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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

A Protocol for Rapid Post-mortem Cell Culture of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG)

A Protocol for Rapid Post-mortem Cell Culture of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG)

Published on: March 7, 2017

Increasing the efficiency of autopsy reporting.

Joseph R Siebert¹

¹Department of Laboratories, Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle, Washington and the Department of Pathology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98105, USA. joseph.siebert@seattlechildrens.org

Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine

|December 8, 2009

Summary

Streamlining autopsy reporting with lean principles significantly reduced turnaround time from 53 to 25 days. This enhances timely communication for clinicians and families, improving the autopsy reporting process.

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Area of Science:

Medical diagnostics
Pathology
Healthcare management

Background:

Delayed autopsy reports hinder timely information for clinicians and families.
Inefficiencies in the autopsy reporting process lead to prolonged turnaround times.

Purpose of the Study:

To streamline the autopsy reporting process using lean principles.
To reduce the time required for autopsy report completion.

Main Methods:

Applied lean principles from the Toyota Production System in a workshop setting.
Identified, eliminated, and rescheduled steps in the autopsy report production.
Implemented intermediate deadlines, task visibility, and weekly quality assurance reviews.

Main Results:

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Last Updated: Jun 18, 2026

A Protocol for Rapid Post-mortem Cell Culture of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG)

A Protocol for Rapid Post-mortem Cell Culture of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG)

Published on: March 7, 2017

Enhanced Communication of Tumor Margins Using 3D Scanning and Mapping

Enhanced Communication of Tumor Margins Using 3D Scanning and Mapping

Published on: December 15, 2023

Mean autopsy report completion time decreased from 53 to 25 days.
Percentage of reports completed within 30 days increased from 17% to 72%.
Physician feedback indicated continued appreciation for autopsy quality and timely communication.

Conclusions:

Lean principles effectively reduced autopsy report turnaround time.
The standardized approach improved efficiency and timeliness in the laboratory.
This methodology may benefit other laboratory processes requiring faster reporting.