Olympus lab automation grows from strength to strength

Just four years after being launched, Olympus has installed its 100th OLA2500 system for the automation of pre and post analytical processes at the Medizinischen Laboratorium Kyritz. Installed in January, the 100th system has already been responsible for improving workflow efficiency and demonstrates the breakthrough Olympus has made in the lab automation market in Germany.

As is the case throughout the healthcare community, laboratories today require intelligent solutions to successfully combat rising costs. With its diverse automation capabilities, the OLA2500 boasts just such savings potential. One example is in the system’s ability to manage standard processes such as the decapping, aliquoting, barcoding, sorting and sealing of test tubes, saving valuable time, money and energy.

One of the companies taking advantage of the benefits offered by the OLA2500 is the Medizinischen Laboratorium Kyritz (Kyritz Medical Laboratory or MLK) in the northeast German state of Brandenburg, where since the end of January, numerous tasks have been handed over and entrusted to automated lab management. For Olympus, this implementation is an important milestone: “With the 100th installation of an OLA2500 in Germany, we’ve crossed a magic threshold. Just four years after the system’s introduction, we’re able to declare successful penetration in the lab automation market in Germany”, says Thorsten Laubert, Product Manager, Lab Automation.

One million test tubes a year
Around 2,500 test tubes are analysed at MLK every day. That amounts to roughly one million test tubes a year which previously required labour-intensive management prior to and following analysis. “Since the end of January, the OLA2500 has completed these tasks automatically. The time we’ve saved as a result can now be used much more effectively”, adds Dr Manfred Haßfeld, founder and head of MLK. “What’s more, samples can now be localised much more quickly, while automatic barcoding rules out any chance of a mix up. The system even helps with archiving. In short, the OLA2500 has been a fantastic investment”.

MLK is a partner of the Laborgemeinschaft Ostprignitz-Ruppin (Ostprignitz-Ruppin Association of Laboratories), a member of the Labordiagnostischen Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Diagnostik und Rationalisierung (Lab diagnostics Consortium for Diagnostics and Rationalisation or LADR) and has been certified since 1997 – currently in accordance with DIN EN ISO 15189. A total of 65 employees support about 250 privately practising doctors, four emergency hospitals and four rehabilitation clinics throughout greater Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt, providing external medical laboratory diagnostics services.