Siemens Healthineers and Hermes Pardini Group to Create an Unprecedented Automated Lab

Siemens Healthineers has taken another leap in its efforts to transform care delivery in in-vitro diagnostics by developing “The Enterprise Project” with the Hermes Pardini Group of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The Enterprise Project is the largest and most complex clinical analysis laboratory known to date and is expected to be capable of handling 110 million sample tubes per year upon completion. Siemens Healthineers, in collaboration with Inpeco, has designed and will deliver this fully automated multidisciplinary solution on an unprecedented scale, which will include at least 100 analyzers—including more than 50 Atellica Solution¹ clinical chemistry and immunoassay analyzers from Siemens Healthineers, the largest IVD supplier in this project. The highly sophisticated solution will provide automation of clinical and operational workflow, from sample reception through testing to disposal.
 
Sited in Vespasiano, Grande Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais, the lab will occupy 3,500 square meters of floor space, will conduct operations 24 hours a day, and is expected to be fully operational during 2019.
 
The Atellica Solution will help achieve the Hermes Pardini Group’s objectives of operational efficiency and quality: A decrease in turnaround time (TAT) and reduction in operational costs, while driving accuracy, reliability and precision of results. The Atellica Solution delivers high-throughput achieved through intelligent routing capabilities that leverage the solution’s patented bi-directional magnetic sample transport. The immunoassay analyzers deliver on precision, throughput and turnaround time with the industry’s leading productivity per square meter²—up to 440 tests per hour³.
 
“Atellica Solution can effect real change for clinical laboratories by improving workflows and enhancing capabilities,” said Deepak Nath, President of Siemens Healthineers Laboratory Diagnostics. “Lab directors are recognizing what Atellica Solution can do for their laboratories and the clinicians and patients they serve. The result has been projects of unprecedented proportions including this one, to drive long-term efficiency, sustainability and growth.”

“The automation track will be more than 330 meters long upon completion and will be used to automatically transport and distribute sample tubes to specific analyzers that can run the specific type of test requested by clinicians,” said Guilherme Collares, Chef Operations Officer of the Hermes Pardini Group. “Unlike conventional laboratory set-ups, where sample tubes have to be moved manually between different analyzers, our enterprise lab will is designed to employ a ‘one-touch, one workflow’ concept to eliminate the need for manual interventions, ensure sample traceability, and reduce the turnaround time to results. The Atellica Solution and greater product portfolio will provide us the flexibility to create a laboratory that suits our needs.”
 
The Enterprise Project also will rely on Atellica Process Manager, an IT solution that delivers a 3D view of the laboratory configuration, to enable operators to manage alerts, control instruments and reagent monitoring remotely, and see test progression in real time. Additionally, the solution provides advanced analytics and reporting capabilities. Siemens Healthineers will implement the first Laboratory Control Room, which will centralize management and provide holistic visibility of operations in the central Vespasiano laboratory, and other Hermes Pardini satellite lab units in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Goiania, and Belo Horizonte.
 
This new and differentiated laboratory business model resembles initiatives used in other industries, including the automotive industry, and is designed to substantially increase productivity, increase quality and decrease unwanted variations, reduce turn-around time, and lower operational costs.
 
References
1Not commercially available in all countries.
2Dependent upon test mix.
3Versus leading IVD market competitors.