‘Full Speed Ahead’ with Test Results? Not So Fast
Lab scientists using testing equipment too quickly brings up training concerns in discussions at recent ADLM conference
For better or worse, the entire clinical laboratory industry is built around speed.
Consider this common evidence:
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- Turnaround time frequently serves as a key metric that labs measure.1
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- Vendors tout automated systems to make workflows quicker.2
- Speedier test results often translate to better treatment options for patients.
The benefits of the above factors are obvious. However, at the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) 2024 annual meeting and lab expo, attendees had interesting discussions about whether there are any disadvantages to lab staff moving quickly.
Speed may be a human problem in the lab
From the workflow perspective, downsides exist when medical labs place an emphasis on speed. These disadvantages may be less due to the processes themselves and more related to challenges faced by medical laboratory staff. Bench scientists may be using equipment designed to move tasks along quicker, but they don’t always receive proper training.
“It’s a balance. We don’t just want a quick result,” said Colin Hill, general manager and head of North American clinical operations at in vitro diagnostics manufacturer bioMérieux. At the ADLM conference, the company announced a multiplex panel to detect five common respiratory and throat infections in about 15 minutes, using the BIOFIRE® SPOTFIRE® system. Speed is one of the key advantages bioMérieux promotes when it comes to the SPOTFIRE®.
“We don’t believe speed compromises a quality result,” Hill noted. However, he added that user error can occur if lab scientists or other healthcare staff move too quickly on instruments that are, by design, easy to use:
“There’s a risk, but we’re doing everything we can to mitigate that” from an engineering perspective.
The industry-wide shortage of clinical lab staff can exacerbate the problem in some situations, said Stephen Harding, PhD, vice president of research and development at The Binding Site, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific.
“There is a skills gap. The laboratory is constantly losing people, and yet the technology we’re asking them to run and interpret is getting ever more complex,” Harding observed. “We’re suffering from the fact that the technology is moving so quickly, but we don’t have the workforce that can always run it, and that’s particularly been seen after COVID.”
No clear diagnostic drawbacks with quicker results
From a clinical perspective, it does not appear that there are any glaring drawbacks to labs moving quickly. The faster an ordering physician can get patient test results back, the quicker the care team can take action to address any problems.
Research results published in 2023 in JAMA Network Open indicated that most patients preferred speedy access to their test results, even if those results were abnormal.3
“In this survey study of 8,139 respondents at [four] US academic medical centers, 96% of patients preferred receiving immediately released test results online even if their health care practitioner had not yet reviewed the result,” according to JAMA Network Open.
In many cases, the technology involved in quicker results has already been well established. For example, the multiplex respiratory panel that bioMérieux announced employs the same methodology as other PCR tests, Hill said. The economics behind faster test results are also strong, he added.
Questions to consider when it comes to speed
When it comes to quick diagnostic test results, medical labs must balance the need for patient satisfaction against potential user errors on instruments.
With that in mind, laboratory leaders should ask themselves these questions:
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- Do medical lab scientists who are being asked to move quicker with equipment have the proper training to safely do so?
- Has the lab conducted a risk assessment to evaluate whether staff are interpreting results too quickly, leading to patient safety issues?
The answers to these questions may help determine whether “full speed ahead” is the right objective for a lab when it comes to running tests.
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