Vedant Diagnostic Center’s quality-improvement study cut pre-testing errors by 70% using low-cost methods
RAJKOT, August 2026 — Original research from a Rajkot-based diagnostic laboratory has been published in the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, the journal of the College of American Pathologists and one of the most established international journals in the field, in continuous publication since 1926. The study appeared online on 21 July 2026 and is indexed in the international medical database PubMed.
The research addresses a problem with direct consequences for patients: most laboratory errors do not occur during testing itself, but before it — during sample collection, labelling, and transport. These “pre-analytical” errors account for an estimated 60% to 70% of all laboratory errors and can lead to repeat tests, delayed diagnosis, or unreliable results.
Conducted at Vedant Diagnostic Center, a NABL-accredited laboratory, the study introduced a structured method to identify and score the riskiest steps in the testing chain, then applied targeted, low-cost corrections — staff training, mandatory expiry checks on collection devices, and temperature monitoring during transport. The result was a statistically significant 70% reduction in pre-analytical errors.
“The most powerful quality improvement available to a laboratory is often not an expensive machine, but a disciplined process,” said Jagdish Chandarana, Founder and Managing Director of Vedant Diagnostic Center and corresponding author of the study, who co-authored it with the laboratory’s head, Dr Kinjal Butani, MD. “We wanted to show that a laboratory outside the major metros can raise quality to international standards with limited resources — and that the evidence for it can stand up in one of the world’s leading journals.”
The publication is notable because original, internationally published research more commonly emerges from large metropolitan or hospital laboratories than from stand-alone laboratories in tier-2 cities. The authors have made the case that the methods are reproducible and can be adopted by the thousands of similar laboratories across India.
Vedant Diagnostic Center is a NABL-accredited clinical diagnostic laboratory in Rajkot (accreditation no. M(EL)T-03015) and a brand partner of Agilus Diagnostics, providing services across clinical chemistry, haematology, coagulation, immunology and microbiology.
The paper is openly accessible at: https://doi.org/10.5858/arpa.2026-0093-OA
