EUGIN Clinic presents the results of the application of this system over the last three years: after more than 20,000 IVF cycles, it has not recorded a single error
Eliminating the slightest possibility of confusion in the identification of patients’ biological samples is vital in a fertility centre. EUGIN Clinic offers this guarantee thanks to the IVF Witness double security electronic system. After three years of implementation and more than 20,000 cycles of in vitro fertilisation (IVF), not one error has been recorded. These are the results presented by Dr. Albert Obradors, embryologist and Eugin’s laboratory director, at the National Congress of the Association for the Study of Reproductive Biology, held in San Sebastian from November 18-20.
Eugin was the first centre in Spain and one of the first in Europe to implement the IVF Witness technology. During this security system’s three years in operation, the clinic has performed 20,156 IVF treatments, which have been subjected to 243,801 automated controls. Even with a human control of 2 or 3 people, during these checks the system detected just 2 discrepancies between the samples, which in both cases ensured the correct association of the patients’ semen samples and eggs.
Full control at all stages
The IVF Witness system keeps the egg, sperm and embryo samples under control from the start of treatment. Patients are issued a card with a personal identification microchip that records all the information generated throughout the process.
In the laboratory, wireless receivers automatically check the identity of the samples, all of which are labelled with a unique microchip assigned to each patient. In the unlikely event of the detection of the slightest abnormality in the sample recognition protocol, the process would stop running.
The IVF Witness system builds on the monitoring tasks performed by the embryologists in the laboratory because, in all cases, the samples of eggs, sperm and embryos are monitored by the system and by up to three professionals, which creates a double security barrier.
“This fourfold checking of the identity of the samples occurs throughout all the stages of the process,” explains Dr. Obradors, whose aim, he says, is “to give the highest level of reliability and quality to the patients, in addition to involving them directly in the identification process of their samples.”
