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Urinalysis instrumentation: All eyes on standardized, scalable, integrated solutions

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December 2018—The companies whose analyzers are profiled in our urinalysis instrumentation product guide talked to CAP TODAY writer Valerie Neff Newitt about the laboratory needs their instruments meet. Here’s what they had to say.

What are you hearing from your laboratory customers about their needs and wants?

Jason Weshler, MSc, MBA, director of marketing and business development for end-to-end solutions, point-of-care diagnostics, Siemens Healthineers: Laboratories need consistency and standardization, and while that’s not a new need, the demand for consistency continues to grow. Our customers expect their semiautomated systems to provide accurate results in a timely manner that are consistent with the testing done in the laboratory setting.

The other key need is around workflow. We know that staffing is becoming increasingly difficult with a shrinking labor force for the lab and our customers expect their urinalysis, and in fact all of their lab solutions, to be easy to use, require minimal user intervention, and provide high uptime.

Urinalysis instrumentation product guide

Delena Carite, group marketing manager, systems, Roche Diagnostics: Many mid- and high-volume labs are interested in automating their urinalysis testing. This can be as simple as testing on an integrated platform that will perform the initial screen and the required confirmatory testing with microscopy. Many of the higher-volume labs are also interested in connecting an integrated urinalysis platform to preanalytics through automated track systems.

Michelle D. Dumonceaux, MBA, CPPM, senior manager, product management and global marketing, Beckman Coulter: Customers are requesting scalable urinalysis solutions to meet their growing needs within their network. They want solutions that minimize manual testing either in the form of manual urinalysis dipstick testing or manual microscopic review for urine microscopy. They’re reducing manual microscopic review rates with technology such as Digital Flow Morphology that captures an image of a urine particle.

Jessica Donlan, MLS(ASCP)CM, marketing and application manager, Arkray: To deliver continuity within a laboratory network, our customers are requesting scalable urine chemistry solutions that have standardized strips that pair with urine sediment solution. This need is being met by pairing the Aution urine chemistry analyzers and strips with the Beckman Coulter Digital Flow Morphology analyzer.

What are the most important things labs should know about your urinalysis system?

Weshler (Siemens): If there is one thing to remember about Siemens Healthineers’ urinalysis systems it is that we use the same dry pad urine chemistry across all our platforms. This means that whether it is a Multistix urine strip, Clinitek Atlas roll, or Clinitek Novus cassette, the results will correlate for our end users. This remains a unique offering that enables consistent patient results no matter where the test is conducted.

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