In May 2009, media reports surfaced about a 28 year old man who mistakenly underwent a radical mastectomy only to find out a few months later that he never had cancer. Scott Aprile, a personal trainer from New York, received the devastating news that he had breast cancer in December of 2008. Just one month later, in January 2009, surgeons removed his right breast along with three lymph nodes. About two weeks after his surgery, Aprile was told that his biopsy had been switched with a woman's biopsy that had been performed the same day.
Aprile is suing the hospital and the doctors who performed the unnecessary mastectomy. The hospital issued a statement claiming, among other things, "...[it] has put procedures in place to prevent such an occurrence in the future." This claim by the hospital raises questions since it would be nearly impossible to completely prevent such errors through procedural improvements. A study published in the Journal of Urology and conducted by Drs. John Pfeifer, Stephen Raab, and Eric Suba concluded: "Patient identification errors among prostate needle biopsies may be difficult to entirely prevent through optimization of work flow processes." The study further suggested that DNA confirmation of patient identification may be the only way to entirely prevent identification errors among all needle biopsies.
The know error® specimen security system, introduced by Diagnostic ID, LLC in 2009, employs DNA matching technology that can truly prevent patient identification errors before an adverse patient outcome. The know error®system matches tissue from a positive biopsy result to a reference sample taken from the patient via a simple cheek swab. The samples are then processed by a forensics lab that is completely independent of the pathology lab that evaluated the biopsy. In cases like Scott Aprile's, the know error®system detects when biopsies have been switched with another patient's and addresses the error prior to any cancer treatment or surgery taking place.
For more information about the know error® specimen security system with unique patient code and DNA confirmation, please visit our web site at www.knowerror.com.
Eric J. Suba, John D. Pfeifer and Stephen S. Raab Patient Identification Error Among Prostate Needle Core Biopsy Specimens--Are We Ready for a DNA Time-Out? Journal of Urology Vol. 178, 1245-1248, October 2007
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