LAB MANAGEMENT :: AUTOMATION
change that is a significant improvement for pediatric patients and patients requiring frequent blood draws.
Thoughtful change management The transition toward total lab automation, like any change, can create uncertainty and perhaps concern among the staff as their roles are redefined. We have found it beneficial to have a concrete plan to prepare our team by sharing specifics about the upcoming transition toward automation, and how this will enable each individual’s transition from manual tasks to more skilled and potentially more rewarding work—in decision making, troubleshooting, consulting. All of this can energize the team and pave the way to greater job satisfaction. Once we start laying the groundwork for change management, we can focus on training—familiarizing the staff with new technologies, how their workday may change, and best practices.
A perspective on quality An important insight that we have gleaned from our experience is the elevated role of quality in a future of ever-increasing levels of automation. Automation is often associated with reduced human errors and the consistency and precision that robotics and com- puters can enable. But the high testing volume and the speed at which results are delivered also mean that problems can be rapidly multiplied, and along with that, the impact on patient care. The solution lies, in part, in making sure that processes are in place to detect issues quickly and enable just as rapid recovery from errors.
Partnership and collaboration Our Central Clinic Lab has a collaborative relationship with a trusted vendor partner — Roche Diagnostics, which plays a
key role in designing, configuring and installing the system; preparing, engaging, and training our team; and providing the ongoing technical and service support. Over the past 15 years, as our automation line has evolved, with more functionalities, interactivity, and complexity, our partnership has also evolved, and their field application specialists and field engineers have become familiar with our processes and therefore our needs as end users. In fact, we often think of their service engineers as honorary members of our lab. Another key resource is our IT team, which has played and continues to play a critical role in approvals, validations, security, and all things IT. At our campus here, we are blessed with a team of information management specialists and coordinators many of whom, in addition to their specialized knowledge, began their careers in the laboratory and thus have insights from firsthand experience in a lab environment.
Commitment to continuous improvement and innovation Total lab automation has benefited our Central Processing Lab in cost containment, efficiency improvement, and, most impor- tantly, quality patient care. Currently, pre-analytic automation is utilized in our Clinical Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, but we see opportunities for greater automation of key or routine assays in the near future. This increased level of automation would be especially beneficial given mass spectrometry’s powerful analytic processes, as reflected in the higher sensitivity and specificity compared with immunoassays. However, it is significantly more complex and mainly associated with larger labs with complex instrumentation and specially trained personnel using primarily LDTs. Mass spec automation will especially benefit high-volume tests such as TDM and tests that require rapid turnaround times, and perhaps near-patient testing. As we look to the future of total lab automation across our Mayo Clinic campus, we are reminded of our primary value: The needs of the patient come first. And this primary value continues to motivate us to leverage technological innovations for automation and, ultimately, the highest quality patient care.
REFERENCES
1. Day PL, et al. Artificial intelligence for kidney stone spectra analysis: Using artificial intelligence algorithms for quality assurance in the clini- cal laboratory. Mayo Clin Proc Digital Health 2023;1(2):1-12. https://www.
mcpdigitalhealth.org/article/S2949-7612(23)00002-0/fulltext.
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*Headshots used with permission of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, all rights reserved.
Nikola Baumann, PhD, DABCC* is Co-Director of the Central Clinical Laboratory and Central Processing Laboratory, Director of the Process Innovation Through Automation (PITA) Laboratory, Co-Director of the Biospecimen Program, and Vice-Chair of Quality in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.
Paul J. Jannetto, PhD, DABCC, FAACC, MT(ASCP)*, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and Co-Director of the Clinical Mass Spectrome- try Laboratory, the Clinical and Forensic Toxicology Laboratory and the Metals Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He also serves as the Vice-Chair of Supply Chain Management for the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology.
Christopher T. Yoch, MA*, is a Technical Specialist in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He received his MA in instruction and BA in biology from St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota.
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