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 misidentification among all needle biopsies.
The know error® system for breast biopsies, introduced by Diagnostic ID, LLC in 2010, employs DNA Specimen Provenance Assignment (DSPA) and bar code technology to dramatically reduce Specimen Provenance Complications (SPC), such as patient misidentification, virtually eliminating diagnostic mistakes from resulting in adverse patient outcomes. This innovative system dramatically reduces the incidence of SPCs enhancing patient safety and diagnostic accuracy. In cases like Scott Aprile's, the know error®system detects when biopsies have been switched with another patient's prior to any cancer treatment or surgery taking place.
For more information about the know error® system for breast biopsies, please visit our website 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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