Seasoned Pathology Lab Manager, Renee Hoyle-Thacker, Brings Innovation to the Process
May 9, 2022
RALEIGH, N.C. (May 9, 2022) — Every innovation begins with a problem. For Renee Hoyle-Thacker, a seasoned pathology lab manager with over a decade of experience, tracking and keeping up with critical, time-sensitive lab specimens has been a real problem for many years.
The WakeMed Pathology Lab processes 67,500 anatomic pathology specimens per year, so some are bound to get lost, right? Absolutely wrong! Renee and her team know that misplacing even one specimen is one too many — even for an organization of WakeMed’s size. Yet, it’s a real issue that she and laboratory leaders all over the country have battled with minimal success.
In fact, in the U.S. alone, 1 in every 1,500 anatomic pathology specimens are lost per year, leading to more than 3.5 million delays in processing for patients who are eagerly awaiting a potentially life-changing diagnosis.*
Renee explains, “Here at WakeMed, time-sensitive anatomic laboratory specimens are often collected at our other facilities or WakeMed Physician Practices locations, and we don’t even know when they’re en route to the main Pathology Laboratory on the Raleigh Campus (where all labs are all processed). For example, if a breast biopsy is collected just before a holiday weekend, we need to know to ensure we have the staff around to process the specimen in time. More importantly, we need to ensure we’re keeping track of the specimens from the time of collection to the time of processing.”
Renee says that often specimens include irreplaceable organs or tissue samples as they’re collected during procedures or biopsies — making it critical that we keep track of them and get them processed quickly for our patients.
Yet, Renee and other lab leaders know that things happen — that specimens do occasionally get misplaced or that specimen transport may be delayed to unforeseen circumstances like traffic or car accidents. Renee started thinking about how to solve this problem, and in discussions with her partner, who happens to be a systems software architect in the health care domain, the wheels started churning on a technology solution that could help.
The LabRunner App is Born
From there, Renee and her partner, Cd (CharanDeep) Singh, talked through the problem and sketched out a rough solution. It was then time to develop the app — aptly named LabRunner — to determine if the concept could work.
LabRunner offers real-time GPS tracking and management of irreplaceable specimens using a mobile app and web portal. Tracking begins when the nurse prepares the specimen and follows it through courier pickup, delivery and lab processing.
Once the functional design was in place, Renee spoke to her leadership team — including Grover Smith, PhD, executive director of Pathology at WakeMed, and Cheshire Cole, manager of Pathology, about the idea. After gaining their support, Renee then met with the WakeMed Innovations team to present the LabRunner concept.
“Just having the guidance and support of the WakeMed Innovations team during an unfamiliar and daunting process was so comforting to me. Up until this point, the Lab had been my whole world — they shepherded me along, gave me pointers and guidance and helped connect me with all the right teams we needed in order to get our technology solution ready for testing.”
So far, Renee and her team have given preliminary demos to the WakeMed Innovations team, Legal department, Information Services and the Technical Review Team — all with encouragement and enthusiasm for the concept. As a result, Renee applied for a grant from the NC IDEA Foundation to get the technology ready for beta testing at WakeMed.
In late April, Renee learned that LabRunner was selected to receive the NC IDEA MICRO Grant for $10,000. LabRunner was one of 15 recipients selected from a pool of more than 150 applicants. These funds will allow Renee and the team to scale the application.
Next, steps for LabRunner include deploying the app to beta testing sites with subsequent expansion throughout the state.
Congratulations to Renee — we can’t wait to see where your innovative idea takes you next!
*The Hospital Lab Lost My Biopsy Sample, What Should I Do? (whitneyfirm.com)
About WakeMed Health & Hospitals
Serving the community since 1961, WakeMed is a not-for-profit health care system founded and based in Raleigh, N.C. WakeMed exists to improve the health and well-being of our community by providing outstanding and compassionate care to all. WakeMed’s 970-bed system comprises a network of facilities throughout the Triangle area, including three full-service hospitals, seven emergency departments, a dedicated Children’s Hospital and Rehabilitation Hospital, more than 80 physician offices and Wake County’s only Level I Trauma Center. WakeMed’s mission-driven team includes more than 10,300 employees, 1,000 volunteers and 1,300 affiliated physicians, along with the more than 580 physicians and providers with WakeMed Physician Practices — all representing the best minds and the biggest hearts and the finest quality in health care and community health. For more information, visit www.wakemed.org or follow WakeMed on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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