Sabine Bischoff

SGV Meeting 2026 · Scientific Programme

CHUV, Lausanne

• 25 November 2026 · 11:25From Incident to Improvement: Critical Incident Reporting (CIRS-LAS) in Everyday Animal Research
  Abstract

  Even in well-run facilities and carefully planned studies, situations arise that nobody could have anticipated. These moments can be a valuable source of information, but only if there is a structured way to capture and share them.

  CIRS-LAS is a voluntary, anonymous reporting system for critical incidents and near misses in laboratory animal science. It is based on a concept that has long been established in human medicine. Its purpose is not documentation for its own sake, but collective learning: an experience that occurs once in one facility becomes knowledge that is available to everyone.

  This talk will work through two real reports in detail - one from experimental work and one from animal husbandry - following each one from submission through analysis to the changes prompted by the report. The first report demonstrates that a measure introduced as a refinement can, under certain conditions, increase severity. The second report concerns a routine step whose omission was almost impossible to notice. It was reported by someone outside the project leadership and illustrates why anonymity is not an end in itself, but rather the very reason this experience was shared.

  We will also address the most frequently asked questions: how anonymity and data protection are ensured and how long reporting actually takes in daily practice.