GEM7000 Validation Question

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Let me preface this with I have only worked in a clinical lab for 8 months, and thus am new to everything. 

I am validating our new GEM7000 Blood Gas Analyzers. I am told that I need to validate venous, arterial, capillary and cord samples as those are the ones we will be testing on the floors. My question is, what do I actually need to do to validate these sample types? I know that is a naive question, and that I sound quite ignorant to this topic, but I am lost. No one else in my lab has ever worked with these analyzers and is unfamiliar with this process too. 

I appreciate all the help I can get right now, and please go easy on me (again, just a baby here). Thanks! 

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We performed a performance verification by running the PVP samples.  Our policy requires 20 samples for validation.  We performed a comparison study between our GEM/chemistry analyzer and GEM/hematology analyzer.

Aimee,
I would say “Yes” to your question.
My reasoning is that the sample type—particularly venous/arterial versus capillary—may affect how the analyzer processes the sample. We conducted a similar study within our system and found that the capillary samples, collected using a capillary tube and then introduced into the analyzer with the capillary tube, did not match the laboratory results or the venous/arterial results.  (We collected both at the same time from some brave MT volunteers) 

Jeremy, 
Honestly, we did not compare capillary or cord samples during the validation since it is difficult to get samples and most likely they comparison results most likely will not meet our allowable acceptance criteria.  Werfen actually performed the validation for/with us.

I would highly recommend reaching out to Werfen and having one of their support folks help, or, better yet, come on-site to assist.

I am piggy backing to Autilia's response. We had Werfen come out and they completed the whole validation testing for us and even inputted the data into EP Evaluator and printed them off for our medical director to perform. I was pretty impressed. 

Thank you all for your responses. Werfen came out, but we did not validate sample types or at least that was my impression. We did PVP, linearity, and correlation to AVOX, iSTAT and DxH. I am currently finishing up correlation to DxC for the lytes, glucose and lactate. Which all of the correlations were with venous. I have reached out to my contact at Werfen to verify what I am to do, but also wanted to get some other opinions for what people have done. I appreciate you all! 

Aimee,
Word of caution coming from years of experience:  The vendors will typically tell you what they think is required to validate that their analyzer is functioning correctly.  This does NOT always line up with what is regulatorily required.  In a few cases that I've been involved in, when vendor was shown the actual regulations that dictated what need to be done, they still argued against them.  

Jeremy, 
Thank you for that word of caution. That actually gave me a bit more direction. We are implementing the GEM7000, Avox, and Hemochron at the same time, while also building a new lab from the ground up. So I am very overwhelmed and learning everything as I go. 

Aimee, this forum will be very helpful to your endeavors.  Together, these dedicated laboratorians bring hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years of combined experience.

If you were to ask Werfen how to validate, they will always defer and say it is based on your lab director's discretion. Regulations usually aren't very specific in terms of how to validate/verify and it really is up to your lab director. 

Do you have another blood gas analyzer methodology to compare with? 
Do you have easy access to the specimen types you need to validate? 

Hi Jo,
The blood gas analyzer currently used is at our reference lab. I do have an Avox for co-ox and the iSTAT for the rest of POC blood gas. We have already correlated venous to those. As for arterial, cord and capillary, I don't have easy access to those specimen types. RT may be able to help me get arterial and potentially cord, but capillary will have to be from volunteers. We currently only have an interim lab director and our medical director works for our reference lab and has not answered my questions yet, so I will ask my interim director again what they would like to see happen for these other sample types. 

You should also probably consult with your medical/lab  director or section supervisor and find out what their validation processes entail, and model your validation after theirs. They may even have written policies that tell you what they do. Since you are so new to all of this, don't be shy about enlisting the help of anyone/everyone who can help point you in the right direction. others have already recommended consulting with your Werfen Technical Specialist, and I agree that they can be very helpful, but will probably tell you that they need to follow your institution's validation guidelines. 

Hi Gloria, 

I had already talked to everyone I could in my lab before asking the question here. I now have my answer thankfully! 

I am also validating a GEM7000. I am also very new to blood gases, and while we run GEM in main lab - POC is so different! How are you feeling in validating so far?

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