NoseWorks Study Planner Design · Review · Approve
Parts A–C capture the study's clinical, statistical, and training decisions. Once they are approved, the Study Protocol and Training Protocol are generated, reviewed, and signed off here. The approved, locked project is what the NoseWorks App uses to run the study. Select the ⓘ on any field for guidance and references.
Planner v6.32
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Scenario

Prepared by Date
Part A · Clinical Supervisor
Samples, donors, rules & blinding.
Background & instructions

What you're looking at: the clinical foundation of the study — the samples the dogs will smell and the donors they come from.

What to do: set where positive and control samples are sourced; how many times a vial may be reused and when it expires; who qualifies as a donor; who must stay blind; and what makes a run valid or grounds for exclusion.

Why it matters: these choices decide what is physically presented to the dogs and form the evidence that the study was run cleanly. Get the sources and eligibility right and everything downstream holds together.

Study definition

Study name / ID i
Target condition i
Sample medium i
Detection method i
Principal Investigator i
Statistician i
Clinical Supervisor i
IRB / approval reference i
Objective / background i

Sample rules

Two different limits, set separately. Vial use limits cap how many times one physical tube can be drawn from (material depletion) — the same in every phase. Donor rules control whether the same donor may recur: reuse is allowed in training; the official test requires unique, never-before-used donors. A donor can own several vials, so these are two distinct knobs.
Vial use limits — per sample type
Positive iuses / vial
Healthy iuses / vial
Benign iuses / vial
Donor rules — by phase
Training donors i
Testing donors iUnique · used once · never used in training
Expiration / age limit idays
Strict train/test partition (all types) i
VOC longevity re-check i

Sample eligibility

Viability criteria i
Provenance / chain-of-custody fields to record i

Blinding

Who is blinded i
Blinding procedure i

Validity & exclusions

Valid-trial criteria i
Exclusion criteria i

Donor eligibility (sample donors)

Who the samples may come from. Distinct from the valid-trial criteria above.
Donor inclusion criteria i
Donor exclusion criteria i
Benign / comorbid conditions represented i
Other conditions used for specificity (if any) i

Sample sources, consent & handling

Samples are purchased from vendors/biobanks; record the sources and the consent/IRB attestation.
Positive sample source i
Healthy control source i
Benign control source i
Consent & IRB attestation i
Storage temperature i
Sample coding & data custodian i

Validation & observer checklists CLINICAL

The Clinical Supervisor authors these. They lock with the plan and the App shows them on the validate / sign-off screen. Add, edit, reorder, or remove each item.
Testing Validation checklist
Clinical Supervisor confirms each step, then signs off.
When required:
Run Observation checklist
The Observer is responsible for video capture and for observing every run step.
Observer:covers:
Part B · Statistician
Design, composition & power.
Background & instructions

What you're looking at: the experimental design and the definition of success.

What to do: state the hypothesis and endpoints, choose how many dogs and tests, set what each wheel is made of, decide how positions are randomized, and enter your accuracy targets.

Why it matters: these numbers drive how many samples you need, the statistical power, and the confidence intervals — in other words, whether the study can actually prove its claim.

Hypothesis & endpoints

Primary objective / hypothesis i
Primary endpoint i
Secondary endpoints i
Analysis population i
CI method i

Tests, dogs & composition

Dogs in the panel idogs
Panel decision rule (secondary) i
Total official tests itests
Per test — positive i/ test
Per test — healthy i/ test
Per test — benign i/ test
Per test — blank i/ test
Phase 3 positives i
Target-absent — Testing i%
Target-absent phases i
Master seed (optional) i

Randomization & order

Randomization method i
Seed / reproducibility note i
Presentation-order handling i

Analysis & power

Expected sensitivity i%
Expected specificity i%
Required sensitivity threshold i%
Required specificity threshold i%
Reproducibility / agreement statistic i
Analysis cases — positives icases
Analysis controls — healthy icontrols
Analysis controls — benign icontrols
Specimen exclusion buffer i%
Analysis & write-up iweeks
Protocol-deviation handling i
Clustering / non-independence i

Objectives — secondary

Secondary / tertiary objectives i

Power & significance

Significance level (alpha) i%
Target power i%
Assumed effect size i
Part C · Trainer
Training, run design & schedule.
Background & instructions

What you're looking at: how the dogs are trained and how testing runs day to day.

What to do: choose the training method and rewards, the run design (wheel size, spinning, indication), the dog panel, and the length and pace of each phase.

Why it matters: this turns the design into a realistic schedule and protects the data from accidental cueing and scent fatigue — the things that quietly ruin dog-detection studies.

Phase durations

Setup & readiness iweeks
Training — Phase 1 iweeks
Training — Phase 2 iweeks
Pre-testing — Phase 3 iweeks
Phase 4 — Pre-testing iweeks
Testing i— weeks
Testing length is calculated from the design (read-only).

Throughput

Runs per day i/ day
Sessions per week i/ wk

Time per task

Handler — per dog-run imin/run
Handler — daily overhead imin/day
Lab tech — per test prep imin/test
Lab tech — daily overhead imin/day
Planning estimate of time to commit. Actual hours & pay are tracked in the Tracker.

Training method & reward RESEARCH-BACKED

Reward type i
Marker / bridge i
Imprinting sequence i
Reinforcement schedule i
Indication response i

Run design & blinding RESEARCH-BACKED

Spin between dogs (blinded phases) i
Blinded reward mode i

Sample handling (training) RESEARCH-BACKED

Case/control source matching i
Control diversity ramp i

Dog roster STRUCTURED

The formal panel of dogs — each is a real record used across the App and the Tracker. Add every candidate, set spay/neuter and training status, and move each dog through its status as it progresses. The dog count for the design is set in Part B.
Loading roster…

Dogs & training

Roster notes (optional free text) i
Training approach i
Dog management policy i

Training donors (needed)

Distinct donors the trainer needs across the phases — each donor’s vials supply the repeated training pulls. Training positives must be held out from the testing positives; healthy/benign controls may be reused in both. Separate from on-hand inventory (ledger-driven) and from the testing design. These roll up with the testing-donor counts (Part B) into the combined donor totals in Project overview.
Training — positives idonors
Training — healthy idonors
Training — benign idonors
Project overview
Live inventory, key numbers & scope.
Background & instructions

What you're looking at: a live dashboard, not a form — there is nothing here to fill in.

What to do: glance at it as you complete Parts A–C. It shows whether you have enough samples, the number of tests and dogs the design implies, the phase plan, and the rough timeline.

Why it matters: it is your early-warning system — catch a sample shortfall or an unrealistic timeline here, before they become real problems.

Current sample inventory COORDINATOR

On-hand counts.
On hand — positives idonors
On hand — healthy controls idonors
On hand — benign controls idonors

Key numbers (live)

—
Positive reads (pooled, ×dogs)
—
Total dog-runs
—
Official-test days (≈ weeks)
—
Sensitivity 95% CI lower bound
—
Target-present / absent tests

Samples — have vs. need

How samples are counted
Donor — one person who gave a sample. Counted once, no matter how many vials or aliquots it was split into. Both On hand and Need are in donors.
Vials — the physical depth on hand. One donor can have many vials; this is the material actually used up across runs and training.
Need — the design size from Part B, plus the exclusion buffer (spare samples for excluded or memorized specimens).
Training may reuse donors freely, but the official test counts each donor once. The positive need also covers training positives that must be held out from the test (the partition rule). Under the strict train/test partition, training donors are held out from testing for controls too, so training donors add to the need for all three types.

Estimated scope

Phases

Current Study Summary
A live roll-up of where the study stands right now — every decision across Parts A–C. This is what gets locked and imported by the App.
A read-only roll-up of every part. Red items are not yet filled in.
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NoseWorks by BioScentDX · CONFIDENTIAL · for study-team use only