While serving the region, Doylestown Health has a relatively small clinical laboratory. To better serve its community, it added next-generation sequencing in 2023.
By Chris Wolski
Summary
Doylestown Health, after over a century of service, has modernized its pathology lab by implementing the Thermo Fisher Scientific Ion Torrent Genexus System for in-house next-generation sequencing (NGS), significantly reducing turnaround times and costs.
Takeaways
- Implementation of the Genexus System: Doylestown Health chose the Thermo Fisher Scientific Ion Torrent Genexus System to enable in-house NGS testing for colorectal and lung cancer, addressing limitations in space and personnel.
- Improved Efficiency and Cost Savings: The new system reduced turnaround times for test results from over three weeks to under 72 hours and decreased the cost per test by approximately 30%, saving the lab $91,000 within the first five months.
- Successful Fundraising and Expansion: Fundraising for the system was completed in just three weeks, and the pathology lab plans to expand its testing capabilities and personnel, including adding a myeloid panel and a hemato-pathologist.
Doylestown Health has served Doylestown, Pa., for more than 100 years. During that time it has grown into a regional health care center with 245 beds, and while the clinical laboratory processes more than 1 million tests per year—it can’t do everything.
This was particularly the case with next-generation sequencing (NGS). These tests had to be processed by an outside reference lab. And, while it provided good service to Doylestown Health, there were some downsides, specifically, a long turnaround time (TAT) of 18 to 21 days and the associated costs.
Leadership wanted to improve both these metrics, but the anatomic pathology lab is both small in space and lean in personnel with only four pathologists, no PhDs, and four technical FTEs. This brought up a fundamental question that had to be answered, according to Allison Eck, DHA, HTL(ASCP), QLS, director of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Doylestown Health.
“Is this something we could do in-house?” she recalls.
Because of the limited space and personnel, the pathology lab needed a system that could fit into its footprint and not require significant staff time to run and maintain. There were also financial considerations as well. There was no budget to add a new system at the time it was needed.
Thermo Fisher: The Solution for Doylestown Health
Fundraising for the new system went incredibly smoothly, according to Eck. In just three weeks there was enough in the coffers to fund the new system.
Eck and her colleagues chose the Thermo Fisher Scientific Ion Torrent Genexus System to provide NGS testing for colorectal and lung cancer. There were several reasons why the Genexus System was the right platform for Doylestown Health, including:
- Minimal hands-on touch points
- Automation of both purification and sequencing
- Ease of use
- Ready to use libraries
- Faster TAT
- Ease of bioinformatics interpretation
“We chose Thermo Fisher because we don’t have a specialty group and wanted something that was easy to use and very automated,” says Eck. “The automated purification system sealed the deal. It’s incredibly easy to use.”
In addition, Eck says that the pathology laboratory tapped its internal resources, training up an existing histo-tech. One of the pathologists had some experience with NGS, and did some additional training and a refresher course to get up to speed. The lab was also able to add an additional FTE.
Doylestown Health See the Benefits
The benefits of adding the Genexus System were almost immediate. Within the first five months of operation, the pathology lab realized a savings of $91,000.
Specifically, TAT dropped from nearly three weeks or more to under 72 hours for getting results into patients’ hands, while the cost per test decreased by approximately 30%.
Within the first year of operation, Doylestown Health completed 150 tests for colorectal and lung cancer.
Eck says that there are plans afoot to expand the tumor types they will be testing for, including a myeloid panel. And personnel are expanding along with the tests with the addition of a hemato-pathologist.
“We can definitely expand what we’re doing with our instrument,” says Eck.
Featured Image: Though it has limited space, Doylestown Health has been able to add NGS with a Thermo Fisher Genexus System. Photo: Doylestown Health
Chris Wolski is the chief editor of CLP.
