Automated bacteriology ID system to speed lab’s clinical work

Durham, NC – Medical diagnostics company bioMerieux says it has secured a five-year contract with laboratory testing services company MDS Diagnostic Services. Under the terms of this arrangement, bioMerieux will supply its automated bacteriology identification and susceptibility testing (ID/AST) system to eight MDS laboratories in British Columbia and Ontario.

“We serve patients directly through our own community medical laboratories and the hospital labs we manage, which combined, provide more than 50 million clinical tests every year,” says Dr Brian Sheridan, senior vice president of medical affairs, MDS Diagnostic Services. “After evaluating several providers, we selected the VITEK 2 because of its ability to manage, with accuracy and speed, the large volumes of diagnostic tests processed for physicians and patients in our labs every day.”

The system provides rapid results processing (a two to six hour average turnaround), which enables MDS Diagnostic Services to provide timely and accurate test results to the more than 21,000 health care providers and 17 million patients it serves annually. “We were willing to invest in a fully automated system to support our goal of delivering the highest quality service to our customers,” Sheridan adds.

A fully automated bacterial identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing system, it includes an advanced software system that interprets the identified bacteria’s antibiotic resistance patterns. Additionally, bioMerieux has designed a 64-well susceptibility card specifically for MDS to further enhance productivity on their ID/AST instruments.

The system offers random or batch processing, rapid results and a quality control module. The system is used for bacterial and yeast identification, antimicrobial susceptibility testing and urine screening and features a complete data management system. The system has already been implemented in two labs in BC, and implementation in the Ontario labs will begin this summer.