Fourth Annual DNA Grantees' Workshop

Wednesday, June 25, 2003

AFTERNOON SESSION

Advances to Reduce Laboratory Bottlenecks
Julie Kidd

MS. BASHINSKI: Our next speaker is Julie Kidd. Julie is with the FBI's DNA Unit and she formerly was a staff member for Cellmark for 7 years and worked 2 years with the Maryland State Police.

MS. KIDD: Good afternoon. I was asked by Lois Tully, a former Cellmark employee, if I could possibly come as the FBI representative and tell you what we're doing to hopefully reduce some of the stress resulting from the thousands and thousands of cases that we see. So I'm here to tell you about the small advances that we taken in our laboratory that respond directly to Sindey's discussion.

As you know, I work for the nuclear section of the FBI, which encompasses about 40 to 45 people. If you didn't know, we work as a team concept, so we have about 10 examiners and 2 or 3 analysts that work on the teams of all those examiners.

As an examiner, it's my role to discuss, direct, and supervise my analysts on which items of the case are most probative to look at or to put through serology, short tandem repeats (STRs), or whatever. As a unit we usually report on 1,000 to 1,200 cases every year, so there's a lot coming in and a lot going out.

As part of this discussion group, I was asked if I could talk about things that could expedite casework that didn't involve hiring new people or bringing on new technologies. Sure, if we could hire another 10 people and get a couple more 3100s, then we could get stuff done a lot faster, but that's not what is being asked.

So I looked for the bottlenecks in our laboratory; that is, the mundane things that took just a little bit of time. Probably our largest bottleneck is actually taking notes as a serologist. You know, you have to identify how the item came in, how it was sealed, what was it labeled as, and what are we looking at, which demands a lot of rather time-consuming notetaking.

We also take a lot of similar notes on the same items that go to PCR (polymerase chain reaction). It's very repetitive. We have a long case file number and a long case identification number, both of which take a long time to write down and it leaves a lot of room for transcriptional errors. Because of that technical reviewers are always having to go back and look at everything again. Like Sindey said, let's see if we can get some type of technology that will eliminate that. Let's make it one less thing that we have to worry about.

Another problem, of course, is assessing the profiles that we get in the STRs. We know that a lot of artifacts, such as minus A and stutter, go along with STRs. We need to develop some type of a filter or a macro that would eliminate some of those artifacts. Maybe we could import all of the data so we as examiners know that it's transcribing correctly and so we don't repeat the same information over and over again. If it could be neat and we could get prompts, then it would reduce the amount of time for the technical reviewer, who has to make sure that all of the page numbers are there, that the initials are there, that the case file is the same, and so on.

I thought that I would bring you a couple of overhead slides to show you where we've been, where we are, and what we've done—again, not bringing on new technologies or spending more money on personnel or technology.

This is where we used to be several years ago. All of our serology was handwritten on just regular pieces of paper. We had templates for such things as shirts, underwear, and pants. The serologist would then take all our notes manually and mark where the stains were, and if they were really lucky, then they would use colored pencils to make them very beautiful for demonstrative purposes.

As you can imagine, this was very low tech and very time consuming, and with the help of some of our laboratory's information technology people, we moved on from this.

The next thing that we did was we created templates. Again, the serologist is still transcribing all of his/her notes, but at least we've got a template that gives us a uniform place for our laboratory number, our contributor, the date, and all the exams that we're doing, such as phenolthalene, hemochromagens, and anti-humans.

Aside from taking notes, a lot of time can be spent taking photographs. In our case, we worked with an MP4 camera, which if you ever used one, you know can be difficult to work with. Sometimes the background isn't right or the contrast isn't right or things are too big or too small. Also, it's a one-time camera picture, and that picture is actually stapled into the notes. So if your notes are being discovered, you have to then mess with a color Xerox to see if you can get something that is satisfactory for discovery.

So this is where we are now. Again, we've got the template for our serological examinations. Everything is done on the computer, so it's a lot easier to read and we can catch spelling mistakes. We can cut and paste. Technical reviews are much easier because you don't have to deal with particularly bad penmanship. So, the templates make it very easy for both the serologist and the technical reviewer.

Here's a picture of some actual evidence in a particular case. It's taken with a digital camera, and it can be imported into your file and reproduced again and again for discovery purposes. This has definitely take away the worries of the MP4 camera and we don't have to use color pencils. Plus, it takes the guesswork out of how big or small something is. So this has saved us a tremendous amount of time in our serology.

We've taken some of this technology to PCR (polymerase chain reaction) notes for STRs. Someone from our laboratory visited another lab that actually had this type of software already online. They called it a DataStar form. We were then able to adapt their forms and their computer language to work well with our system and our casework.

So what happens is you go ahead and describe the item in the sample information and indicate the question number and laboratory number. All of this can be saved and imported to the next sheet, which contains our hybridization and extraction information, and then to the next sheet, which is our slot blot information sheet. It also imports all of the samples and extraction and slot blot information and can calculate your dilutions for your slot blot. Then after the quantitations have been done on the slot blot, it can be imported into your amplification sheet, again with all your Q blanks, K blanks, positive controls, and proper dilutions. It's a little busy, but once you get familiar with it, it's a little bit more helpful.

Now, I know this doesn't save hours and hours of time, but it does save you 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there, 20 minutes there, so it does add up. This is something that you can do in your laboratory without additional personnel or 3100s. In the end, it saves a lot of different people a little bit of time: It saves on the technical review aspect, serology, and even on reproducing all that stuff for discovery.

We're also working on filters and macros to, like I said before, to help us on the interpretation of STRs, not so much with mixtures, but definitely on the Genotyper. When it can come out clean without your minus A and your stutter peaks, it makes a very nice presentation. We're working on all of the validation to make sure that there isn't something that is accidentally taken off by the filter or missed or incorrectly marked. So we're hoping that that helps us a little bit with our STR interpretation.

We're also looking towards STACS (Sample Tracking and Control System) and a LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) but that's kind of far off. Remember, we are the Government, and the Government moves very slowly.

Anyway, these are some of the things that have helped us get the casework moving a little bit quicker in our laboratory. Hopefully this will get you thinking about doing something in your laboratories that you're not already doing. These things are not expensive, and you don't have to buy elaborate systems to make it work. If you have any other questions, please can contact me and I can put you in touch with the information technology staff at our the laboratory. Anyway, thanks, and if there's anything I can help you with just feel free to give me a call.

MS. BASHINSKI: I have actually just one little question right now. Is there any way to lock the electronic notes after the case is over? Do you have any kind of security on the information?

MS. KIDD: As far as keeping it on the computer?

MS. BASHINSKI: I'm wondering if the notes are secure in that you can't go back and change them or anything like that, because that's a difficulty a lot of people run into when they run into electronics.

MS. KIDD: In our lab, the person who makes the notes on the computer always initials the bottom of the page. If those initials aren't there in the original pen, then we know that someone has copied it, changed something, or made some type of correction. Also, I review and approve the notes, so I also initial the bottom of the page.

I know that a lot of people were very unhappy and not secure with going away from the handwritten serological notes, but I think we have become happy with this system, especially the experts who are hired to review all our cases. They are very happy that they can actually decipher what we're saying. They no longer have to deal with illegible handwriting.

I look at the initials as our safety net. It is easy to see whether the initials are in the original pen or have been Xeroxed, so I think that's how we're getting along on that issue.

MS. BASHINSKI: Thanks.