Subscribe to our Newsletters !!
Like never seen before, coral reefs across the
High capacity and performance combined with an int
Dr. Mohammed Enayat’s recent testimony on his ag
It is with utmost pride that Microbioz India annou
The world of pharmaceuticals encompasses a broad s
For some time now,
In our cover story, we shine a spotlight on “ The Magazine
The use of automated technology in the laboratory with the purpose of enabling new and enhanced processes is known as laboratory automation. The repetitive chores that were formerly carried out manually by lab personnel or scientists, such as preparing libraries or handling liquids, are often eliminated by lab automation technologies. Nevertheless, as technology develops, it becomes possible to automate increasingly complicated operations and even entire processes.
Moreover, automated technology is becoming a necessity in today’s laboratories in order to meet demand and remain competitive.
Today’s busy laboratories are under growing pressure to increase throughput, efficiency, and quality, and they frequently have to use all of their available resources and personnel. For labs of all types, sizes, and specialties, managing complicated tests, numerous procedures, and labor-intensive sample preparation create substantial obstacles.
To replace manual, repetitive activities, boost throughput, and enhance quality, many labs use laboratory automation. Lab automation can be a game-changer for these labs, whether it’s a single piece of hardware, like a pipette machine or an automatic aliquoting machine, or an entire process automation.
Automation in the lab makes use of technological stand-ins to carry out and enhance otherwise manual procedures. It is being used more and more in sectors including medicines and food and beverage manufacturing.
Automatic lab equipment can complete full workflows, like a sequence of titrations or pH readings, or it can perform a single step, like dosing or pipetting activities. Automated tools assist in ensuring precise, repeatable results with consistent metadata by adhering to a set protocol. Procedures are improved, and compliance is supported more successfully.
Since the 1980s, improvements in lab automation technologies have been used to reduce the costs and time needed to execute tests while also improving the work’s quality and consistency by eliminating human error and standardising procedures. Automation has been established to improve patient, employee, and safety satisfaction.
The possibility to automate more activities has expanded as technology has advanced quickly, and many have adopted the strategy of total automation. Automation, however, raises a number of obstacles and is not as straightforward as simply replacing humans with robots.
Because of technological advancements, staff members must learn how to operate new, complex software that controls laboratory automation. Software created to automate the machinery conducting laboratory operations manages test orders, handles the paths taken by samples, monitors the uniformity of test quality, and detects machine problems or deviation from established protocol.
As technology develops, there is a greater requirement for training scientists who will be using the software for monitoring. However, the manual activities that lab personnel are used to performing may not be very similar to the duty of monitoring software, and the need for retraining to utilise software may make automation extremely difficult.
Due to the learning curve involved in adopting automation processes, new skills must be acquired. Rather than software, laboratory personnel receive training in handling specimens. Software management requires a variety of skill sets, including decision-making on automated test findings, monitoring new equipment, carrying out maintenance processes, and carrying out quality control checks.
The cost of installing the system, buying new hardware, and making necessary environmental adjustments to accommodate the project are all inextricably linked to the investment for implementing lab automation (e.g. enhanced expenditure for preanalytical platforms and assembly lines used for connecting separate analyzers). In some institutions, where the money allotted to the laboratory by the hospital administrations for a new tender remains constant or is even lower than for previous tenders, this can be a problem.
So, a negotiation with the hospital administration would be required to demonstrate clearly the potential return on investment feasible by switching to lab automation, together with a trustworthy financial plan answerable for expenses and estimates of income.
A complicated system may have trouble deciphering what an error signifies. Although some problems are clear and can be fixed right once, other problems develop gradually. To prevent problems from starting, tracking and monitoring of systems are needed. To address testing concerns, it also entails adopting a distinct perspective on system operations and having excellent communication among staff and medical professionals, especially those who might work on various projects.
New automated systems’ errors are sometimes difficult to find. Inaccuracies in procedures can eventually result in a drop-in quality or even erroneous data, while some emerge immediately and have evident effects on the system while others are more subtle and can accumulate over time.
Staff must be trained in tracking and monitoring systems to see problems early and take action before tests are noticeably impacted in order to prevent problems like these from happening.
Whereas before the tests would have been carried out manually, lab staff now need to be taught in a new set of skills.
When moving from the duty of a technician manually handling samples to managing the software systems, staff members also need to change their thinking.
