2015/03/31

INDYSTAR March 13, 2015: DNA evidence used to prevent costly, traumatic medical errors

Indianapolis forensic science lab uses it DNA testing expertise to help prevent mix-ups and contamination of breast and prostate biopsies to decrease number of cancer misdiagnoses.

The same DNA tests used to catch criminals are now being used to prevent doctors from operating on the wrong patients.

Indianapolis-based Strand Analytical Laboratories, which was started a decade ago to run DNA tests on crime scene evidence, now spends most of its time helping solve false positives on cancer biopsies.

The company, started by former Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman, did not set out to switch its focus. However, six years ago, one of the company’s leaders saw a news report about a patient who had unnecessary prostate surgery. His biopsy was switched with that of another man who did have cancer.

Such events are surprisingly common, and the effects can be severe.

In 2010, a Boston man sued his hospital after he became incontinent after prostate surgery that revealed he did not have cancer. After his surgery, he learned the pathologist had switched his specimen with that of another man.

A Pittsburgh man left impotent by prostate surgery learned 10 days after surgery that there had been a mix-up of his specimen with that of another man. He won a multimillion lawsuit against his healthcare providers.

In 2008 a Long Island woman died after having surgery to remove both of her breasts, although it turned out that her samples had been interchanged with that of another woman. more