Automate Your World
In a fast-paced environment with a low tolerance for errors, automation is an increasingly popular answer to a number of problems in the laboratory. Challenged by their customers to be faster and better, labs likewise challenge industry to create solutions that are smart and effective.
Why Consider Automation?
Blood banks and diagnostic labs alike find themselves facing similar market forces that lead them in the direction of automation. One big problem is a labor shortage: qualified medical technicians are in short supply1. As a result, the very precious resource of technician time must be allocated accordingly. It is best used for tasks that require thought and adaptability, which are not as easily automated.
A second factor, as in all businesses, is money. Falling reimbursements from the government and insurance companies means that labs need to do more with less in order to stay competitive. Labor represents a large cost, so being able to deploy staff efficiently is an advantage. In addition, automation reduces costs associated with retesting, as the risk of operator error is minimized2.
Despite lower reimbursement costs, laboratory clients have higher and higher expectations for how quickly results can be turned around. Especially for repetitive tasks, tasks that involve calculation, and tasks that require precision, an automated system can work faster and more accurately than a person3.
How Can Automation Help Me?
Automation - particulary full automation - offers a number of advantages over manual methods. The most obvious advantage addresses the first problem described above: operator walkaway time. With a fully automated system, the operator can load samples and consumables on the system, then work on other tasks while the samples are being processed. Minimal intervention is required to troubleshoot problems or load more consumables.
Another advantage that also benefits the labor supply is increased safety. Since the instrument is performing most of the manipulation with potentially infected samples or hazardous chemicals, the risk of exposure to the operator decreases2. This decreased risk has a number of its own advantages, including safer laboratory conditions, lower worker's compensation costs and, most importantly, happier workers.
In addition to helping with labor efficiency, automation can offer improvements in data management efficiency. With the integration of hardware and software, data entry is automatic, data synthesis is accurate, and data retrieval is fast and easy.
Finally, the process controls built in to an automated system offer greater assurance that the end result is accurate. For highly sophisticated assays, parameters like room temperature, reagent volume dispensed, and the duration of a reaction step are critical to the end result. While humans may not sense a change in room temperature, may miscalculate the volume required, or may forget to time the reaction, an automated system can be designed to monitor these parameters precisely and alert the operator when something is amiss.
Where Is Automation Heading?
As automation becomes more routine in laboratories, the labs are better aware of their needs and how automation can best fit into their processes. One feature that has proved valuable is connectivity between different pieces of an overall system. The better an instrument can allow communication with existing systems, such as a laboratory information system, the less work is required to make results usable. Along the same lines, laboratories want systems that are adaptable, so that separate instruments are not required for each and every test4.
Adaptability means lower equipment and labor costs, lower lab space demands, less training required, and faster turnaround times. In other words, laboratories are looking for systems that not only successfully automate the process they are designed for, but also look beyond their own process to make overall operations easier and more efficient.
References
- Markin, Rodney S. May, 2002. Brainy Solutions. CAP Today. p. 88.
- Blick, Kenneth E. 1999. Current Trends in Automation of Immunoassays. Journal of Clinical Ligand Assay. Vol. 22, No. 1: 6 - 12.
- Smith, Todd. January, 2004. The Automation Impulse. Advance Newsmagazines for Administrators of the Laboratory.
- Wolfe, Olive J. September, 2003. Immunoassay Technology Forging Ahead. Advance Newsmagazines for Administrators of the Laboratory.