Medical Diagnosis
How Medical Diagnosis keeps up with demand in London – with the help from flowbot® ONE
In London, Medical Diagnosis is running a state-of-the-art COVID-19 testing facility where they process samples from several private clinics. We visited to get a look behind the scenes and see flowbot® ONE in action.
A look behind the scenes
Outside, a long line of people is waiting to get tested at the clinic. And next door, a group of laboratory technicians and molecular biologists are working hard to ensure that everyone gets their test results as soon as possible.
In a corner of the laboratory, the flowbot® ONE is pipetting non-stop to lessen the manual workload of the staff and increase the throughput, which makes a big difference in keeping up with the pandemic.
“We have a lot of samples coming in and we use the flowbot to dispense the liquid into extraction plates, which we then use to process COVID-19 testing,“ explains molecular biologist Phoebe Davey who is one of the primary users of flowbot® ONE at Medical Diagnosis.
The laboratory is working at maximum capacity which is necessary because it is winter 2022, and the number of corona cases is rising rapidly in the UK, as in most parts of the world, along with the Omicron variant.
“It definitely takes some stress away that we don’t have to manually pipette everything. The robot essentially carries the heavy lifting so we can be on top of the rest,” says Phoebe Davey and adds;
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When we used to manually pipette, I had a lot of back pains from sitting in a fixed position and having to do the same arm movement repeatedly throughout the day, so it really is a game changer in many ways.
Quick and easy
At the moment they are processing 2500 samples a day with capacity for more.
“I think it would be tricky, if not impossible, without flowbot® ONE. Manual extraction took us around 20 minutes per plate, but the robot does it in 12 minutes. That amounts to a lot throughout the day. But it’s not just saving time on hands-on work that increases throughput, but also that it allows us to work in other areas simultaneously,” Phoebe Davey explains and clarifies that having the robot running in the background gives them a lot of extra resources.
She also confirms that it was quick and easy to install the robot.
“We just had to set up the program to be compatible with our extraction plates. It’s great because we have various kits, and it works on all of them, so we just had to install the program and essentially click “go” and the robot does what it needs to do. It’s a very intuitive design.”
Finding the right automation solution
Medical Diagnosis has been using flowbot® ONE since it was installed in August 2021.
“We are very impressed. Especially on the cost-benefit ratio, it is excellent. It is probably one of the most effective liquid handling solutions for a frontline laboratory handling 2500 samples or more and very good for its size. The flowbot® ONE, with the very reasonable volume footprint, is even more attractive in a performance to instrument size ratio because laboratory space is never enough,” says Dr. George Xynopoulos, CEO of Medical Diagnosis, who collaborated closely with Flow Robotics to choose the right solution.
“I strongly recommend it to everyone who wants a simple, reliable, fast, efficient, and non-expensive automation solution,” Dr. George Xynopoulos concludes.
Meanwhile, the line of people outside is growing but the flowbot® ONE has finished dispensing the first samples to a 96-well plate and a new batch is about to be placed on the deck. It will be another busy day, but the mood inside the lab is high.
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About Medical Diagnosis
Medical Diagnosis a private medical company providing a wide range of direct laboratory-to-client services, both to patients and healthcare professionals in the London area and throughout the UK via postal pathology.