Increasing Efficiency in the Lab
One area where automation has proven especially useful is in the pre-analytic phase of testing, where tests are sorted, decapped, aliquoted, labeled, and so forth. This phase of the lab workflow tends to be heavily manual and thus prone to significant human error. For example, one study found2 that, prior to automation, one major medical center experienced as many as 15,000 manual monthly errors in this phase (8,000 sorting or routing errors; 7,000 labeling errors). After automating a number of processes, the group was able to reduce its routing errors by roughly 95% and labeling errors by more than 98%.
Automation solutions are specifically designed to resolve these pre-analytical issues, helping to automatically identify, sort, rack, and prepare clinical specimens for processing, while inspecting for labeling issues. Now, some manufacturers can even assess the quality and quantity of samples as part of pre-analytics. All of this greatly reduces the possibility for error and enhances the speed of processing. In some cases, test tubes are actually physically conveyed from pre-analytical processing to the next phase of analysis, helping to compound any efficiencies gained.
In other areas, automation has helped to dramatically increase the sheer volume of testing. Automation systems are now being designed to handle up to 100,000 units or more per day, and are dramatically increasing the number of units per FTE per day.
There are numerous other areas as well where automation is coming into play. Features like automated storage, refrigeration, and retrieval systems have been helping labs to maintain larger and more efficient biorepositories, the AACC notes3. Now, robotics are increasingly being used to automate physical tasks in the lab, including delivery of samples from different departments into the central lab. On the forward thinking edge of automation, Johns Hopkins University Medicine recently set a record with a 161 mile drone delivery of viable medical specimens4.
