Medical facility BHealthcare finalizes contracts with three EU-based diagnostic labs for the delivery of over 30 autonomous blood drawing devices
In the realm of healthcare, staff shortages of highly-skilled personnel have become a pressing issue, particularly in busy medical centres. To help meet workload challenges and fill skills gaps, robotic systems like BHealthCare's HEIVA are stepping in to take on time-consuming manual tasks.
Developed by BHealthCare, the pioneering company behind this innovative technology, HEIVA was first unveiled as a prototype in 2020 and has since undergone pilot clinical evaluation. The company has recently announced supply agreements with three European medical biology laboratories for pre-orders of the autonomous blood drawing device.
The successful implementation of laboratory automation, such as HEIVA, requires careful planning and technology evaluation. Key considerations include aligning the new technology with the operational goals of the lab, evaluating its impact on testing accuracy, throughput, contamination control, data integrity, and employee safety.
Effective integration with existing laboratory information systems (LIS) and workflows is also crucial. Automation must support seamless data flow and communication between the autonomous hardware and laboratory software to maintain sample tracking, testing accuracy, and regulatory compliance.
Error reduction and quality control are essential aspects of robotic blood drawing technologies. Safeguards, validations, and precise controls must be in place to minimize risks such as incorrect sample identification or improper technique, thus maintaining specimen integrity and diagnostic quality.
Labs need to assess the return on investment (ROI) considering capital expenditure vs. operational savings. For autonomous blood draws, reductions in phlebotomist workload, improved patient throughput, and decreased sample recollections translate to cost savings and efficiency gains.
User training and adoption are vital components of automation success. While the system handles repetitive tasks, technicians still require training to operate, monitor, and troubleshoot the system efficiently.
Autonomous blood drawing systems must comply with health and safety regulations, biohazard protocols, and ensure patient-centric design to gain acceptance and avoid legal or ethical issues.
Planning should also consider scalability and flexibility, whether to implement at single sites or across multiple facilities, and how the system can adapt to evolving testing volumes and new diagnostic requirements over time.
As HEIVA moves towards its anticipated CE marking next year, it is poised to become the first robotic medical technology to autonomously draw blood samples from among thousands of daily patients at selected major European medical laboratory groups. BHealthCare, one of the first MedTech companies in Europe, and among only a handful in the world, capable of offering this robotic autonomous blood drawing technology, is at the forefront of this technological revolution.
[1] X. Li, et al., "Laboratory automation: current status and future trends," Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, vol. 414, no. 11, pp. 2439–2448, 2022.
[2] A. J. B. van der Linden, et al., "Integration of laboratory automation into clinical laboratory workflows," Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 1–10, 2011.
[3] M. J. D. van der Linden, et al., "Quality control in laboratory automation," Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 11–24, 2011.
- The implementation of digital health technologies, such as the autonomous blood drawing device HEIVA from BHealthCare, necessitates meticulous planning and technology evaluation in patient care.
- In health-and-wellness businesses, robotics like HEIVA play a significant role by supporting medical-conditions diagnosis through accurate, reliable, and efficient sample collection.
- The integration of these robotic systems into existing laboratory information systems requires careful data flow and communication strategies to maintain regulatory compliance, sample tracking, testing accuracy, and specimen integrity.
- A critical aspect of robotic blood drawing technologies is their impact on financial aspects: evaluation of return on investment (ROI) should consider capital expenditure against operational savings, potential improvements in patient throughput, and reduction of phlebotomist workload.
