CAP TODAY Pathology/Laboratory Medicine/Laboratory Management
Will it be able to be incorporated into a core laboratory line?
It’s a goal for the future. We have connectivity in development for the future, and it’s definitely the direction we want to go.
The laboratory experts we spoke to and the other two manufacturers made a great issue out of the need to minimize manual differentials and to introduce rules—anything to make the entire process of analysis and reporting more efficient. Where does the manual differential, as we think about it traditionally, fit in with the Roche offering? Will there still be a need for manual differentials?
Initially people probably will want to go to the microscope, and that’s always an option until people become comfortable with the technology and believe in it, because you can take that slide from the m 511 and look at it under a scope. I have not seen any instances at this point where we say you must always look at those particular slides. But I don’t think we’re at a point yet either where we would say, no, you never need to go to the scope again.
Is CellaVision a distant cousin to this technology?
The way it works is completely different. There’s the digital imaging part of it where laboratories have over the years become more comfortable with using that technology. People who are comfortable with CellaVision would more easily adapt to the m 511, whereas people who haven’t become comfortable with CellaVision yet might still find the digital part a little more challenging, or they might not be fully trusting of it yet.
There was discussion about rules and the release of results interfaced into the LIS and the EHR. I’m going to assume these are all issues Roche has solved or is in the process of solving as it gears up for the launch into North America, correct?
Yes. The system has onboard rules, so people could set up those rules similar to what they’re accustomed to if they want to repeat a sample for a specific reason. We can configure those same types of rules. Everything can be sent directly to the LIS just like it can be done on any other analyzer.
I like to point out that just because we give you the images for every sample, you don’t need to look at them. If it’s something that’s completely normal, you can release or autovalidate it into your LIS just like you would do from any other hematology analyzer.
You’ve been a hematology supervisor in the past. From your experience and now as you go around the country talking to people, what has surprised you in terms of what you’re hearing from your counterparts who are still working in clinical laboratories in hematology departments?
This isn’t anything new—it’s been going on for several years—but I find it a little sad that we’ve lost a lot of the specialization we used to have in the lab. When I was in the lab we had people who were specialists in hematology, in chemistry, in blood bank. Because of how staffing’s changed over the years, as things have gotten tighter, everyone’s a generalist now. As a marketing person now, that can be beneficial because I’m offering technology that can help.
This change in staffing is part of the natural evolution in the environment, and to a large degree it’s become a task of companies like Roche or Beckman Coulter or Sysmex, and others, to build that specialization and knowledge into their systems.
Yes, it really has. As the laboratory functions today, it doesn’t allow for people to have that knowledge necessarily, unless they do it on their own time.