BLOG ARTICLE
We’d like to share our comprehensive identification and traceability system we use at Concept Fertility. This ensures safety and accuracy when handling our patient’s precious biological materials, including sperm, eggs and embryos that are collected, stored, and used within our facility.
To guarantee that each sample is correctly matched to the right patient, we follow a meticulous series of verification steps. Our protocol combines the advanced technology of our RI Witness system (which we will explain further below), with our strict policy of requiring two physical witnesses present at each step. We use this dual layer approach each time we handle and transfer patient’s samples including:
This protocol ensures that every tube, dish or freezing device which carries a patient’s sample is accurately identified and managed by our team with the highest standard of care.
RI Witness is a system we use in the lab that relies on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to carefully monitor and track every movement of our patient’s biological samples. This system helps to mitigate the risk of human error, especially during critical steps like transferring samples between dishes or tubes, adding sperm to eggs, transferring embryos and to ensure each part of a patient’s treatment is secure.
Our RI Witness system works in real time, with scanners placed at all key workstations where samples are handled.
Whether it’s a petri dish, test tube or freezing device, each sample is tagged with a unique patient ID. This tag links the sample to that specific patient and lets us accurately track what was done, when, where, and by who throughout a patient’s treatment process.
RI Witness will set off an alarm if it ever suspects a mismatch of samples so that any errors can be resolved immediately.
To add even more protection, we also have two staff members manually verify each identification step. Two scientists verify that the correct procedure is being performed and verbally confirm that the ID labels on the dishes match the patients name, date of birth and file number. This makes our already strict procedures even more secure.
With these strict procedures in place, our patients have the peace of mind that their sperm, eggs, and embryos are safe, secure, and in the hands of experts who truly care.