Real time tracking could slash millions from bill for lost NHS lab samples

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is trialling a system that uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology extensively employed in the retail and logistics industry to track assets.  

Its target is the vast amount of lost tissue samples for cancer and other conditions that are lost every year. Estimates suggest the total sum in resulting claims currently tops £157 million every 12 months.

As well as its potentially serious consequences for the successful treatment of patients and the mental trauma caused, loss of tissue samples also creates an enormous extra pressure on medical services because of the need to redo biopsies as well as delays in diagnosis and administering treatment. 

Trust biomedical scientist and pathology innovation lead, Dil Rathore, created the system to speed processing and increase efficiency in histopathology. The department at Leeds receives 60,000 cases every year, generating more than 250,000 paraffin wax sample blocks converted into nearly one million slides.

Existing tracking systems rely on manual scanning which is vulnerable to human error and can only provide historic information about where a sample has been, not its current location. 

The pilot system enables continuous tracking using custom tags with RFID technology to the cassettes holding the blocks, plus antennas and readers installed throughout the department. The trust is now looking for a partner to support the commercialisation of this innovation.

Rathore developed the system with help from the Innovation Pop-Up, a support programme at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for clinicians and entrepreneurs with ideas for new products and services that solve healthcare challenges. Funding came from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds Hospitals Charity, Innovate UK and the Government Office of Technology.

The tracking system, compatible with existing histopathology management tools, is the subject of patent applications for the UK, EU and US healthcare markets.

Added Rathore: “The stress and anxiety felt by patients awaiting a potential cancer diagnosis can be made much worse if they are told their sample has been lost. Unfortunately, this ‘never-event’ happens more often than is acceptable.  

“That’s why we came up with a real-time system to track the precise location of each sample and its movement through our histopathology department. The interpretation of changes in tissue forms the foundation of successful cancer treatment.”