Bacteriology & Antibiotics

Clinical Bacteriology

The primary mission of the clinical bacteriology laboratory is to assist the health care provider in the diagnosis of infectious diseases. Due to the variety of specimens submitted to the bacteriology laboratory, many of the steps related to the processing and workup of a specimen have remained manual. The specimen is inoculated onto an agar medium (with plating protocols typically driven by the source of the specimen), the plates transferred manually to an incubator, the plates removed after a defined period of time and the culture examined by a technologist to look for potential pathogens. The cost of healthcare in many countries and the Affordable Care Act in the United States are collectively driving institutions to explore new and novel ways to provide continuous, quality care in a more affordable, efficient fashion. One of those options to enhance efficiency and affordability is automation.