Epredia, a provider of cancer diagnostics solutions, has announced an agreement with Canada-based manufacturer Lab Improvements to bring intelligent archiving for tissue samples to U.S. pathology labs.
Epredia will add two automated archiving solutions by Lab Improvements, BlockTracker and SlideTracker, to its product portfolio in the U.S., enabling more labs to access traceability for the life of every pathology sample.
For laboratories facing rising case volumes and persistent staffing pressures, manual archiving of tissue samples used in cancer diagnostics has long been a hidden drain on productivity, and a single misfiled block or slide containing a sample can stall an entire workflow. Designed for pathologists and laboratory leaders at hospitals, university medical centers, reference labs, and cancer centers, BlockTracker and SlideTracker automate the sorting, storage, and retrieval of pathology blocks and slides. This eliminates the need for manual filing, reduces the risk of lost samples, and helps labs reclaim staff time for higher-value work.
BlockTracker and SlideTracker allow facilities to build and automate a chain of custody around their samples, providing labs with a complete digital and physical record of where every sample is and who interacted with it, from the histology bench to off-site storage.
At the heart of the platform is the ability to store blocks and slides both physically and digitally, organizing samples easily between locations while high-density storage reduces space requirements and optimizes local and off-site pathology storage. BlockTracker brings high-throughput cassette archiving to labs of any size, with a single device capable of serving an entire hospital and archiving up to 1,500 blocks per hour, even handling historical specimens without disrupting daily workflow. SlideTracker replaces individual slide handling with automated archiving, loading 200 slides in less than five minutes and segmenting them automatically by barcode.
The system is built to fit the way labs already work and integrate seamlessly with other Epredia solutions, including the SlideMate Laser Printers for slides and cassettes. It preserves existing weekly or monthly archiving routines, integrates with any laboratory information system (LIS) and IT architecture, and uses standard histology block and slide boxes. An intuitive centralized database adds smart analysis and reporting that staff can access from any workstation in the lab. In addition to full chain of custody across the sample lifecycle and dramatically reduced risk of misfiled or lost specimens, this leads to meaningful savings in both storage space and long-term off-site storage costs.
“In cancer diagnostics, efficiency and confidence are both critical,” said Steven Lynum, President and CEO of Epredia. “With intelligent automated archiving, our customers don’t have to choose between throughput and efficiency. Epredia is offering pathology labs a way to reclaim their time and peace of mind, so they can better serve patients.”
