Australian developed advanced pathology instrument reading and interpreting plates for faster diagnosis of infectious diseases - Center of excellence laboratory to test automation efficiency in a busy real-life setting

Australian medical technology company LBT Innovations Limited and joint venture company Clever Culture Systems AG (CCS) have installed their APAS® Independence instrument at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne to commence its first global in situ evaluation.

APAS® is a breakthrough artificial intelligence technology for the automated imaging, image analysis, interpretation and reporting of growth on microbiology plates after incubation. The APAS® Independence, which is about the size of a large photocopier, improves the clinical efficiency of microbiology laboratories and enables faster diagnosis and reporting of infectious diseases. The US FDA-cleared instrument is based on LBT’s Australian- developed intelligent imaging and machine learning software.

Placement of the instrument at a center of excellence such as St Vincent’s Hospital will enable the evaluation of the instrument’s performance and provide valuable feedback in a diagnostic pathology laboratory.  Training pathology scientists at the hospital on the APAS® Independence instrument began this week.

Microbiologists and scientists currently individually review AGAR plates, of which up to 95% return negative results. The APAS® Independence rapidly and automatically reviews and sorts plates into neat stacks of positives, negatives and plates to be reviewed; at a rate of 200 plates per hour.

Feedback on this St Vincent’s operation is expected during Q4 this calendar year. The APAS® Independence will undergo further commercial evaluations over the next 18 months in additional microbiology centers of excellence globally to establish a network of reference laboratories.

Successful deployment at the reference laboratories is a precursor to larger scale commercial roll out of the APAS® Independence.

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