Olo, a compact blood analyzer from Sight Diagnostics, Tel Aviv, Israel, has been installed in Sheba Tel Hashomer’s special quarantined lab to support the management of coronavirus patients. The blood analyzer will provide rapid complete blood count (CBC) results in a dedicated lab within Israel’s flagship government-run hospital to process samples of infected patients who are being monitored and treated in a separate field hospital.
Currently, Olo is being used for routine testing of Sheba’s positive coronavirus patients. “Olo’s compact design makes it easy to set up quickly in a setting reserved for testing only contagious blood samples. Eliminating the risks of processing these samples alongside regular lab samples is uniquely advantageous in managing outbreaks of highly infectious diseases,” said Ram Doolman, PhD, director of Sheba’s Laboratories Division and Automated Mega-Laboratory. “By setting up a quarantined lab that requires special protocols in handling samples from infected patients, we are taking the necessary steps to protect our staff who are on the frontlines, fighting the coronavirus epidemic.”
“Typically, monitoring a patient infected with a virus like COVID-19 would involve taking a blood sample from the infected individual with a needle, labeling vials of drawn blood, sending those vials to a lab outside of the quarantine zone, and receiving the results of the test an hour or more later,” says Yossi Pollak, chief executive officer of Sight. “Olo gives healthcare providers the ability to use a self-contained cartridge to collect two drops of blood, from either a venous or finger prick sample, insert the cartridge into Olo, and receive CBC results in minutes. For health facilities in countries where Olo is available for point-of-care use, that tactical advantage could make a big difference in a field setting.”
In the United States, Olo is 510(k) cleared for use in moderate complexity laboratories; it has not yet been cleared for point-of-care use.
For more information, visit Sight Diagnostics.
