ABSTRACT
Quality management is the cornerstone of modern clinical embryology, and it is widely believed that a successful IVF laboratory requires a high level of quality control, ensuring constant improvements by a cycle of measurement, assessment, and corrective action. Despite this mainstream adoption, the tools of quality control have not progressed significantly in several decades, with antiquated ways of recording laboratory data and only a cursory reflection on the results. Quality control data is often transcribed onto paper and buried in folders and binders with little analysis undertaken.
This chapter examines current practice, the reasons behind the low adoption rate of recording laboratory quality control data electronically, and the use of cloud computing for quality control purposes—used extensively in other industries—which can be harnessed to review laboratory data effectively, efficiently, and remotely.
Together with applications aiding the digital advancement of the IVF laboratory, new advances in telecommunications and micro-electro-mechanical sensors form a technology called the “internet of things.” This “ubiquitous computing” facilitated by various forms of cloud computing has the potential to revolutionize how we monitor and maintain essential equipment in the IVF laboratory.
