Medical technology company LBT Innovations (ASX:LBT) and joint venture company Clever Culture Systems AG (CCS) say they 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 an 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," said LBT Innovations in a statement.
Placement in St Vincent’s Hospital 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 3,000 urine samples that were automatically read and interpreted.
According to LBT scientific director, Dr Steven Giglio, “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, realising 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.”
“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,” said LBT CEO and managing director, Brent Barnes.