Kolkata: Robotics to help test blood samples in half an hour, and with zero error

KOLKATA: A city-based pathological laboratory has introduced robotics for faster blood testing. So, the sight of a pathologist making slides or processing blood samples to segregate its components will soon be a thing of the past. In this lab, automated machines with artificial intelligence (AI) will work on samples, with no human interference.

With the capacity of handling about 9000 samples a day and conducting over 30000 tests, the state of the art AI-enabled smart lab is expected work with speed and accuracy. “Studies show that nearly 67% of wrong pathological reports are results of human errors. This technology will play a huge role in giving accurate reports and saving time,” said Dr Somnath Chatterjee, director of Suraksha.

In a regular laboratory, about 30 to 40 pathologists and technicians work on samples. Thus, human fatigue and sample contamination can crop up in the test report in the form of error. This laboratory called Aptio Automation, with its robotic track and human intelligence, is expected to give zero error.

Once a sample reaches the lab, it will put into robotic track, which reads the bar code of the sample, segregates it according to the requirements to be tested, breaks down the components to be tested and sends the result to the data management system. All this can be done within half an hour. In an emergency situation this result can be availed in about a minute. It can also detect abnormal cells in a sample.

“Such laboratory has advantages in pathology as it saves time and checks human contamination. But calibration and quality control should be kept in mind,” said Dr Prantar Chakraborty, haematology department head at NRS Medical College.

Suraksha has also tied up with Clugenix, a San Francisco-based biotech unit. “We will also be working on molecular diagnostics with focus on oncology and predisposing diseases,” said Dr Joydeep Mukherjee of Clugenix , also a scientist at University of California.