Beckman Coulter has announced a new partnership with German company Smart4Diagnostics to close the pre-analytical data gap between blood collection and laboratory analysis due to errors that take place before the sample arrives in the laboratory.
Clinical laboratories are well aware of the pain points encountered in the pre-analytical phase of the sample journey, which is when the vast majority of errors take place. These include patient identification and sample collection, handling, and transportation. Up to 75% of the errors in the pre-analytical phase take place outside the laboratory, meaning that laboratories have very little, if any, control over this part of the process. In European and North American hospitals, a single pre-analytical error costs on average €200, with the estimated costs of such errors totalling approximately 0.7% of all operating costs.
Requesting that patients provide new samples due to these errors may result in patient discomfort, reduced trust and, most notably, delayed treatments. For laboratories these errors mean extra work, increased operating costs and decreased productivity. Smart4Diagnostics created a data-driven pre-analytical ecosystem. From sample ordering to sample arrival, Smart4Diagnostics collects all relevant data-points to completely monitor sample workflow and conditions. By doing so, it is able to reduce pre-analytical errors in real time while also improving the pre-analytical workflow and quality of treatment.
According to Dr Hans Maria Heyn (CEO, Smart4Diagnostics): “As many as three in four medical decisions are based on diagnostic results – often blood samples. Currently, the first part of this process is being managed manually, which can lead to errors and cause issues, including slow diagnosis, repeated tests on the patient, and wasted resources. This partnership with Beckman Coulter seeks to revolutionise this crucial but underdeveloped area of the healthcare value chain to bring innovation where it can have an instant and substantial impact.”