Grant: Operating Grant

Laboratory errors, including specimen misidentification, can have catastrophic impact to patients. It is not uncommon for such errors to be recognized by the laboratory or submitting physicians, and the errors can then be corrected. Some specimens may be at higher risk for misidentification errors, such as gastrointestinal biopsies or prostate and breast needle biopsies, which are accrued and submitted in high numbers by busy clinicians,. We seek to test the hypothesis that there is a background rate of unsuspected specimen mismatch/misidentification in tissue biopsies submitted for microscopic examination to a pathology laboratory. If our hypothesis is correct, we will have identified a significant source of potential adverse affects for patients which may justify changes to the current processes used to submit and evaluate small tissue biopsies.