Recent years have witnessed great development of TLA (Total Laboratory Automation) technology, however, its application hit the bottleneck of high cost and openess to other parties' instruments. Specifically speaking, the initial purchase of the medical devices requires large sum of money and the new system can hardly be compatible with existing equipment. This thesis proposes a new thought for system implementation that through incremental upgrade, the initial capital investment can be reduced and through open architecture and interfaces, the seamless connection of different devices can be achieved. This thesis elaborates on the standards that open architecture design should follow in aspect of mechanics, electro-communication and information interaction and the key technology points in system implementation.
Automation, Laboratory ; Computer Systems

Liquid level detection (LLD) is necessary for eliminating carry-over of needle's outside by limiting the depth the needle probes into liquid in auto clinical laboratory analyzers. This paper listed various demands of liquid-handling system under different situations; reviewed various LLD techniques, such as capacitive, air pressure, mechanical vibration, ultrasound, light reflection, CCD imaging etc.; briefly introduced the working principles, features, and limitation of the LLDs; and recapitulated the characteristics of contact and non-contact LLDs. Lastly, the next generation technique of LLD is prospected.
Automation ; Clinical Laboratory Techniques ; instrumentation ; methods

In view of the fact that medical inspection equipment sold in the domestic market is mainly imported from abroad and very expensive, we developed a full-automatic fluorescence analyzer in our center, presented in this paper. The present paper introduces the hardware architecture design of FPGA/DSP motion controlling card+PC+ STM32 embedded micro processing unit, software system based on C# multi thread, design and implementation of double-unit communication in detail. By simplifying the hardware structure, selecting hardware legitimately and adopting control system software to object-oriented technology, we have improved the precision and velocity of the control system significantly. Finally, the performance test showed that the control system could meet the needs of automated fluorescence analyzer on the functionality, performance and cost.
Automation, Laboratory ; Equipment Design ; Fluorescence ; Software

This paper introduces a kind of evaluation method in pipetting performance on new fully automated biochemistry analyzers by experiments. The performance of sample pipetting volume is confirmed by dye dilution method, the performance of reagent pipetting volume and dummy volume is done by weighing method. Meanwhile, researches and comparative researches on dummy volumes in different conditions have been made, providing valuable reference for clinical applications of automatic biochemistry analyzers.
Automation, Laboratory ; instrumentation ; methods ; Biochemistry ; instrumentation ; methods

BACKGROUND: For the efficient management of clinical pathology laboratory, not only the economic side but also the quality of test should be considered. Therefore, the authors investigated the status of laboratory in the management point including the status of technical personnel by survey and tried to find out the fundamental status of work environment, laboratory automation, computerization, and to evaluate the efficiency of management of clinical pathology laboratories in Korea. METHOD: The questionnaires included those for investigating laboratory management status, qualities of laboratory personnels, workloads, test items and numbers of tests performed annually. It contained 22 items with 32 detailed sub-questionnaires for laboratory personnel survey, and 9 items with 106 detailed sub-questionnaires for facilities. We sent those three times to 400 laboratories that were participating in the National External Quality Assessment Scheme in Korea and analysed the answers by descriptive statistics, ANOVA, t-test and correlation analysis. RESULTS: The replies were from 96 laboratories and 326 technical personnels. Among the 96 laboratories, there were 71 full time employed clinical pathologists. The annually performed number of tests were increased with the increased the size of laboratory, that was classified by number of personnels. As the laboratory size was increased, part time personnels, cases of test per technical personnel, automation and computerization, satisfaction for their work (58,2%) were increased but decreased satisfaction of salaries. CONCLUSIONS: We surveyed the present employee status of laboratory personnels and status of laboratory and offered fundamental data of clinical laboratory management in Korea.
Automation ; Automation, Laboratory ; Humans ; Korea* ; Laboratory Personnel ; Pathology, Clinical ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits

BACKGROUND: The transition from manual processing of patient samples to automated workflows in medical microbiology is challenging. Although automation enables microbiologists to evaluate all samples following the same incubation period, the essential incubation times have yet to be determined. We defined essential incubation times for detecting methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), multi-drug resistant gram-negative bacteria (MDRGN), and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). METHODS: We monitored the growth kinetics of MRSA, MDRGN, and VRE between two and 48 hours on chromogenic media to establish the time points of first growth, single colony appearance, and typical morphology for 102, 104, 106, and 108 colony forming units/mL. Subsequently, we imaged plates inoculated with 778 patient samples after 20, 24, and 36 hours. RESULTS: The first growth, single colony appearance, and typical morphology time points were inoculum-dependent. First growth appeared after 6–18 hours, 4–18 hours, and 8–48 hours for MRSA, MDRGN, and VRE, respectively, and single colonies appeared at 12–18 hours, 6–20 hours, and 12–48 hours, respectively. Typical morphology was visible at 14–22 hours and 12–48 hours for MRSA and VRE, but was not determined for MDRGN. By examining patient samples, ≥98% of MRSA and MDRGN were visible 20 hours after the start of incubation. Following 24 hours of incubation, only 79.5% of VRE were clearly visible on the respective plates. CONCLUSIONS: An incubation time of 20 hours is sufficient for detecting MRSA and MDRGN. VRE growth is much slower and requires additional imaging after 36 hours.
Automation ; Automation, Laboratory* ; Bacteria* ; Gram-Negative Bacteria ; Humans ; Kinetics* ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus ; Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci

It may be difficult to establish laboratory information system(LIS) on radioimmunoassay works, which may result in many technical problems on computerization. Recently we have developed integrated information system in the radioimmunoassay works of endocrine laboratory in Kyung Hee Medical center. We have used VAX-6510 with 64 MB main memory and VAX-6210 with 32 MB main memory (DEC; Digital Equipment INC) which are main computers of the hospital. Additional devices were only 4 terminals and 4 printers in the laboratory and the office. This system has measurably changed the allocation of technologists' time and effort, the number of the clerical support staff in the laboratory and the speed and accuracy of laboratory response. And physicians could easily obtain and compare the patients' current and past laboratory results with computerization. In this article we have focused on experience gained in the automation of radioimmunoassay works of endocrine laboratory. The authors suggest that this computerized system of endocrine laboratory could provide a progressive approach to total LIS and it could serve as a model for other hospitals.
Automation ; Clinical Laboratory Information Systems* ; Information Systems ; Memory ; Radioimmunoassay*

No abstract available.
Automation, Laboratory/*methods ; Culture Media/*classification ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Sputum/*microbiology ; Tuberculosis, Pleural/*diagnosis

No abstract available.
*Algorithms ; Automation ; Clinical Laboratory Information Systems/*standards ; Humans ; Immunoassay/*methods ; Indicator Dilution Techniques ; alpha-Fetoproteins/*analysis

BACKGROUND: Recent advances in laboratory information systems have largely been focused on automation. However, the phlebotomy services have not been completely automated. To address this issue, we introduced an automated reception and turnaround time (TAT) management system, for the first time in Korea, whereby the patient's information is transmitted directly to the actual phlebotomy site and the TAT for each phlebotomy step can be monitored at a glance. METHODS: The GNT5 system (Energium Co., Ltd., Korea) was installed in June 2013. The automated reception and TAT management system has been in operation since February 2014. Integration of the automated reception machine with the GNT5 allowed for direct transmission of laboratory order information to the GNT5 without involving any manual reception step. We used the mean TAT from reception to actual phlebotomy as the parameter for evaluating the efficiency of our system. RESULTS: Mean TAT decreased from 5:45 min to 2:42 min after operationalization of the system. The mean number of patients in queue decreased from 2.9 to 1.0. Further, the number of cases taking more than five minutes from reception to phlebotomy, defined as the defect rate, decreased from 20.1% to 9.7%. CONCLUSIONS: The use of automated reception and TAT management system was associated with a decrease of overall TAT and an improved workflow at the phlebotomy room.
Automation, Laboratory ; Efficiency, Organizational/*standards ; Phlebotomy/*statistics & numerical data ; Republic of Korea ; Time Factors ; Workflow