2019 D APAS - Business SA Design for Export Awards
Celebrating
South Australia's
Design-led
Exporters
Celebrating
South Australia's
Design-led
Exporters
Celebrating
South Australia's
Design-led
Exporters
Celebrating
South Australia's
Design-led
Exporters
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AWARDS > 2019 Gallery
2019 OVERALL WINNER
BUSINESS:
LBT Innovations Ltd
PRODUCT:
APAS Independence
AWARD CATEGORY:
Product or Service Design
INDUSTRY SECTOR:
Scientific & Medical
DESIGN:
LBT Innovations and Planet Innovation
EXPORTING to:
Germany, USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand
1: BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
The APAS Independence revolutionises diagnostic laboratories by automating the screening of Petri dishes used to culture patient samples in the detection of disease. It reads culture plates three times faster than a microbiologist, screening 200 plates per hour, achieving major time savings for busy labs and facilitating faster patient results.
2: DESIGN CHALLENGE:
The culture and identification of infectious agents is pivotal in the diagnosis of infection and proper antibiotic stewardship. The microbiology lab is one of the last laboratory disciplines to embrace automation. The Petri dish has been read manually since its introduction to microbiology, creating a bottleneck in microbiology laboratories. Up to 95% of agar plates can be negative, creating a demand to automate the process to allow microbiologists to spend their time on plates with significant growths.Human microbiologists can bring error and variability to test results, further creating the need for automation to ensureaccuracy and consistency in results.
3: DESIGN SOLUTION:
The APAS Independence uses patented visual-imaging technology based on machine-learning to automate culture platereading. Its design ensures that each plate stops at a precise position relative to the camera, imperative for the image to be properly assessed. The software recognises colonies that resemble the most commonly encountered pathogens. Using complex algorithms, the APAS Independence analyses the significance of growth, determined by considering acombination of the number and types of colonies present and whether the colonies themselves have a morphology. Once negative plates are identified, the APAS Independence removes them from the workflow, triaging the positive plates to microbiologists.
4: DESIGN IMPACT:
The APAS Independence allows microbiologists to focus on tasks that make a difference to patients. Currently, APAS Independence is the only instrument that analyses the plate. After a 6 second assessment, plates with significant growth are quickly triaged for scientists to identify the pathogenic bacteria and test for the correct antibiotic for that patient. The appropriate antibiotic creates a better outcome for patients and improved antimicrobial stewardship. The reading of plates by the APAS Independence is consistent and reliable to a sensitivity of 98%, higher than humans. This consistency reduces “human” errors and increases the reliability and reproducibility of results.
5: OTHER KEY FEATURES:
The successful design of APAS Independence represents close collaboration between specialised teams from across multiple disciplines and companies. Ground-breaking imaging capture and analysis at the heart of the system, is supported by advanced robotic plate handling and sorting within the input and output carousels. The entire system is enclosed within a stylish enclosure developed with ergonomic principles and user needs in mind. The intuitive touchscreen interface provides clear semantic cues to allow operators to rapidly set processing parameters and determine the status of the system.
