Automation in diagnostic microbiology
Tom Olma A *A Core Microbiology, Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Laboratory Services, Level 3 ICPMR Building, Cnr Hawkesbury and Darcy Roads, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia.
Tom Olma is NSWHP, Pathology West and Regional and Rural NSW Microbiology Discipline Network Supervising Scientist, in-charge of Core Microbiology, CIDMLS, ICPMR, Westmead, NSW. He is a BSc graduate from UNSW and started his career at Blacktown Hospital, NSW, as a hospital scientist to become a Senior Hospital Scientist in charge of Microbiology before consolidation with ICPMR Westmead where he has been in charge of what today is known as Core Microbiology for the past 26 years. His career is closely aligned to automation and rapid methods in diagnostic microbiology. Tom has a self-professed passion for proactive diagnostic microbiology in patient management. He is a past Committee member, Secretary, Chairperson of ASM NSW branch and a previous chairperson of hosting the ASM National Conference in Sydney. |
Microbiology Australia 43(1) 6-8 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA22004
Submitted: 8 February 2022 Accepted: 15 February 2022 Published: 31 March 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the ASM. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Automation in diagnostic microbiology has provided accessibility to technology overcoming the delays inherent in culture-based technology and providing options to centralisation via use of digital imaging to interpret and report culture plates which enables cultures to be shared over the internet opening the virtual diagnostic microbiology laboratory. Automation is a continuous process which precipitates faster results and invites the diagnostic laboratory into a continuous processing, 24/7 world optimising what it has to offer for improved turnaround time (TAT) and improved workload management. While molecular technology was able to decrease TAT of results it was initially specialised and not freely available to the diagnostic microbiology laboratory becoming more a centralised subspeciality. The automation of molecular methods released the technology to be able to be decentralised and provide greater local access and community benefits from the technology and providing equity of community access to the technology. Thanks to automation, diagnostic microbiology is at the forefront of opening the availability of advances in testing to the broader community via decentralising technology and sharing technology in the virtual diagnostic microbiology laboratory.
Keywords: automation, continuous, culture automation, diagnostic, on-demand, microbiology, remote plate reading, shared technology, virtual.
