A recent study presented during ASM 2014 shows Puritan’s Liquid Amies Transport Systems and HydraFlock® flocked swabs work as well or better in Copan's WASP®: Walk-Away Specimen Processor than Copan's own swabs.
In recent years several microbiology lab automation platforms have been introduced to improve laboratories' operation efficiency and daily specimen through put. One critical aspect for laboratories considering automation is to make sure the system is flexible and built to embrace a variety of specimen types and multiple tube sizes.
Testing Microbiology Lab Automation Compatibility
Puritan’s Liquid Amies Transport Systems were tested alongside Copan’s ESwab, a comparable brand of product, with the WASP® instrument, in a comparative study.
The results of the study showed that Puritan Liquid Amies Transport Systems are compatible with the WASP®. The study also demonstrated parity of diagnostic performance between Puritan Liquid Amies and Copan’s ESwab when used in the WASP® instrument.
Puritan’s Liquid Amies with HydraFlock Swabs® are Compatible
Puritan Medical Products produces CLSI M-40 compliant liquid-based specimen collection and transport systems that are designed for use in manual settings as well as with diverse automation platforms in clinical microbiology laboratories.
Puritan Liquid Amies Transport Systems were found to be compatible with most of the available automation platforms available today and can be used as a viable and cost-effective alternative to Copan’s ESwab.
Puritan’s proprietary patented HydraFlock® flocked swabs, together with a modified liquid amies medium, provides an ideal buffered environment for the collection and transport of clinically significant bacteria.
Why Labs Use Microbiology Automation Platforms
The potential value of multi-step automation platforms includes front-end processing, specimen workup, analysis and reporting of results. These values will lead to substantial cost savings, standardization of specimen culturing, rapid and consistent test results, round the clock operations and reporting, and reduced risk of laboratory-acquired infections.
Constantly increasing clinical test volumes by 10% to 15% per year is also an important driving force for automation. Introduction of liquid-based swab transport devices gave an impetus for the automation in addition to shortages of trained technical personnel, reduced reimbursements, and increased emphasis on quality.
Although initial cost of automation is high, it can be justified for medium to large size laboratories with high specimen through put.
This study, entitled, “Engineering Validation of Puritan’s Liquid Amies Transport System and Copan’s WASP Automation”, was presented at the 114th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston, MA held in May, 2014.
