Ventana to convene Tissue Diagnostics Patient Safety Advisory Board to improve patient safety in labs

Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. (Ventana), a member of the Roche Group, today announced that it will convene a Tissue Diagnostics Patient Safety Advisory Board on February 27 at its headquarters in Tucson, Arizona. The board, comprised of experts in anatomic pathology from leading healthcare institutions around the globe, will examine laboratory-based patient safety issues and work towards a consensus on how to advance the standard of care for patients. They will focus on such matters as:

• The current state of patient safety in anatomic pathology , including key unmet needs
• Perspectives on how additional industry guidelines could improve patient care
• Technology's role in improving quality and the patient safety standard of care

Dr. Eslie Dennis, Vice President of Scientific Affairs for Ventana and chair of the advisory board, noted, "Patient safety is a priority in anatomic pathology  laboratories worldwide; still, a great deal remains to be done. In the United States, eight percent of tissue slides are cross-contaminated in the traditional H&E staining process and more than one in 100 are misidentified due to human error. With the help of our advisory board, we hope to identify new opportunities and processes to achieve the greatest level of patient safety possible."

"Healthcare workers have long invested in practices and technologies to reduce the risk of errors near to the patient, but anatomic pathology laboratories have often been underfunded to address such concerns. Bringing together this renowned group of experts will stimulate further attention on this issue in a critical area of diagnostics," says Adrian Ralph, Vice President of Primary Staining for Ventana.