Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Tarrytown, NY, introduced Aptio™ Automation¹, the company’s next generation laboratory automation platform, at the recent AACC and ASCLS Annual Meetings and Clinical Lab Expo.
Aptio Automation combines Siemens’ workflow expertise with peak performance, adaptability, and intelligent technology.
Increasingly, clinical labs are turning to automation to help them meet the growing demand for IVD testing in the face of a shrinking labor force. And, these trends are only expected to continue, as approximately 17% of lab professionals are anticipated to retire in the next 5years.²
By 2014, it’s estimated that the United States alone will need 81,000 additional medical technologists and technicians to replace retiring staff, plus 68,000 more to fill newly created positions.³ Aptio Automation is an adaptable solution that allows for a phased implementation to accommodate both current and future needs of medium- to very high-volume labs.
“We chose Aptio Automation because it can handle increasing workloads while enabling us to use our staff better," says William Bartlett, PhD, joint clinical director of diagnostics, UK’s NHS Tayside, one of the first laboratories to deploy Aptio Automation. "We expect that the implementation of this new platform will allow us to provide a state-of-the-art service that aligns the lab function with Tayside’s overall goals for organizational sustainability and improved patient outcomes.”
With every lab configured differently and floor space at a premium, Aptio Automation’s circular track and modular design ensure it can adapt to nearly any lab or testing environment. It also offers connectivity to Siemens’ portfolio of automation-ready analyzers, facilitating a multidisciplinary approach to testing. Its point-in-space aspiration feature helps streamline workflow by reducing the need to aliquot samples, and its puck-based system with RFID enables individual sample routing and tracking, along with STAT prioritization.
It also delivers comprehensive analytics via powerful, centralized information technology, while having the flexibility to provide pre- and post-analytical capabilities. Siemens’ CentraLink™ Data Management System facilitates efficient sample flow, autoverification, quick access to samples and proactive quality control (QC). The CentraLink System can be customized per end user, speeding up system access and supporting error reduction.
“Siemens is acutely aware of how our customers’ needs have evolved in the face of continuously increasing cost pressures and growing test demand,” says Dave Hickey, CEO, Chemistry, Immunoassay, Automation and Diagnostics IT Business Unit, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. “Aptio Automation represents our latest innovation and vision for how we can help laboratories keep pace in this challenging environment and address their most pressing business and clinical demands.”
¹ Not all product offerings are available in all countries. Aptio Automation is currently available for sale in the United States.
² American Society for Clinical Pathology’s 2011 Vacancy Survey of U.S. Clinical Laboratories. Medscape Today News.
³ Lab Industry Strategic Outlook: Market Trends & Analysis 2009.
[Source: Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics]
