. The clerk reviews the application while the applicant sits and waits. When the clerk has finished reviewing the application (which takes various amounts of time - from a few minutes to several hours), the clerk gives the permit to the applicant, who can then go home. The applicant - let's imagine - can't leave the office during this time, because if the clerk finishes reviewing the application and the applicant isn't there, the clerk will throw the permit away. This doesn't mean that in the meantime, no one else can get a permit. The office has many rooms, each with a clerk working, and if one clerk is busy, you can go to another.
So, the whole process of getting this permit looks like this. A person takes their own blood and urine samples at home. They go to the blood test lab with the blood sample and wait. When they get the result, they go to the urine test lab with the urine sample and wait. When they get the result there too, they go - with both results - to the office. They hand the results to the clerk and wait for the permit. Finally, they get the permit.
Let's imagine further that there's a company that sometimes needs to send a group of its employees to work in special conditions. To avoid the employees wasting time in waiting rooms, a secretary handles getting all the permits - the employees just need to deliver their blood and urine samples to the office. The procedure looks like this. The secretary posts a notice on the board that every employee in such-and-such a group needs to deliver their blood and urine samples to the office. The secretary places the collected samples into a box. Collecting samples from the employees takes a long time, even several days, because taking samples isn't a quick task: you need to buy a urine container and a lancet for taking blood at the pharmacy, and you have to be fasting to take the sample. And how will the secretary know when everyone has brought their samples? Let's imagine that after posting the notice, the secretary prepares a box for the samples, checks the documents to see how many employees are in the group (the one that needs to be tested), and writes this number on the box. Every time someone brings their samples, the secretary counts the samples and checks if there are as many as the number on the box. When all the samples are there, the secretary goes with the first blood sample, waits for the result, goes with the second blood sample, waits for the result... and so on. Because, let's imagine, there's no way to bring several samples at once to the lab. When all the blood samples have been tested this way, the secretary does the same with the urine samples. So, the secretary goes with the first urine sample, waits for the result, goes with the second urine sample, waits for the result... and so on. When all the results are ready, the secretary goes with the first pair of results to the office and waits for the application to be processed, then goes with the next pair of results to the office and waits for the application to be processed - and so on. Because, let's imagine, there's no way to request several permits at once in the office. And, when the secretary finally gets all the permits, they report to the manager that the task is complete.
Or differently - let's imagine - this secretary could organize the collection of these samples so that one slowpoke who delays bringing their samples wouldn't make everyone else wait. The secretary has - let's imagine - an alarm clock. After posting a notice that employees need to bring their samples, the secretary sets the alarm to go off in (let's say) forty-eight hours. And she attaches a note to the alarm saying, "Reminder: take samples to the lab, even if some samples are missing." After each sample is brought in by an employee, the secretary would count - just like in the previous version - if all the samples are there, and if they are, she would go to the lab (turning off the alarm before leaving). But besides that, if the alarm goes off, she would read the note attached to it (to remind herself what she needed to remember), and then she would take the samples to the lab, no longer waiting for the latecomers. Whoever didn't bring their sample on time, too bad, they won't get their permit sorted and won't be able to do the job.
In all these considerations and imaginings, I assume that anyone who wants their blood (or urine) tested has to buy a sampling kit at the pharmacy (in the case of blood - a lancet, in the case of urine - a urine container) and take their samples themselves. I am not considering possibilities like - for example - the secretary announcing that all employees should come in tomorrow morning on an empty stomach, and she will buy the appropriate number of sampling kits at the pharmacy and take blood and urine from all of them. I am not considering such possibilities because they do not lead in an interesting direction.
Or let's imagine that the lab worked differently. A patient comes in and brings a blood sample. Because blood - as we remember - can be collected at home using a single-use lancet bought at the pharmacy. The lab worker attaches a label to the sample and writes the sample number on it. The same number is written on a slip of paper given to the patient. Then the testing begins, and the patient can go home. When the sample is analyzed, the analyst writes the result on a green slip of paper, writes the sample number, and puts the green slip on a table. The patient can come at any time, give their sample number, and ask if the results are ready. If they are, the analyst gives them their green slip.
Imagine a laboratory that tests urine working similarly. And an office that issues permits.
Now the whole procedure for obtaining a permit would look like this: A person collects their own blood and urine samples at home. They take the blood sample to a blood test laboratory and get a number. Then they take the urine sample to a urine test laboratory and get a number. Then they go to the blood test laboratory to check if the results are ready. Then they go to the urine test laboratory to check if the results are ready. Then back to the blood test laboratory, then back to the urine test laboratory - and so on, until they finally get both results. Then they go to the office with the results, get a number, and go home. Now they should visit the office from time to time to find out if their application has been processed. To remember this, they use an alarm clock - just like the one the secretary uses - and set it to ring every (for example) two hours. They attach a note to it that says, "check at the office if my permit is ready for collection." And they keep going until they finally get the permit. Then they turn off the alarm clock so it doesn't ring every hour.
But since they have the alarm clock, the whole blood and urine test process could go differently - like this: A person takes the blood sample to one laboratory and the urine sample to another, and gets numbers. Then they set the alarm clock to ring every (for example) two hours. They attach a note to it that says, "check if the blood and urine results are ready." When the alarm clock rings, they remember what they were supposed to do, check the drawer to see if they already have the blood results - if not, they go to the laboratory to find out if their blood has been tested. Similarly, they check the drawer to see if they have the urine results - if not, they go to the laboratory to find out if their urine has been tested. When they have both results, they turn off the alarm clock and go to the office... and we know what happens next.
Let's note that when setting the alarm clock, a person has to think about what matters to them. If they set the alarm clock to ring frequently - for example, every fifteen minutes - they will visit the laboratories (or the office) often, which costs time and energy. They can set the alarm clock to ring less frequently (for example, every twelve hours), then they won't run around as much, but it may happen that the results will be ready for several hours before they know, because it’s not yet time to visit the laboratory.
With this organization of laboratory and office work, a company that sometimes needs to send a group of its employees to work in special conditions could organize its work differently. After collecting (in the usual way) blood and urine samples from the employees, the secretary goes to the blood test laboratory and gives each technician one sample, taking a number from each of them. She does the same with the urine samples. Then she sets the alarm clock to ring every (let's say) two hours, and attaches a note saying, "check if the results are ready." When the alarm clock rings, the secretary reads the note, remembers what she needs to do, and goes around to all the technicians in both laboratories, collecting the results that are ready. After each round, the secretary checks if she has any numbers left (the numbers she got in the laboratories). If not, it means she has all the results. In that case, she turns off the alarm clock and goes to the office with the results. There she submits the applications (with the blood and urine test results attached) to the clerks. From each clerk, she gets a number. Then she sets the alarm clock to ring every (let's say) two hours and attaches a note saying, "check if the applications have been processed." When the alarm clock rings, she reads the note, remembers what she needs to do, and goes around to all the clerks asking if her application has been processed. After each round, she checks if she has any numbers left from the clerks. If not, she turns off the alarm clock and reports to the manager that the matter is settled.
analogy about blood and urine tests
Here, a slight improvement is possible: to avoid running around to all the lab technicians, the secretary could write the room number on each ticket (which she got from the lab technician or the clerk) where she left the sample (or - in the case of the office - a pair of results). This way, she would later know which rooms to visit and which ticket to ask for in each room.
Collecting samples from employees could also be done differently than in previous versions. Imagine the secretary posting a notice on a bulletin board that employees from a certain group need to bring a blood and urine sample. Then, each time someone brings their pair of samples, the secretary takes that pair of samples and brings them to the labs, receiving tickets in return. During such a trip to the labs, the secretary takes all the previously collected tickets from the drawer and checks in the labs if there are results ready for any of those tickets. If there are results, she exchanges the ticket for the result. After taking the pair of samples to the labs, the secretary checks in the drawer if the total number of pairs of tickets and pairs of results equals the number of employees from that group. If so, the secretary sets an alarm to ring every (let's say) two hours. She attaches a note to it saying "go to the labs and check if the results are ready". When the alarm rings, the secretary reads the note, remembers what she has to do, goes to the labs with the tickets, and checks if the results are ready. After each visit to the lab, the secretary checks if she has as many pairs of results as there are employees in the group to be tested. If so, she turns off the alarm and reports to the manager that the task is complete. Similar to previous procedures, the secretary doesn't wait indefinitely for those who delay bringing samples. After posting the notice that samples need to be brought, the secretary sets an alarm to ring in (let's say) forty-eight hours and attaches a note saying "when this alarm rings, stop accepting samples". When the alarm rings, the secretary stops accepting new samples (if someone brings a sample, the secretary says "I won't accept your sample, please leave my office") and does what she would normally do if everyone had brought their samples (which is setting the alarm to ring every (let's say) two hours, and attaching a note saying "go to the labs and check if the results are ready").
Note that this procedure assumes that there are always free lab technicians at the clinic to leave a sample with, and free clerks at the office to leave pairs of results with. This assumption could be omitted, but I won't do that because I feel it wouldn't add much of interest.
If the secretary wants to save herself frequent trips to the clinics, she can organize sample delivery to the labs differently. She can do it like this: each time an employee brings a pair of samples, the secretary puts that pair into a box. She counts how many pairs of samples are already in the box. If there are at least (let's say) three pairs (or if there are as many pairs of samples as there are employees who need to bring samples), the secretary takes the samples and goes to the labs with them (at the same time - as in previous procedures - taking with her the tickets received for previously delivered samples). In this version, the secretary runs around less, but the permissions for all employees will be processed a bit later - because some samples are sitting in the box waiting to be taken to the clinic, while they could already be being tested in the lab. Depending on whether we care more about getting permissions quickly or saving the secretary's effort, we can adjust this number to be larger or smaller. In one extreme case - when this number is one - our sample collection and delivery procedure becomes equivalent to the procedure of taking each pair of samples to the lab immediately after the employee brings it to the secretary. In the other extreme case - when this number is very large - our sample collection and delivery procedure becomes equivalent to the procedure of taking all samples together, only after all have been collected.
The secretary could also act differently. She might not wait to take the results to the office until all the results are in. She could take each obtained pair of results to the office immediately. Or she could do similarly to delivering samples to the lab: to avoid too much running around, she could wait until she has a few pairs of results and then take them to the office. By deciding on the number of pairs of results at which the secretary goes to the office, we would regulate whether the secretary runs around more, but the results come faster, or the secretary runs around less, but the results come later.
So, the whole procedure would look like this. The secretary announces that within (let’s say) forty-eight hours, every employee from a certain group must provide a blood and urine sample. She sets up a sample box in the secretary's office and labels it with how many employees need to submit samples. She also prepares one folder for lab numbers, another folder for results, a third folder for official numbers, and a fourth folder for permits. She sets an alarm to go off in forty-eight hours and attaches a note to it that says, "Anyone who brings samples after this alarm goes off has only themselves to blame." When an employee brings the secretary a pair of samples, she puts it in the sample box and counts. If there are at least (let’s say) three pairs of samples in the box (or if the number of samples plus the number of lab numbers divided by two plus the number of lab results divided by two plus the number of official numbers plus the number of permits equals the number of employees who were supposed to bring samples), the secretary takes the samples to the lab. She gives the samples to the lab technician, gets the numbers, and puts the numbers in the lab numbers folder. Each time she takes samples to the lab, the secretary also takes the lab numbers to check if there are results for those numbers yet. If there are results, the secretary brings them back to the office and puts them in the results folder. If there is already a pair of results from any employee (meaning there are both blood and urine results), the secretary clips this pair of results together. After clipping each pair of results together, the secretary counts how many such clipped pairs are in the folder. If there are at least (let’s say) three (or if the number of pairs of results plus the number of official numbers plus the number of permits equals the number of employees who were supposed to bring samples), the secretary takes all the pairs of results to the office. She attaches each such pair to an application and gets a number. After returning to the office, the secretary puts these official numbers in the official numbers folder. Each time she goes to the office, she takes all the official numbers with her and checks if any application has been processed yet. If an application has been processed, the secretary takes the permit, brings it to the office, and puts it in the permits folder. Every time the secretary puts a permit in the folder, she counts how many there are. If there are as many permits as there were employees who were supposed to bring samples, the secretary reports to the manager that the matter is settled and turns off the forty-eight-hour alarm.
When the alarm set to go off in forty-eight hours rings, the secretary reads the note attached to it to remind herself of what she was supposed to do. She then counts how many employees have already brought samples. To do this, she counts the pairs of samples in the sample box, adds the number of lab numbers divided by two, adds the number of lab results divided by two, adds the number of official numbers, and adds the number of issued permits - this sum is the number of employees who have brought samples so far. If this number is equal to the number of employees who were supposed to bring samples, it means everyone has brought their samples. In that case, the secretary does nothing special - she continues to act the same as she did before the forty-eight-hour alarm rang. But if this number is less than the number of employees who were supposed to bring samples, it means someone hasn’t brought their sample yet. In that case, the secretary starts acting differently than she did before this alarm rang. She prepares a red box for late samples, a red folder for lab numbers received for late samples, another red folder for lab results received for late samples, and a third red folder for official numbers, which she will receive when she brings results for late samples to the office. Then the secretary sets an alarm to ring every (let’s say) three hours and attaches a note to it that says, "When this alarm rings, you need to go to the lab and the office if there's a reason." When an employee brings a sample, the secretary puts it in the red box for late samples and counts how many samples there are in total - both regular and late samples. If there are at least (let’s say) three pairs of samples in the box (or if the number of samples plus the number of lab numbers divided by two plus the number of lab results divided by two plus the number of official numbers plus the number of permits equals the number of employees who were supposed to bring samples), the secretary takes the samples to the lab. She gives the samples to the lab technician, gets the numbers, and puts the numbers in the lab numbers folder - regular sample numbers go in the regular folder, and late sample numbers (those from the red box) go in the red folder for lab numbers. Each time she takes samples to the lab, the secretary also takes the lab numbers to check if there are results for those numbers yet. If there are results, the secretary brings them back to the office and puts them in the results folder. Lab results for numbers from the regular folder go in the regular results folder, and results for late numbers (those from the red folder) go in the red results folder. The secretary does something similar when the alarm set to ring every three hours rings - she checks if there are any samples in the box and if there are any samples in the folder with the lab numbers for samples. If there are any, she takes all the samples and all the lab numbers and goes to the lab with them - and handles them as described earlier. When this three-hour alarm rings, the secretary does something else, but I'll write about that in a moment. When the secretary brings a pair of results to the office, she checks if there is already a pair of results from any employee (meaning there are both blood and urine results) - just like she did before the forty-eight-hour alarm rang. If there is a pair of results from any employee, the secretary clips this pair of results together - then puts this pair in the appropriate folder: regular or red. After clipping each pair of results together, the secretary counts how many such clipped pairs are in the folder. If there are at least (let’s say) three, the secretary takes all the pairs of results to the office. The secretary does something similar when the alarm set to ring every three hours rings - besides the previously described actions, she takes all the pairs of results and if there are more than zero, she goes with them to the office. And when the secretary goes to the office with these pairs of results, she attaches each such pai
So, the whole procedure would look like this. The secretary announces that within (let’s say) forty-eight hours, every employee from a certain group must provide a blood and urine sample. She sets up a sample box in the secretary's office and labels it with how many employees need to submit samples. She also prepares one folder for lab numbers, another folder for results, a third folder for official numbers, and a fourth folder for permits. She sets an alarm to go off in forty-eight hours and attaches a note to it that says, "Anyone who brings samples after this alarm goes off has only themselves to blame." When an employee brings the secretary a pair of samples, she puts it in the sample box and counts. If there are at least (let’s say) three pairs of samples in the box (or if the number of samples plus the number of lab numbers divided by two plus the number of lab results divided by two plus the number of official numbers plus the number of permits equals the number of employees who were supposed to bring samples), the secretary takes the samples to the lab. She gives the samples to the lab technician, gets the numbers, and puts the numbers in the lab numbers folder. Each time she takes samples to the lab, the secretary also takes the lab numbers to check if there are results for those numbers yet. If there are results, the secretary brings them back to the office and puts them in the results folder. If there is already a pair of results from any employee (meaning there are both blood and urine results), the secretary clips this pair of results together. After clipping each pair of results together, the secretary counts how many such clipped pairs are in the folder. If there are at least (let’s say) three (or if the number of pairs of results plus the number of official numbers plus the number of permits equals the number of employees who were supposed to bring samples), the secretary takes all the pairs of results to the office. She attaches each such pair to an application and gets a number. After returning to the office, the secretary puts these official numbers in the official numbers folder. Each time she goes to the office, she takes all the official numbers with her and checks if any application has been processed yet. If an application has been processed, the secretary takes the permit, brings it to the office, and puts it in the permits folder. Every time the secretary puts a permit in the folder, she counts how many there are. If there are as many permits as there were employees who were supposed to bring samples, the secretary reports to the manager that the matter is settled and turns off the forty-eight-hour alarm.
When the alarm set to go off in forty-eight hours rings, the secretary reads the note attached to it to remind herself of what she was supposed to do. She then counts how many employees have already brought samples. To do this, she counts the pairs of samples in the sample box, adds the number of lab numbers divided by two, adds the number of lab results divided by two, adds the number of official numbers, and adds the number of issued permits - this sum is the number of employees who have brought samples so far. If this number is equal to the number of employees who were supposed to bring samples, it means everyone has brought their samples. In that case, the secretary does nothing special - she continues to act the same as she did before the forty-eight-hour alarm rang. But if this number is less than the number of employees who were supposed to bring samples, it means someone hasn’t brought their sample yet. In that case, the secretary starts acting differently than she did before this alarm rang. She prepares a red box for late samples, a red folder for lab numbers received for late samples, another red folder for lab results received for late samples, and a third red folder for official numbers, which she will receive when she brings results for late samples to the office. Then the secretary sets an alarm to ring every (let’s say) three hours and attaches a note to it that says, "When this alarm rings, you need to go to the lab and the office if there's a reason." When an employee brings a sample, the secretary puts it in the red box for late samples and counts how many samples there are in total - both regular and late samples. If there are at least (let’s say) three pairs of samples in the box (or if the number of samples plus the number of lab numbers divided by two plus the number of lab results divided by two plus the number of official numbers plus the number of permits equals the number of employees who were supposed to bring samples), the secretary takes the samples to the lab. She gives the samples to the lab technician, gets the numbers, and puts the numbers in the lab numbers folder - regular sample numbers go in the regular folder, and late sample numbers (those from the red box) go in the red folder for lab numbers. Each time she takes samples to the lab, the secretary also takes the lab numbers to check if there are results for those numbers yet. If there are results, the secretary brings them back to the office and puts them in the results folder. Lab results for numbers from the regular folder go in the regular results folder, and results for late numbers (those from the red folder) go in the red results folder. The secretary does something similar when the alarm set to ring every three hours rings - she checks if there are any samples in the box and if there are any samples in the folder with the lab numbers for samples. If there are any, she takes all the samples and all the lab numbers and goes to the lab with them - and handles them as described earlier. When this three-hour alarm rings, the secretary does something else, but I'll write about that in a moment. When the secretary brings a pair of results to the office, she checks if there is already a pair of results from any employee (meaning there are both blood and urine results) - just like she did before the forty-eight-hour alarm rang. If there is a pair of results from any employee, the secretary clips this pair of results together - then puts this pair in the appropriate folder: regular or red. After clipping each pair of results together, the secretary counts how many such clipped pairs are in the folder. If there are at least (let’s say) three, the secretary takes all the pairs of results to the office. The secretary does something similar when the alarm set to ring every three hours rings - besides the previously described actions, she takes all the pairs of results and if there are more than zero, she goes with them to the office. And when the secretary goes to the office with these pairs of results, she attaches each such pai
It would be interesting if the office required that if we want to get permits for a group of people, we can't submit their applications separately, but we must submit them all together. With the procedures discussed so far, this would mean that the secretary would have to wait to go to the office until she gets the blood and urine test results for all employees. This is quite simple - I have already discussed such a procedure. So in what has been covered so far, this requirement (that we must submit applications for a group of people together) would not cause any interesting complications - on the contrary, it would mean that we couldn't do optimizations that make the procedure more efficient at the cost of its complexity. But in future considerations, I will sometimes assume that there is such a requirement (that we must submit applications for a group of people together), and sometimes it will cause interesting effects.
The lab testing the blood could work differently. It could work in such a way that when a patient brings a sample, they also leave a note saying what should be done when their result is ready. For example, the patient could write on such a note, "when my result is ready, call the number 340511 and tell them what the result is." Or something more elaborate: "when my result is ready, send someone to go up to Krakus Mound and make an offering of a buttered roll." The lab would follow any instructions attached to such a sample (only the patient would have to pay more for the test if their request was difficult to fulfill). (...)
This is where I stopped writing this analogy.
comments:
2022.07.31 10:06 qixu
Pozdrawiamy ze Zbysiem Ś, jestesmy w szpitalu w Indonezji bo zlapalismy covida i temat badan jest na czasie. :)
2022.08.02 04:39 P.
No to zdrowia życzę, chłopaki!
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