Labotec has been awarded the exclusive agency for Accelerate Diagnostics in southern Africa. The Accelerate Pheno System represents a first with the fastest coupled pathogen identification & antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) technology currently available. Independent studies show the Accelerate Pheno System provides identification and susceptibility results with MICs approximately 40 hours faster than the methods used in the current standard of care.*
This next generation microbiology solution has the potential to dramatically improve the outcome of critically ill patients and reduce their length of stay in SA Hospital ICU’s. The Pheno system takes 90 minutes to identify mono/polymicrobial communities and seven hours to conclude AST. The definitive diagnostic measurement used is the minimum inhibitory concentration, or MIC, which provides the most conclusive information to determine which antibiotic would be most effective in each patient’s situation. With the Accelerate Pheno™ system MIC results are available about 1-2 days faster than current methods.
At the launch demonstration on 10 March at Labotec (Midrand), Harold Derkx from the Netherlands and Dr. Michael Wilke, the Managing Director from Inspiring-health in Germany presented how patients can be moved from empiric to optimal therapy faster using the Accelerate Pheno™ system. Powered by Morphokinetic Cellular Analysis (MCA), the system is the first to track phenotypic features of microbial growth in individual viable cells, which are then grown into micro-colonies in the presence antibiotics. When interpreted, the system determines which antibiotic would be most effective in combating the blood sepsis.
The only consumable used is a single kit for which an entire test cycle can be automatically processed, directly from positive blood culture. The total hands-on time to load the system and begin fully-automated analysis is two minutes. The system will automatically filter out cellular debris and other contaminants like salts, proteins, etc. using gel electrofiltration.
Timing is of vital importance in a busy hospital, and Labotec hereby presents a solution to reduce the time it takes to optimal antibiotic therapy for critical blood sepsis patients as well as the betterment of antibiotic stewardship. All of this with the added benefit of reducing the length of stay for patients in SA Hospital ICUs.
*Based on peer-reviewed publications comparing IVD-cleared methods through June 2019.