Europe’s first Tracer-QC installation
05/01/2022
Haukeland University Hospital pioneers automatic radiotracer QC methodology
LabLogic have been working closely with Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, where we’ve just installed Europe’s first Tracer-QC. Developed in partnership with Trace-Ability, Tracer-QC is our revolutionary automated quality control solution for PET radiotracers.
An Exceptional Partner
Elvir Zahirovic, Sales Director at LabLogic, said “This is a significant step forward to bringing the Tracer-QC to the European market. It gives us invaluable feedback of the Tracer-QC rHPLC configuration required for testing of 18F-FDG in Europe.
“We are delighted to work with Haukeland University Hospital, we couldn’t have asked for a better partner. They are an exceptional site in terms of their attention to detail, their willingness to embrace new technology, and always looking to improve PET radiopharmaceutical production. This is evident with their deployment of our PETra LIMS software - it is a real credit to the team.”
Haukeland is the largest PET centre in Norway and is a leading center for the treatment of intracranial tumors. We spoke with Ole Heine Kvernenes, Head of Quality Control. He told us how Tracer-QC is revolutionizing the way radiotracers are being quality controlled.
Modernizing the quality control of radiotracers
“Working on Tracer-QC is a fun and exciting opportunity. We are the first site in Europe to install the system and we are excited about what the future holds for an automated system like this.
“I believe the current methods of radiotracer quality control can be improved. Currently, we rely on running separate tests on different equipment and it is a very manual process prone to human error. Currently, we have to match the results to the right batch and cross-contamination is always a concern.
“The process with the Tracer-QC has much less room for operator error and opportunities for cross-contamination, it’s less labor-intensive and allows us to run several quality control tests simultaneously.
Simultaneous quality control testing
“The radiotracer is always wanted as early as possible in the day, because once a patient is injected it can take up to 2 hours before they can be scanned. When you have up to 10 patients waiting to be scanned, it’s a long day with very early starts at 3 or 4 AM in the morning. This is where Tracer-QC comes in because it allows us to run simultaneous quality controls at once, rather than having to do them manually at different times.
Reducing staff training
“Another major benefit has been Tracer-QC’s ease of use. Typically, new lab operators can take up to 3 months of training on all of the equipment, depending on other commitments. Training somebody in using Tracer-QC can be done in hours.
Validation of 18F-FDG and FDOPA
“We are currently seeking validation with the Norwegian medical authorities. Our immediate hopes are to use Tracer-QC for the quality control of 18F-FDG before moving on to other radiotracers such as FDOPA.
“Introducing a new approach to quality control will be not without its challenges, but the support from LabLogic and Trace-Ability has been excellent so far. We’ve had multiple visits from support developers who have been able to resolve issues on-site, this would have taken a lot longer remotely.
“When suggesting improvements to the pharmacopeial methods, we have to at least equal or better the results we can get from the traditional equipment. We are continuing to familiarize ourselves with Tracer-QC’s workflow and generating some sample data. We are beginning to streamline the processes and understand how to best use the system in our facility.
“We are moving forward with great progress, and Tracer-QC promises to be worthwhile.”
Find out more
You can learn more about Tracer-QC by clicking the button below to speak with our product specialist directly and have a one-to-one guided session.