Laboratory Automation
Laboratory automation is a multi-disciplinary strategy to research, develop, optimize and capitalize on technologies in the laboratory that enable new and improved processes. Laboratory automation professionals are academic, commercial and government researchers, scientists and engineers who conduct research and develop new technologies to increase productivity, elevate experimental data quality, reduce lab process cycle times, or enable experimentation that otherwise would be impossible.
The most widely known application of automation technology is laboratory robotics. More generally, the field of automation comprises many different automated laboratory instruments, devices, software algorithms, and methodologies used to enable, expedite and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of scientific research in laboratories.
Automation can be implemented throughout a lab. Starting in the mid-1990s, several commercial laboratory companies and a handful of hospital laboratories took the plunge and installed total laboratory automation (TLA) systems in their high volume core laboratories.
Today, hundreds of clinical pathology laboratories in the United States have turned to laboratory automation as one approach to improving quality, reducing turnaround times for lab test results, to save money, and to improve staff productivity. Interest among clinical laboratories in automation is at an all-time high.
The cost of such TLA systems, however, often leads labs to opt instead for modular automation, which generally consists of consolidated analyzers, integrated analyzers, modular workcells, and pre- and post-analytical automation.
Another automation option is an island of automation, in which a single robotic system or other automatically operating machine functions independently of any other machine or process. Islands of automation offer the lab more flexibility in designing the workflow, and can also perform labor-intensive or hazardous tasks.
The application of technology in today’s laboratories is required to achieve timely progress and remain competitive. Laboratories devoted to activities such as high-throughput screening, combinatorial chemistry, automated clinical and analytical testing, diagnostics, large scale biorepositories, and many others would not exist without advancements in laboratory automation.
Many clinical laboratories are implementing automation solutions as a substitute for manual labor, due to the largest workforce shortage in the history of the medical laboratory industry. Appropriate use of integrated workstations, automated analyzers, and TLA systems all make it possible to re-assign the lab’s most skilled staff members to responsibilities that contribute much higher value.
The development of laboratory automation systems (LAS) would not be possible without sophisticated laboratory information systems (LIS).
Don’t Automate Bad Work Processes in Microbiology
By Scott Wallask | From the Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Automation is not always right for every lab’s microbiology department, according to consultants from bioMérieux. When evaluating automated instruments, it is necessary to review wo…
Eight Macro Trends for Clinical Labs in 2023
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Laboratory administrators and pathologists will want to carefully study eight important trends that will guide their business strategies in 2023. Many of these macro trends center on financial and operational difficulties and ways to steer around these obstacles. Anothe…
Rural Hospital Lab Hits Automation Home Run
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: With the hospital adding specialist physicians and at the same time enjoying sustained growth in outreach test volume, the lab was hit with the dual need to expand the in-house test menu and reconfigure workflow to handle predictions of ongoing growth in outreach testin…
Converting Paper Requisitions to Digital Cut Lab’s Costs
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Health Network Laboratories cut costs and shortened lab test turnaround time by converting paper requisitions to digital data. It did so by scanning paper requisitions and having a vendor do the required data entry. This helped the lab reduce errors in its patient data. Using…
Combining Lean with Lab Automation to Get Impressive Results
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: By combining total lab automation with Lean techniques in a comprehensive makeover of its microbiology lab, one of the largest labs providing hospital acute care and community microbiology services in North America achieved major benefits. Benefits ranged from impro…
RFID Lab Inventory System Saves $465K in First Year
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Seeking ways to automate every aspect of work flow, the clinical laboratory at St. Francis Health System in Tulsa, Oklahoma, implemented a unique automated laboratory inventory management system that utilizes RFID. In the first four months, the system helped the hosp…
Physician Group ACO Targets High-Volume Tests for Savings
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023 Issue
HERE’S AN EXAMPLE OF HOW an accountable care organization views cost control. Atrius Health sought to control excess costs by focusing on high-priced items. It started with inappropriate hospitalizations and imaging studies and moved on to laboratory testing. Atrius Health is…
Magnets to Move Tubes on ARUP’s Testing Line
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: In Salt Lake City, Utah, work is underway to pioneer use of an electro-magnetic conveyor system to automate the movement of large volumes of lab test specimens throughout the testing facility of ARUP Laboratories. Within two years, this new lab automation technology could all…
Pursuing More Benefits From Next Generation Lab Automation
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023 Issue
CEO Summary: Once it was decided to replace an aging, five-year-old laboratory automation system at the laboratory of Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Illinois, the administration at the hospital issued a challenge. It asked the laboratory team to deliver an immediate 10% cos…
Phlebotomy Automation Likely To Be Next Trend
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Here’s a prediction that automation of work processes for phlebotomy, specimen collection, and specimen transport may be the next trend. Unfolding developments in the United States are creating a situation parallel to what was seen in Japanese hospital laboratories more tha…
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