Top Clinical Lab Equipment and Supply Chain Trends to Watch out for in 2022

Clinical laboratories are adding new lab equipment to do tests like molecular diagnosis and including automation to optimize processes.

FREMONT, CA: Recent years have seen various challenges in lab testing and clinical diagnostic processes. Innovative and technologically updated lab equipment and tests have replaced conventional clinical lab equipment.

Labs are looking for ways to repurpose molecular testing equipment

Molecular diagnosis is the new trend followed in clinical diagnosis. Clinical laboratories are engaging new and improved equipment to carry out molecular diagnostics. Laboratories are stacking with equipment supporting molecular diagnostics due to the rise of present diseases like omicron and covid-19. Clinical laboratories conventionally do not provide these tests, but now hospitals and labs are considering accommodating this new diagnostic test into their package.

Molecular diagnostics test instruments depend on equipment efficiency and effectiveness and their capability to accommodate the current test features. The other essential elements to look for are if the equipment is PCR or isothermal and open or a closed system platform. It can allow the laboratories to decide on their repurpose plan.

Automation and IT systems help labs do more with less

In addition to automated equipment and more advanced IT systems being used by many labs. Other solutions are now being sought in the industry, such as those that streamline workflows, reduce hands-on work time, and help keep inventory and large volumes of patient record more organized.

In a challenging environment such as that caused by the pandemic, automation will enable labs to be more productive with fewer resources even though they do not replace the need for a sufficient workforce and adequate resources. QC and calibration automation are areas where customers like how clinical laboratories work. Customers spend about four hours a day maintaining their chemistry platforms and immunoassays. In addition to this, it is common for these techs to have to do hands-on maintenance regularly, and a few of the solutions offered can help reduce the number of manual repairs they have to perform on a regular basis.

As a result of automating manual tasks, staff can save time, and their personnel can do more with their time. In addition, laboratories facing personnel shortages will be able to get more done with the available staff. IT solutions also play this crucial time-saving component.

Transparency is critical in supply chains

A pandemic has made labs more vulnerable to disruptions and demands. This is why it is more important than ever for them to be part of larger supply chain planning and have a seat at the table.

Precision medicine and gene sequencing are growing

It has become evident that the field of clinical diagnostics is growing in importance due to the emergence of new fields of medicine as well as advanced methods, such as gene sequencing. More labs are exploring what benefits sequencing technologies could potentially have for themselves and their patients, owing to the increasing popularity of precision medicine and preventative approaches to healthcare.