Patent ID: 7041206

Claim:
A system for conducting a plurality of different medical diagnostic tests, the system comprising: a hand held portable, self contained electronic instrument for engaging any one of a plurality of disposable test cells, each test cell containing a fluid to be tested, the instrument for performing a diagnostic test selected from said plurality of tests upon the fluid within a selected test cell, the instrument including a reader which reads indicia on the selected test cell prior to engagement of the test cell, the diagnostic test to be performed being selected by the instrument based upon identification information obtained from the indicia on the selected test cell, the instrument further including a unique identification code that provides positive identification of each test result provided by the instrument and the instrument being configured to output data of each test result combined with the unique identification code; and a plurality of disposable, single use test cells each test cell for receiving fluid to be diagnostically tested, each test cell including identification information including indicia indicative of a particular diagnostic test to be performed upon the fluid contained therein, the indicia on each test cell being unique to each medical diagnostic test which may be performed and unique with respect to each test cell which may be used to perform the same medical diagnostic test so that no two test cells contain the same indicia, each test cell being sized and shaped for engagement by the instrument, the instrument, upon reading the unique indicia of a selected test cell comparing the identification information from the read indicia to identification information from indicia read from all previously selected test cells and proceeding with the selected diagnostic test only if the selected test cell has not been previously used.