Technology and innovation are becoming increasingly present in healthcare and research, especially as they can help improve laboratory practices. In relation to the pathology workflow, digital pathology focuses on dynamically capturing, sharing, and interpreting pathology information in a digital environment. For instance, it utilizes state-of-the-art scanners to digitize glass slides, generating high-resolution images that can now be run through a pre-processing algorithm that is built using Image analysis (IA) to quantify and screen for abnormalities or improve consistency, accuracy, and objectivity.
Notably, a key aspect of digital pathology is the identification and organization of information in an accurate and centralized way.
How it works
After the introduction of the laboratory informatics system (LIS), innovative technologies and methods are finding their way into the pathology laboratory. The Major advantage of a LIS system is that all actions performed in the laboratory are tracked and stored in a consolidated place.
The tasks usually registered in the LIS each have their own unique ID, which allows for careful and accurate recall using track and trace mechanisms to know exactly how far the order or specimen is in its process. The LIS is a process system that shows the operator a specific worklist depending on the histological process such as, grossing, sectioning, staining, etc. If the operator performed the action and registered that performance in the LIS, the status of that specific action will proceed to the next milestone in the process.
It is obvious that the LIS is the backbone of your histopathology lab and gives structure and guidance to your processes. The practical application of this technology is now living up to the theoretical advantages when performing tasks such as audit logging, role-based access control (RBAC), hanging tasks, outliers of the normal flow and reporting of Turnaround time (TAT) among others. These reports and updates can now be accessed from a single platform. By making use of a unique identifier system that produces a unique barcode for each specimen entry, this method allows for accurate data management and smart worklists that facilitate posterior information tracking and can divide cases per pathologist with efficiency and according to their own subspeciality.
Benefits of track and trace
This barcode advantage is used to audit and track the distinct phases within the workflow, by setting checkpoints that require the scanning of the barcode at accession, grossing, histology, and pathology steps. By replacing the manual logging entries at each step, track-and-trace reduces human errors (such as mislabeling) and automates identification and tracking.
As barcoding minimizes labelling errors, the slides can be linked to specific specimens and patients whilst ensuring that confidential patient/specimen data is safely registered and stored. In addition, it allows for surgical pathology practices to be supported by computer-readable information.
Finally, barcoding accelerates specimen handling processes in the histology laboratory, enabling Connected-Pathology to provide you with swift and reliable pathology services.
In addition to the direct contact with C-paths experts, a portal was made available to facilitate the track-and-trace process. Connected-Pathology’s Tx-Connect portal allows users to submit their requests and follow the progress of their specimen as it moves through the histopathology pathway due to our use of a carefully managed track and trace system made available through unique barcodes.
Connected-Pathology offers track and trace as a standard service: a unique and highly efficient advantage as it reduces operations time and error rates and allows for quality management. Are you interested in using an optimized digital system that stores your data in a smart worklist? With our Laboratory informatics system, you can easily track the progress of your therapeutic research. Get in touch with our experts to get to know more about our track and trace or other pathology services.
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