'Ground-breaking' integrated modular system integrates a full menu of immunoassay and clinical chemistry tests without the need for splitting samples
Bayer Diagnostics has announced the launch of what it says is a ground-breaking new integrated modular system - known as Advia IMS 800i - which integrates a full menu of immunoassay and clinical chemistry tests without the need for splitting samples. First revealed to customers in Ireland in June 2003, Advia IMS 800i is a compact instrument which has been designed to help smaller laboratories meet pathology modernisation targets while taking workflow efficiency to a new level.
Advia IMS 800i allows the processing of immunoassay and clinical chemistry workflow to be successfully combined without any limitations in terms of future menu expansion.
Two technologically advanced detection methods have been incorporated into the system to ensure that it can expand to accommodate changing assay menu requirements. Routine operational procedures are fully automated by Advia IMS 800i which utilises Smart Access software to deliver worry-free sample management.
This software predetermines the most efficient and productive route for each individual sample tube to take, while incorporating automatic dilutions and sample re-runs.
The system has capacity for 144 samples, which can be loaded in a variety of different sized sample cups and tubes.
Up to 75 refrigerated reagents can also be carried on board, ready for use with no need for pre-analytical preparation.
Delegates attending Bayer's ImmunoChemistry Roadshow at the company's manufacturing facility in Dublin in June 2003 were among the first customers to preview the Advia IMS 800i prior to its official launch this year.
The system is being assembled at the Dublin plant, where prospective customers were taken to see the first analysers on the production line during a short pre-lunch tour.
The new system was very positively received by those who attended.
"I was impressed and surprised by how small its size is", said Anne Marie Hetherton from the nuclear medicine laboratory, St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin. "It's a brilliant concept, and the way forward for new laboratories".
Emer Groarke from the biochemistry laboratory at Waterford Hospital was impressed by that fact that Advia IMS 800i would minimise sample handling for chemistry and immunoassay samples, with no sharing of samples between chemistry and endocrinology.
Tommy Cooke, who works in the biochemistry laboratory at Cork University Hospital, added: "There is a definite niche market for this analyser".
