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Specimen Track
A means for transporting laboratory specimens from one workstation to another in an automated lab. (Read the full article)
| "This is more, much more, than a simple specimen transport system -it is an automated lab, in wbich specimens are not merely transportaed, but differentially analyzed as they are split and/or fractionated and distributed to a variety of mini and/or micro analysis stations within the 'complex'.
This is merely an extension of technology that has been around for several decades, routinely processing samples and analyzing them for a variety of medical and biological purposes. I worked with one in the early & mid-1970s, the AutoAnalyzer, a benchtop device configured to biochemically test specimens for evidence of Tay-Sachs, a rare, fatal genetic disease. The test identified carriers (parents), and while we didn't do it in our lab, and perhaps the technology, general equipment sophistication, or general, the pre-automated testing protocols needed to design the automated equipment to replicate the test in a standardized, machine-mediated approach weren't available at the time, but I assume that prenatal tissue or fluid samples could have been tested to ascertain whether fetuses were afflicted with Tay-Sach could have been developed as well.
The whole point is, while these automated labs may, as entire units, be a thing of the future, it will surely be merely a matter of time before amalgamations of equipment superior to the individual AutoAnalyzer could be ganged and integrated in a whole, an automated lab, which would be able to screen for an entire spectrum of characteristics and attributes." (FB, Miami, FL 1/18/2007 7:44:28 PM ) |
| "I once worked in an automated lab (Physician's Automated Lab was its name :P ). Blood counts, urine tests, and all the blood chem tests were done by machines. The lab techs mainly loaded the machines, and evaluated abnormal results (eg, if the red blood cells were off, we'd look at what shape and color they were). It did take humans to load the specimums into the machines though, so it wasn't completely automated.
" (Moondragon 8/28/2009 11:10:45 AM ) |
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