Mark Reed and Charlotte Duncan from Pro-Lab offer a brief insight into the changing world of laboratory testing, and focus on current antibiotic sensitivity testing.
Over the last 25 years laboratories have seen an incredible advance in automation for sample handing, preparation, dispensing and analysis. For those of us ‘mature’ enough to remember beyond this 25-year period, I'm sure none would have expected to have seen the developments that have come about. Efficiency and accuracy is always the key goal here, although we can't escape the need for savings and the inevitable change in required skill mix for laboratory staff.
Automation is affecting all disciplines in the laboratory, be it biochemistry and haematology, where it all seemed to begin, and now histopathology, cytology and microbiology. It is designed to develop, capitalise and optimise technology within the laboratory and offer improved processes. Professionals working in the laboratory must embrace this change and adopt a new set of base skills to handle the changes, while maintaining their skills as scientists and researches to interpret the results and ensure accuracy. They must also have basic skills to maintain the automated equipment while relying on professional support from engineers, IT specialists, informatics advisors and application specialists employed by the companies
offering and supplying the automation.
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