VENTANA^® HE 600

My name is Robert Bobkowski, I’m the chief of Pathology and the laboratory medical director at Stanford Hospital in Stanford Connecticut. I’ve been practicing anatomic pathology since 1996.

I was very excited to move in from Symphony to the VENTANA HE 600 because to me it is an advance and the evolution of a product that I already love, which has now just been made better. So I have something that is now even easier to use, the slides are more beautiful, the consistency is there, and again I have a happy crew. My histotechs are very able to focus on other parts of histology, special stains, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, which is where the future is. 

The VENTANA HE 600 has allowed us to streamline and become more efficient and also produce higher-quality slides. The main advantage is that we can load 3 trays at once, and we found that that has allowed us to be more productive. Also, another advantage is that there is no DI water and you do not use alcohol. 

I love the VENTANA HE 600 because we don’t have to be exposed to the xylin or alcohol. With the HE 600, all you have to do is load the machine and it will take it from deparaffinization to coverslipping without the technician having to do anything. And we have great results. 

The slides, we have noticed, are just much higher quality. The stain is much more vivid and much easier for the pathologist to read. 

The overall quality of the HE 600 allows for less recuts and better even staining throughout the staining process. 

So individualized slide staining in our laboratory enabled us to, frankly, change our workflow, become much more efficient, and frankly, because of the product, we’ve started taking quality of staining for granted. We have perfect slides, every day. If you’re a pathologist you know exactly what I’m talking about.