Highland District Hospital has announced the delivery of the world’s first Atellica CI Analyzer with a Sample Handler to the hospital laboratory.

The announcement was made in partnership with Siemens Healthineers and Medline.

Powered by sophisticated AI and integrated automation, the Atellica CI Analyzer is specifically developed to bring world-class diagnostic capabilities into smaller laboratory environments, while still supporting the technology, reagents, consumables and user interface found in high-volume labs.

“These instruments will greatly improve our turnaround time of tests by offering true stat processing, decreasing downtime of instruments, and producing an overall faster processing time all while giving our staff the freedom to perform other important tasks within the laboratory,” stated Twila Kendrick, Highland District Hospital laboratory manager. “We are thrilled to be the first in the world to receive this technology and instrumentation.”

As workforce availability of laboratory technicians becomes a more critical need across the nation, faster and smarter instrumentation becomes more important. This equipment will require less intervention of staff members, allowing them to focus on more manual tasks that need completed in the laboratory.

Kendrick added, “Simply put, this machine is like a car that can schedule and change its own oil without the help of a mechanic.”

Highland District Hospital will be the nation’s first early adopter site for the instrumentation and will welcome laboratory peers from across the nation. Full setup and integration of the instrumentation began on May 8 and is projected to be in use by early summer 2024.

This story was submitted by Kennedi Claycomb, marketing/customer service assistant, Highland District Hospital.