Technology Ushers In a New Era of Specimen Transport

No matter the size or complexity of the lab, patient specimens require transporting before testing. And whether specimens are delivered across the room or shipped throughout the world, every lab at some point faces challenges. Today’s session “Advances in Courier, Drone, and Automated Laboratory Transport” will empower attendees to recognize how sample transport issues and inefficiencies may be affecting test results and demonstrate how emerging technologies can be leveraged to streamline testing and maintain specimen quality.

Session moderator Joe Wiencek, PhD, will argue that despite patient specimens being a critical component of testing, the field has not focused enough on specimen transport conditions. “Systems exist [to monitor] assay reagent transportation. Our specimens haven’t been held to the same standard,” says Wiencek. At his institution, Wiencek has utilized novel devices to document specimen transport conditions, including temperature, humidity, and G-forces. External collection sites store samples in outdoor lockboxes when awaiting courier pick-up, a major concern for Wiencek due to the extreme heat in his region.

Without specimen transport benchmarks and standards, however, it is difficult for laboratories to take action. Wiencek will share plans for new Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) documents which address specimen preanalytics, particularly PRE-06 Evaluation of External Transport Systems, which he is coauthoring. Attendees should leave the session with a list of tools at their disposal to tackle their sample transport challenges.

Timothy Amukele, MD, PhD will expand the discussion on external sample transport by taking to the skies with medical drone transport. While the idea of medical drones may sound like science fiction to many, they are very much a reality in some parts of the world. Dr. Amukele how governments in Africa are pioneering these technologies in productive ways. For instance, he will share how drones are delivering lifesaving blood products to remote hospitals in Rwanda, along with similar stories in other countries. Amukele believes these success stories are remarkable and he hopes attendees will leave with a sense that medical drones are a viable option in specimen transportation.

Drone transportation applications are not limited to remote environments. There is significant interest in applying the technologies to congested urban areas as well. Amukele will also share his first-hand experience leading a medical drones research team in the United States. Through his team’s journey he will demonstrate what it takes to set up a medical drone transport network. Amukele will emphasize that medical drones are already proven in real world applications and would like to see their use continue to grow within laboratory practice.

Jonathan Genzen, MD, PhD will shift the focus to sample transport and automation within the walls of the healthcare facility and laboratory. In his institution, his goal is to automate repetitive, non-value steps in the testing process so people can focus on complex tasks that benefit from human expertise.

Genzen will share his experiences with implementing automated intelligent vehicles for sample transport. These non-track-based mobile robots can be used for specimen distribution and are able to sense their environment, preventing them from running into things—and people. Finally, he will discuss automation lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Genzen hopes attendees will learn what they can do now to usher their specimen transport into the future. He stresses that laboratories can make relatively easy, common-sense improvements and get a big impact from a small investment.