Cancer patients could be spared the devastating consequences of their tissue samples being lost thanks to a new tracking system being tested in the NHS.
The loss of tissue samples can mean vulnerable patients are forced to redo biopsies, therefore delaying diagnosis and treatment. Lost samples cost the NHS an estimated £157m in claims every year.
However, losing samples could soon be a thing of the past in the NHS, as one of the UK’s largest health trusts tests a new tracking system its inventors hope will lead to a rollout in hospitals worldwide.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which deals with tens of thousands of cancer cases every year, will trial a real-time tracking system for cancer tissue samples.
The system is based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology that is widely used in the retail and logistics industry to track assets and has been specially adapted to help improve treatment for people with serious and life-threatening conditions.
Currently, when samples come in they are processed into blocks of paraffin wax which are cut into very thin slices for microscopic examination by histopathologists. The department at Leeds receives 60,000 cancer cases every year, generating more than 250,000 blocks and nearly one million slides.
And cancer cases are expected to rise as a result of an ageing population.
Existing tracking systems can only provide historic information about where a sample has been, rather than its current location, and are vulnerable to human error as they need manual scanning.
The new system allows continuous tracking by adding custom tags with RFID technology to the cassettes holding the blocks and installing antennas and readers throughout the department. The breakthrough improves the range, readability and resilience of RFID technology.
Dil Rathore, the trust’s biomedical scientist and pathology innovation lead is behind the new real-time technology. He said the new system will not only prevent sample loss, but also speed up processing and increase efficiency in histopathology services. Patent applications for the UK, EU and US healthcare markets have been made in the hope it can be rolled out worldwide.
Mr Rathore said: “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.”
Leeds Hospitals Charity was able to provide £10,000 towards kickstarting the project thanks to donors leaving gifts in their wills.
Professor Phil Wood, chief executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We are very excited by the potential benefits of the system for patients, histopathology services and our trust. This is another example of our ability to transform innovation within the NHS into new products and services that can help to improve health outcomes and make an important contribution to our wider economy.”
More than 3 million people are living with cancer in the UK, according to latest estimates, a figure that is predicted to rise to 3.5 million by 2025, 4 million by 2030 and 5.3 million by 2040. Currently, just under 400,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every year.
Andrew Gwynne, Minister for Public Health and Prevention, told i: “It will be the mission of this government to build an NHS fit for the future. That means bringing our analogue health service into the digital age.
“This is just one example of how innovative new technology can help cut NHS waiting lists and get better value for taxpayers’ money at the same time. We will back innovation and research as we work to fix the NHS for patients across the country.”
Following the Labour Party’s general election victory, Sir Keir Starmer said that the new government has already started on the work to fix the “broken” NHS.
The Prime Minister told journalists at a press conference in Downing Street last week that “raw honesty” about the state of the health service is “tough” to hear for those working in the NHS, but that candour is necessary to fix it.
He added that the work to get 40,000 extra NHS appointments a week as pledged “starts straight away”.
Sir Keir added: “This is not aimed at the chief executive of the NHS, it’s a reflection on the failure of leadership of the last government, but it is a raw honesty about the state of the NHS because we will not fix it if we aren’t honest.
“It’s a tough thing to hear if you work in the NHS. Obviously my wife works in the NHS, as I may have mentioned, but it’s tough because if you work in the NHS, you’re putting a huge amount in in difficult circumstances. It’s unrelenting.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said that the NHS is “going through the biggest crisis in its history” and it cannot be fixed overnight.
“When we said during the election campaign, that the NHS was going through the biggest crisis in its history, we meant it,” Mr Streeting said.
“When we said that patients are being failed on a daily basis, it wasn’t political rhetoric, but the daily reality faced by millions.
“Previous governments have not been willing to admit these simple facts. But in order to cure an illness, you must first diagnose it.”