Gidget: Your guardian in the lab

What is Double Identification / Witnessing?

Double IVF witnessing is defined as identification of patients and traceability of their reproductive cells during each clinical and laboratory procedure which requires paperwork. IVF witnessing is the process of ensuring that embryos, gametes and patients are handled and mixed correctly.

On average, embryologists manually double check identification of patients and their consumables for up to six movements per cycle. In some clinics, this amounts to almost 50,000 critical checks per year, that’s 50,000 chances of variable human error and 2,250 hours of productivity lost to witnessing interruptions.

Although generally recognized as a very rare event in IVF there have been a few instances where biological sample mix-up has been reported. Despite standard operating procedures of many laboratories, including the manual witnessing approach, embryologists are exposed to increased mismatching risks during the manipulation of biological material.

Electronic Witnessing Systems aim to further reduce the risk of error during biological samples handling and have been shown to reduce patient concerns. In addition, Electronic Witnessing Systems enables the electronic traceability of the staff members performing each procedure and the time it was performed, and increases the efficiency of the whole process.

Introducing Gidget

Gidget is an easy to use hand-held device to aid sample identification and tracking during ART procedures to avoid mismatches from occurring. Not only is it an electronic witnessing system, it also provides a customizable workflow management system that is configurable to any clinical lab.

Electronic Witnessing

Gidget is used to scan dishes, tubes and other consumables used to maintain and process patient material, substantially reducing the risk of mismatching and provides a configurable label sets with:

Unique barcoded patient labels are generated and assigned to specific days within the patient’s cycle in advance of a procedure being performed.
Workflow can be tailored to complete the day.
Labels are scanned whenever a double witnessing check is required

Gidget also enables basic connectivity to electronic medical record systems to retrieve patients’ data.

Workflow Customization

Gidget aids error prevention and enables a customised intelligent ART assistance for clinical workflow management and patient tracking by being available on any lab PC through the Gidget Web App and also a dashboard available on a large wall mounted TV screen. Both the Gidget Web App and the dashboard provide:

Configurable process mapping by development day to ensure the next processes are followed. Workflow visibility, the active list highlights the status of patient tasks related directly to cycle days and is visible to all users. Workflow tracking based on workflow rules tailored to each lab by your lab supervisor. Error alerts automatically highlight errors as soon as they occur.

On the hand-held scanner, these customizable workflow rules assist the scientists as they go about their tasks, helping to prevent the omission of key tasks in the witnessing process and providing warnings.

Traceable and Auditable

Each user has a unique barcode log-in to the handheld scanning system where witness events are logged and exportable as a print ready report for review. This includes error resolutions. All information associated with each individual scan is recorded including who resolved errors.