Research Specimen Processing Technician, Northwest Biospecimen​/Northwest Biotrust

Job Description

The Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology has an outstanding opportunity for a Research Specimen Processing Technician to join their team.

The Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology has an outstanding opportunity for a Research Specimen Processing Technician to join their team.

This position supports Prospective and Customized Biospecimen Procurement and Annotation.

This role has operational access to patient health information and clinical materials, including pathology specimens, archival blocks, and slides.

For these activities, the incumbent must adhere to covered-entity HIPAA Privacy and CLIA rules and has a “dotted line” reporting relationship to the CLIA certificate holders and applicable clinical laboratory management staff.

This is a full-time day shift position located at the University of Washington Medical Center – Montlake campus. The specific work schedule will be discussed with the hiring manager.

The salary information is provided below.

• Review clinic and OR schedules for NWBT cases.
• Obtain NWBT general protocol consent (including research-only biospecimens) pre-operatively or in SCCA clinics.
• Coordinate the collection and processing of biospecimens and associated data for basic research and clinical trials across care teams. All remnant clinical specimens are obtained within an approved Surgical Pathology or Lab Medicine and Pathology clinical stream; technicians must know these standard procedures and policies along with all research requirements and protocols.

• Clinic/pre-operative area:
  Gather IRB-approved clinical information (e.g., questionnaires) and research-only samples (e.g., buccal swabs, cores, urine, and blood).
• Operating rooms:
  Perform intraoperative blood work with anesthesia teams, including special timed protocols for prospective blood and sterile biospecimen collection under pathology direction.
• Pathology gross rooms and frozen section rooms:
  Handle non-sterile collection and processing of tissue after review by pathology attendings, senior residents, or pathology assistants (PAs).

• Communicate clinical histories and research protocol requirements to teams across all collection areas.
• Record all parameters associated with specimens and data (e.g., cold ischemia time, specimen size) and report on this data.
• Communicate with research staff regarding procurement specifics and distribution arrangements.
• Notify designated moonlighting staff of any potential after-hours procurement activity.

• Ensure biospecimens are dissected appropriately, processed quickly, and maintained at the correct temperature.
• Ensure a scout slide is created for solid tissue specimens and reviewed by a pathologist to determine percent necrosis and percent neoplasia.
• Review the final pathology report to confirm there are no inconsistencies or unexpected results related to the research biospecimen, and that the report notes tissue was collected for research.

• Ensure all releases of biospecimens and information comply with patient consent, research protocol, and IRB approvals.
• Log all distributions and obtain signatures from research staff.

• Maintain short-term biospecimen storage and freezer space.
• With proper certification and approvals (including study-specific IRB approvals), may perform other procedures involving direct patient access, such as phlebotomy and patient questionnaires.
• Annotate biospecimens per approved protocols, query clinical databases/records, and pull archived pathology materials for review as needed.
• May assist with other service…