Australian medical technology company LBT Innovations Limited and joint venture company Clever Culture Systems AG (CCS) have successfully completed an independent evaluation of their APAS® Independence instrument at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne. The evaluation is the first in situ installation of the instrument globally.

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 diagnostic efficiency of microbiology laboratories and enables faster reporting of infectious diseases. The US FDA-cleared technology is based on LBT’s Australian-developed intelligent imaging and machine learning software.

Placement in St Vincent’s Hospital, a highly regarded center of excellence, enabled the evaluation of the instrument’s performance within a diagnostic pathology laboratory, in an “end user” setting with scientists using the APAS® Independence instrument over a six- week period.

The evaluation included over 3000 urine samples that were automatically read and interpreted by the APAS® Independence instrument.  

LBT Scientific Director Dr Steven Giglio, an experienced microbiologist, worked with St. Vincent’s Hospital in setting up the evaluation.  “It was a pleasure to work with the dedicated team at St Vincent’s Hospital who conducted the evaluation completely independently and demonstrated a high level of engagement with the instrument. The instrument performed as expected during the evaluation and was successful in triaging the negative plates out of the workflow, allowing microbiologists to focus on positive plates only.  In addition, the APAS® Independence facilitated significant upstream benefits in specimen processing, realizing further efficiencies from the introduction of this instrument. A significant amount of data has been generated which will form the basis for several scientific presentations and publications to disseminate these findings to the scientific community,” said Dr Giglio.

This independent evaluation by St Vincent’s Hospital confirms the utility of the instrument in a clinical setting. Of note are the additional efficiencies gained at the specimen processing step, which LBT expects to be representative of other laboratories around the world.

LBT CEO and Managing Director Brent Barnes, says “it is pleasing the instrument performed successfully in a real world setting in this global first trial.  The evaluation of the instrument provides clear validation that the foundational technology works and the instrument does deliver efficiencies in a laboratory.”

Feedback summary from St Vincent’s Hospital Microbiology laboratory trial:

• The instrument works and performance targets were successfully met
• Laboratory efficiencies were observed
• Installation was easy with no special requirements as the instrument is simply wheeled into a lab and plugged in
• High level of user engagement
• User interface intuitive and easy to use.

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