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The Importance of Consistent Slide Production from Study to Study

Creating slides in your histology lab might seem routine, though your reputation rests solely on the results.
When you need to create multiple slides, it can become difficult to maintain consistency in image quality. This is especially true when it comes to stained slides.

You obviously take your study slides seriously because of how important they are to your career and your work. It's easy to slip up on this, though, when you don't have the proper time or equipment. Outsourcing is the answer, including doing accurate studies and creating quality stains. When you outsource this duty, you'll have a team that can do numerous steps to assure proper processing by using proven techniques and protocols.

How Many Slides Do You Need to Produce?
During an intensive pathological study, you may have to produce several thousand slides to prove your findings. Since many of these may not get reviewed by your sponsor for a while, imagery quality could diminish over time. This can become a problem when you use dyes in your study specimens to highlight certain diseases or tissues.

The problem might come when your sponsor requires you to produce other slides from a specific collection or different study. These slides might not hold up in quality, including the colors from the stains you used.

Maintaining the Same Quality of Imagery
One way to go about keeping slides consistent is to use digital imagery. Doing so is going to mean investing in high-quality and very costly digital cameras, scanners, and software. Your budget might already have major limitations, so investing in this could become problematic if trying to save money.

Even more challenging is taking the time to train your lab employees in using this technology if they're used to doing things differently. Outsourcing this to a third-party lab assures the latest digital imagery technologies to keep your slides consistent. A slide you created a year or two ago, can hold up when a sponsor needs a more careful look at a pharmaceutical study.

Using Automation to Produce Consistent Slides
When you need to produce hundreds of slides, automation is going to come in handy as a massive time-saver. This can also be a very costly endeavor. Part of this automated process can involve creating pre-determined protocols for a validated staining process. You'll be able to save time and not worry about staining errors on each slide, which eliminates pressures on your staff. These are sophisticated technologies best found through an experienced third-party laboratory with years of experience.

Using Graphics to Highlight Specific Imagery
Once you find a high-quality, outsourced team to work with, they'll have the ability to use a lot more digital technology to enhance images. Part of this can include using graphics to highlight details or text you worry might be missed.

Contrasting colors are also possible to make the image easier to analyze. You might have to use a specific color scheme to help text show up better. All of this requires extra time and thought your staff may not have.

Outsourcing to Ease Your Burdens
When slides depend on sustaining your reputation, you shouldn't risk going ahead on your own if you don't have the proper technologies in place.  An outsourced lab is going to have well-trained staff and the latest technologies so you can assure your slides turn out well.

At HSRL, Inc., we offer these services to histology labs and other scientific fields.  Contact us to learn about how we can produce quality slides for all your studies.

HSRL Specializes in Histopathology & Specimen Storage Services

 

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