Diagnostics & Imaging Week

ORLANDO – LifeScan (Milpitas, California) said at last week's American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC; Washington) annual meeting that it plans to bring all of its hospital products under the OneTouch name, including blood glucose monitors, data management systems and accessories used in hospitals and other institutional settings.

The OneTouch brand is currently used for LifeScan's consumer products.

"The OneTouch name is one of the most trusted names in diabetes management," said Glenn Johnson, vice president, Strategic Accounts and Advanced Care Group, in a company statement. "By unifying our hospital products under the OneTouch brand, we're strengthening our role across the continuum of diabetes care."

LifeScan also released a report – its second annual "Tight Glycemic Control Adoption Report" – which suggests that "tight glycemic control may prove to be one of the most cost-effective inpatient medical interventions in decades."

The report includes results from a national survey of the company's customers using glycemic control protocols. In the 2005 report, at least 230 more hospitals say they are using the protocols, compared to 90 hospitals in the 2004 report.

LifeScan is a Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, New Jersey) company.

Also at AACC, Dade Behring (Deerfield, Illinois) said it is offering a new, scalable automation solution, the Dimension Lynx System, targeted at medium-volume laboratories.

The company said the Dimension Lynx, which is being showcased at its booth on the Orange County Convention Center exhibit floor, builds on the design of its successful Dimension RxL Max analyzer, with the integration of a sample management module for increased performance and productivity.

The integration is achieved by the combination of two Dimension RxL Max systems and the sample management module. The automation solution also is available with the combination of a Dimension analyzer and the Immulite 2000 or 2500 Immunoassay System from Diagnostic Products Corp. (Los Angeles).

"The availability of an appropriate automation solution for medium-sized laboratories will be extremely valuable for workflow management," said Rick Lee, senior vice president, marketing. "In addition to its flexibility, the Dimension Lynx System provides the on-board capacity to run 182 methods concurrently, providing the laboratory increased productivity and performance."

Dade Behring said the Dimension Lynx System includes "smart" sample management, true clot detection, sample integrity checks for HIL, sample sorting and mapping, and automated intelligent routing to eliminate "guesswork" by technicians.

It also features a single operator interface for the complete system, automatic add-on testing without operator intervention, consistency in processing on two instruments, improved turnaround time and decapping capability for multiple tube sizes

In other product news from the meeting, Tecan US (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) reported the launch of Freedom EVOlyzer and showcased several other clinical diagnostic solutions. The Freedom EVOlyzer is Tecan's new instrument family offering fully automated processing for low- to high-throughput laboratories performing various ELISA tests.

At Tecan's booth on the exhibit floor, conference attendees saw demonstration of Freedom EVOlyzer and several other automation products, including Freedom EVO 75, the most compact member of the EVO family of liquid handlers. A new option, the Robotic Manipulator for Freedom EVO 75, expands its ability to fully automate the incorporation of readers, washers and incubators commonly used in ELISA tests.

Also shown were:

Profiblot 48, a new-generation, fully automated Western blot processor.

Sunrise TS Color, a microplate detection instrument. Tecan said its large color touch screen display "sets a new industry standard in comfortable on-board operation."

GENios, a multimode microplate reader that combines fluorescence, absorbance and glow luminescence in a single, compact instrument.

Columbus Pro, a microplate washer the company said is the first microplate washer to use a high-end aspiration pump with magnetic drive technology.

OEM liquid-handling modules, including the Cavro XLP 6000, which Tecan said is the most versatile of its Cavro pumps, offering resolution between 3,000 and 48,000 steps per stroke and a broad range of programmable dispense speeds.