Pathology Leaders Outline Principles for Patient Safety

A panel of scientists announced its support of four principles to improve safety in the anatomic pathology laboratory.

Leading pathologists, invited by Ventana Medical Systems Inc. (VMSI; Tucson, AZ, USA) examined the state of lab-based patient safety, with the aim of working toward a consensus on how to advance the standard of care for patients. The group, known as the International Pathology Patient Safety Advisory Board, concluded the consensus with four principles:

- All patients around the globe deserve standardized, high quality, pathology services.
- The group will be patient advocates to support accurate diagnosis and personalized medicine and have formed The International Pathology Patient Safety Advisory Board. This identifies significant opportunities to improve patient safety by developing and implementing solutions to enhance tissue preservation, specimen/slide identification and tracking, and prevention of tissue contamination.
- The members of the International Pathology Patient Safety Advisory Board find further opportunity to define standardized parameters for data collection and sharing in the assessment of these processes, leading to quality measures for laboratory improvement.
- The members of the board call upon the pathology profession to collaborate with laboratory and hospital administrative partners, clinician colleagues, and the laboratory diagnostics industry to address these opportunities to achieve excellence in patient care.

The consensus was presented during the world's largest pathology meeting in San Diego, California, the 103rd annual United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) meeting (March 1–7, 2014), and hope to translate the consensus statement into concrete actions that can help further patient safety improvements in the anatomic pathology laboratory.

Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. is a member of the Roche Group (Basel, Switzerland). The company manufactures instruments and reagents that automate tissue processing and slide staining for cancer diagnostics. Its products are used in clinical histology and drug development research laboratories worldwide. The company's staining, workflow management platforms, and digital pathology solutions optimize laboratory efficiencies to reduce errors, support diagnosis and inform treatment decisions for anatomic pathology professionals.

Dr. Eslie Dennis, vice president of scientific affairs for Ventana and chair of the International Pathology Patient Safety Advisory Board, said, "We're encouraged by the progress made last week in Tucson, and are certain that patient care will be markedly improved if these principles are widely embraced by stakeholders in the pathology community."

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Ventana Medical Systems
Roche Group