Hi specimen submitters. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is excited to introduce the CDC
Specimen Test Order and Reporting web portal known as CSTOR. A central online gateway
for CDC infectious disease laboratory partners to submit specimens and access test results and reports.
This web portal can help you to: request and obtain approval to send samples to CDC for testing,
submit specimen data and create shipping paperwork online,
validate specimen data and provide submitter support to correct errors and complete missing information,
and view and download test results and reports easily and securely online.
CSTOR will benefit CDC infectious disease testing laboratories by reducing
accessioning time and manual processes by minimizing manual data entry,
providing user-friendly and secure access to reports and test results,
and streamlining communications between specimen submitters and CDC.
Now, let's take a quick tour.
The Dashboard
The first thing you'll see when you log into CSTOR is a dashboard displaying alerts and recent activity.
The dashboard is where you will receive any notifications from CDC regarding specimen data that need attention.
The dashboard also gives information about your organization's activity over time.
Click on the logo if you need to return to your dashboard.
Create Test Order Requests
The first step to submitting a sample to CDC is to initiate a test order request.
This gives the CDC testing laboratory a heads up that specimens will be arriving. To create one enter; the test order name,
specimen origin,
specimen source or type, a number of samples needing that test.
Certain tests that require
pre-approval from the CDC lab will show as pending until it is approved.
You will receive an email notification when your test order request has been approved or denied.
Otherwise, the test order request is automatically approved and you can continue on to submit specimen data similar to the
5034 form.
Providing CDC labs an easy way to manage test order requests,
streamlines communication with the testing laboratory, and reduces processing time.
Submit Specimens
Once test requests are approved, CSTOR web portal users can
electronically submit specimen data to CDC
There will also be an option to upload multiple specimens using a bulk upload file.
You can work with the CSTOR team to configure CSTOR to recognize any lab specific templates you may have.
CSTOR tracks how many specimen data forms you've submitted for each test order request and how many forms are pending.
The form fields in CSTOR are the same fields that are on the current CDC specimen submission PDF.
CSTOR makes submitting specimen data easy by
pre-populating the form with test order request specific data allowing users to navigate through the different sections of the form quickly.
You can also upload supplemental attachments and edit the form any time before the specimen has been shipped.
Ship Package
Ship package lets you organize specimens into packages to ship to CDC.
You can easily multi select specimens to be shipped together
based on the test order request.
CSTOR also generates standardized shipping manifests to include in your package.
This will help CDC validate and distribute your specimens to the correct testing laboratory.
When you physically mail your specimens, click ship to notify CDC of the incoming shipment.
View Reports
View reports acts as a central access point to new and existing reports from the CDC testing labs.
Reports are conveniently organized by test order request and include corrected and amended reports.
These reports can be downloaded as PDF.
But the data on one or multiple reports can also be exported into Excel.
Making downstream analysis or custom reporting needs easier.
Check Status
You can always check the status of your test order requests,
specimens, and packages throughout the specimen submissions life cycle.
You can toggle between checking just the ones you created or ones across your entire organization.
Remember, you can always use the search bar to quickly find the specific item.
Through these features
CSTOR can make the specimen submission process easier and it's a secure way to submit and receive data to and from
CDC testing labs.
Contact CSTOR at cdc.gov if you are interested in using CSTOR.