Olympus' OLA2500 lab automation system
Olympus’ OLA2500 lab automation system

Olympus has installed its 100th laboratory automation software solution in Germany, helping laboratories to analyse test tube specimens faster.

The Olympus OLA2500 lab automation system is designed to help increase productivity and efficiency in medium to high volume laboratories. The system automates labour-intensive tasks such as sample identification, decapping, sorting, and archive preparation of sample tubes.

Introduced to the German market four years ago, the installation of the system at Medizinischen Laboratorium Kyritz (Kyritz Medical Laboratory – MLK) marks the 100th implementation of the system in Germany.

The system helps automate all processes including the sorting and sealing of individual test tubes, which Olympus says saves laboratories ‘valuable time, money and energy.’

MLK have handed over many tasks to the system and are able to analyse over 2,500 test tubes each day using the system.

Dr Manfred Haßfeld, founder and head of MLK, said: “Since the end of January, the OLA2500 has completed these tasks automatically. The time we’ve saved as a result can now be used much more effectively.”

The system has cut down time spent analysing the tubes significantly, something MLK previously had problems with – staff worked under a labour-intensive scheme to get around 1m test tubes analysed each year.

A total of 65 employees support about 250 privately practising doctors, four emergency hospitals and four rehabilitation clinics throughout greater Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt, providing external medical laboratory diagnostics services.

Dr Haßfeld added: “What’s more, samples can now be localised much more quickly, while automatic barcoding rules out any chance of a mix up. The system even helps with archiving. In short, the OLA2500 has been a fantastic investment”.

Olympus’s lab automation product manager, Thorsten Laubert, said: “With the 100th installation of an OLA2500 in Germany, we’ve crossed a magic threshold. Just four years after the system’s introduction, we’re able to declare successful penetration in the lab automation market in Germany.”

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Olympus Life Science Europa