FDA has cleared the Vitros automation solution from Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Raritan, NJ, a laboratory automation system used as an accessory to clinical laboratory analyzers such as the company’s Vitros chemistry, immunoassay, and integrated diagnostic systems .
The Vitros automation solution is an open platform—both expandable and adaptive—that provides clinical laboratorians with the flexibility needed to operate and grow their labs in exactly the manner that works best for them, even as needs change over time.
“Vitros automation solutions gives us the flexibility to cope with low and high peak capacity,” says Giovanni Garozzo, MD, director of the Transfusion Centers of ASP Ragusa, Italy.
The platform is designed to streamline pre- and postanalytical processes in the clinical laboratory. Elements of a configured system include a personal computer kit (including software and hardware); sample conveyors with turns; parallel and perpendicular bypasses; single-tube and rack entries and exits; a centrifuge; decapper modules; clinical analyzers; and a storage module.
The platform’s automation software connects the laboratory’s analyzers to its laboratory information system, enabling intelligent sample routing based on reagent and calibration status. An instrument manager tool enables flexible data management, and the online storage module permits up to 14,000 samples to be archived and retrieved for retesting.
In the platform’s basic configuration, patient sample tubes are loaded onto the automation track to be centrifuged, decapped, and sorted for further processing on clinical analyzers such as the Vitros systems. Additional modules may be added to the platform to enable aliquot capability, sample capping, and refrigerated storage.
Robert Yates, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics.
According to Robert Yates, chief operating officer at Ortho, the newly cleared platform is Ortho’s answer to the limitations of past automation systems. “Through its flexibility, scalability, and start-to-finish automation capability, our next-generation Vitros automation solutions platform puts high-volume laboratory clinicians in total control of their facilities.”
The platform also enables labs to connect to third-party analyzers in such disciplines as coagulation and hematology, as well as to a select number of third-party immunoassay analyzers that broaden menu coverage.
The platform’s solution for Thermo Scientific TCAutomation allows laboratories to define capabilities over time for optimal efficiency. Platform capabilities provided by IMSolutions deliver instant access to timely, actionable performance metrics, with prewritten autoverification rules to minimize processing disruptions.
Ortho’s proprietary Intellicheck technology offers real-time process control that protects the integrity of results. Additionally, with Ortho’s e-Connectivity remote system diagnostics, instrument performance is continuously tracked, helping to improve instrument uptime, and to identify specific service needs up to 30 days in advance.
Designed to be easily scalable, the platform allows for stepwise investment in additional components and capabilities, allowing laboratories to grow as their needs do and as new modules become available. The system is designed to permit skilled technicians to focus on higher value-added tasks for which human interaction is essential.
For more information, visit Ortho Clinical Diagnostics.
