Abbott Showcases Innovations to Help Labs Solve Health Care Challenges at AACC Lab Expo

Abbott features a variety of innovations at AACC focused on increased testing volumes and improving efficiencies

Clinical laboratories around the world are helping to improve patient care while navigating an evolving health care environment. To help laboratories with increasing demands, Abbott is developing diagnostic solutions for today and tomorrow, which it showcased during the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) Annual Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo, July 27 through July 31, 2014, in Chicago.

"Abbott is designing the next generation of diagnostics solutions to help health care providers achieve faster and more accurate test results," said Brian Blaser, executive vice president, Diagnostics Products, Abbott. "Abbott is focused on providing an integrated diagnostic solution, powered by innovations that can help our customers channel change into growth and ensure exceptional performance."

During the AACC meeting, Abbott featured a variety of innovations focused on increased testing volumes and improving efficiencies:

• Core Laboratory: Abbott recently launched a next generation automation solution, the ACCELERATOR a3600, which doubles per-hour processing capacity compared to previous systems. By partnering with Abbott, studies have shown a core lab can eliminate a significant percentage of associated operating costs through automation and standardization of testing.

• Molecular: Abbott's m2000 RealTime System for automated infectious disease molecular testing gives labs the ability to handle greater volumes at reduced costs on a single platform. Labs that use Abbott's molecular automated solutions may process the same number of tests with fewer instruments.

• Point of Care: Used at a patient's bedside, the i-STAT System allows physicians and nurses to quickly and accurately analyze lab-quality results within minutes, rather than hours, to accelerate decision-making and ensure patients receive the most effective and efficient care.

•Informatics: Abbott provides laboratories with a powerful suite of informatics solutions to manage large volumes of data across healthcare systems, helping labs simplify complex processes to make information actionable. Leading hospitals, reference labs, and blood banks use Abbott's informatics technology to help treat and monitor various diseases and medical conditions.

•Bio-Identification: When a patient is admitted to the hospital with a suspected infection, clinicians try to determine the cause using testing technology that may take days to weeks, potentially leading to significant delays in appropriate treatment. Abbott's IRIDICA platform, currently under development and targeted for release in CE-marked European countries within 12 months, has the potential to change the way doctors diagnose serious infections.