Products - Security and Traceability
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Security & Traceability
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Micro Electronics
IVF Witness™
IVF Witness™ provides the ultimate assurance to laboratory staff and patients. Using RFID technology, it locks the patient identity of the sperm, eggs and embryos at every stage of the treatment cycle. At the beginning of each treatment, patients are given an ID card with a unique RFID tag inside. Subsequently, all Petri dishes and test tubes containing the eggs, sperm and embryos will also have a RFID tag attached, onto which the patient identity is passed forward at every stage of the treatment, through to embryo transfer. IVF Witness™ is watching, tracking and recording all of the time, actively preventing patient samples coming into proximity with samples from other patients. IVF Witness™ gives peace of mind that you are offering the best possible standard of treatment.
The process
Each patient is given an ID card which contains their identity. The patient ID cards and sperm pots are usually assigned at administration readers situated in the nurses station or embryology office.
RFID tags are placed on all containers (Petri dishes, test tubes etc) that subsequently contain their samples. Circular, square and rectangular tags are available to fit all types of labware.
In the laboratory an IVF Witness™ reader and a compact touch-screen is placed at each workstation where gametes or embryos are transferred from one container to the next. Readers constantly monitor workstations to ensure that only one patient can be worked on at one time, thus guaranteeing the parentage.
IVF Witness™ card readers are placed at egg collection and embryo transfer rooms to ensure the identity of the female matches that of the eggs and embryos.
When the patient ID card is placed in the card reader the system automatically displays the patient details to the embryologist at the heated IVF workstation in the flow hood.
IVF Witness™ tube readers are used in sperm preparation to facilitate the monitoring of the sample pot and multiple tubes as required.
IVF Witness™ includes a unique labelling system which prints patient information on a sheet of labels arranged in various sizes so that they can be applied to all labware providing additional patient identification.
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Work Areas |
One work area required for each critical working location Microsoft Windows based PC included in Work Area Availble as heated or unheated RFID reader frequency: 13.56MHz Operating temperature: 0°C to +60°C |
| Lab Manager (client software) PC System Requirements |
Operating systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP. Starter Editions are NOT supported. |
| Server / Network requirements | Microsoft SQL Server required (not supplied) Network point required for each Work Area |
IVF Witness Brochure (2.3 MB, 120 hits)
IVF Witness EU Declaration of Conformity.pdf (26.1 KB, 77 hits)
Overlake Reproductive Health – USA
“I certainly feel that we are now doing absolutely everything that we can to satisfy our patients worries, and numerous patients have informed us that they feel better knowing that this safeguard, IVF Witness, is in place.”
S Kelly
CRMF Sheffield – UK
“The tags are very robust and every stage of the IVF process is continuously monitored and recorded in a patient log. That is immensely reassuring for both patients and clinicians.”
Jane Pritchard
Herts and Essex Fertility – UK
“IVF Witness is a very simple to use system where the user feels reassured that at all times the working area is scanned, the forcing function provides comfort to the user and weekend witnessing is now undertaken without the need for a witness to be brought in especially.”
Andy Glew
Centre for Assisted Reproduction, Gateshead, – UK
“The ease of operation is great. It has streamlined our working practice and made for more efficient lab procedures – performed according to our timetable and optimization of the eggs etc rather than the availability of a witness.”
Sophie Jewitt
North West Fertility, Liverpool Women’s Hospital – UK
“…the best bit of kit we’ve ever bought!!!!! “
Dr Stephen Troup
Q. What is RFID?
A. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a generic term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify objects. Labels with tiny micro chips embedded into them are attached to all plasticware linked to a particular patient: culture dishes, test tubes, patient identity cards etc. These microchips broadcast tiny signals that are read by the IVF Witness sensors.
There is no need to directly scan the labels, the whole process is automatic.
The antenna enables the chip to transmit the identification information to the IVF Witness reader. The reader converts the radio waves reflected back from the RFID tag into digital information.
Q. How does the RFID label transmit the information?
A. IVF Witness uses RFID tags, which are made up of a microchip with an antenna, and an interrogator or reader with an antenna. The reader sends out electromagnetic waves. The tag antenna is tuned to receive these waves. The RFID tag draws power from field created by the reader and uses it to power the microchip’s circuits. The chip then modulates the waves that the tag sends back to the reader and the reader converts the new waves into digital data.
Q. Are there any health risks associated with RFID and radio waves?
A. RFID uses the low-end of the electromagnetic spectrum. The waves coming from readers are no more dangerous than the waves coming to your car radio. RI has conducted exhaustive mouse embryo tests to prove that IVF Witness does not have any detrimental effect on the development of embryos.
Q. Why is RFID better than using bar codes?
A. The big difference between the two is bar codes are line-of-sight technology. That is, a scanner has to “see” the bar code to read it, which means it is necessary to orient the bar code towards a scanner for it to be read. Radio frequency identification, by contrast, doesn’t require line of sight. RFID tags can be read as long as they are within range of a reader. Bar codes have other shortcomings as well. If a label is ripped or soiled, there is no way to scan the item.
Q. Why RFID?
A. Other methods currently employed to match patients’ sperm, oocytes and embryos, rely on the user remembering to make the checks, which is prone to human error, and if done incorrectly will give a false positive check. IVF Witness uses RFID technology to provide a level of security that eradicates errors. RFID technology monitors everything in every work area, every second of every day.