Apr 7, 2014 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
Variability in how tissue is handled from one histopathology laboratory to another greatly affects quality of specimen and accuracy of the pathologist’s diagnosis
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA—Here on the shores of Lake Ontario, pathologists and clinical laboratory professionals gathered last week for a unique conference that focused on quality issues involving how tissue is handled from collection and transport to the histopathology laboratory processing to diagnosis by surgical pathologists.
Your Dark Daily editor was here to participate in the conference and learn from a first-rank panel of speakers. As many long-time readers know, patients, physicians, and health insurers expect increasingly higher levels of accuracy in how lab specimens are handled and greater precision in the resulting diagnosis that is produced by pathologists. Thus, a conference dedicated to tissue specimen integrity and quality is both timely and appropriate. (more…)
Apr 19, 2011 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
As automation transforms the manual work processes in the histopathology laboratory, “floaters” may become a thing of the past
Any histotechnologist and pathologist familiar with the manual work processes commonly in use in histopathology laboratories knows about “floaters.” These are the pesky artifacts that are a consequence of the common practice of manually processing tissue through the series of H&E linear baths required for the proper staining of these samples prior to analysis by anatomic pathologists.
“Floaters” are a relevant example of why manual work processes in the histopathology laboratory can be the source of errors and mistakes. Certain types of floaters—including floaters consisting of malignant tissue fragments—have the potential to contaminate the patient specimen. This can negatively impact patient safety and even contribute to a misdiagnosis of the patient. Moreover, the issue of floaters has been around for decades, because the manual work processes involving the H&E (hematoxylin and eosin stain) linear baths have remained relatively unchanged during this time.
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