Roche's New Lab Automation Solutions Enjoying Strong Market Response

New lab automation solutions from Roche (Basel, Switzerland) are driving innovation in core lab and point of care (POC) settings.

Development of new instruments and software for totally automated lab workflows and information management resulted in major business gains for the company in the first half of 2013. These include recent customer acquisitions in emerging markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), Asia, and Latin America.

Roche is continuing to expand its workflow automation and IT portfolio in response to the increasing volumes of laboratory data and an increasingly regulated laboratory environment.

“Roche’s workflow optimization lineup now covers every customer segment, from small to large laboratories and all hospital point-of-care settings. With more than 20 years of industry experience and over 4000 cobas IT solutions installed globally Roche Diagnostics has a strong commitment to automation and IT,” stated Georgios Spitadakis, global head of workflow & IT at Roche Professional Diagnostics.

The new cobas 8100 automated workflow solution, introduced at EuroMedLab conference in Milan (Italy) in May 2013, is already generating a strong customer response and initial preorders. It is the result of 35 years of partnership between Roche and Hitachi High Technologies. The system made its US debut at the annual meeting of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) in Houston, (Texas, USA). cobas 8100 combined with Roche’s cobas IT solutions gives labs full and transparent control over their operational and clinical processes in both single and multisite set-ups.

Combined with Roche’s sample archiving solutions, cobas 8100 provides flexibility and connectivity, simplifying and speeding up routines for analysis, archiving, and on-demand retrieval of blood samples. Its design helps high-throughput laboratories to consolidate processes. cobas 8100 is expected to be available this autumn in all regions outside the US, while its market availability in the North American Region is estimated for 2015.

A fully automated cobas sample flow management solution was introduced by Roche based on a modular conveyor system. Designed for laboratories in the high throughput segment, the cobas connection modules reduce manual intervention and enable laboratory professionals to increase the predictability of patient result turnaround times by up to 90%. Among the first large laboratory customers is Eone Laboratories in Songdo (Korea). Eone switched its whole automation array to cobas connection modules, which connect nine lines of cobas 8000 analyzers.

Roche’s latest advance in customized IT applications for totally automated laboratory workflows is cobas IT middleware. This solution makes it easy to link multiple laboratory systems and software applications to a facility’s IT infrastructure. “The transition to cobas IT middleware was very easy to do and very little training was needed,” commented Ake Akerbloom, clinical biologist at Oestersund Hospital in Oestersund/Sweden. cobas IT middleware has enjoyed rapid uptake since its launch in January 2013.

cobas POC IT is a fully open connectivity solution that provides access to Roche and non-Roche POC devices, including the laboratory and hospital information systems. This enables patient data from remote, handheld bedside testing devices to be managed and controlled from a single point.

Roche’s personalized healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life, and survival of patients. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.

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