Abbott announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its new blood and plasma screening Alinity s System. This new solution will bring the latest screening technology to U.S. blood and plasma centers. Alinity s is designed to screen blood and plasma more efficiently within a smaller space versus commercially available competitive systems. In a testing specialty that can require extensive hands-on time, the additional automation and flexibility of Alinity s will help blood and plasma centers improve productivity and maintain the highest levels of accuracy.
 
"Alinity s is a significant leap forward when it comes to speed, automation and efficiency for blood and plasma screening," said Louis Morrone, vice president, Transfusion Medicine, Abbott. "These elements are important to blood and plasma services of all sizes, supporting Abbott's overall mission to help people live longer, healthier lives by keeping the global blood and plasma supply safe."
 
Alinity s will help transform the blood and plasma screening process in terms of speed, capacity and "walk-away" time (i.e., when lab professionals are free to manage other responsibilities while the instrument processes samples) as a result of a number of new features:
 

• Expands capacity to run up to 600 tests per hour.
• Improves centers' ability to track all activities and actions associated with the testing and processing of each donation in accordance with regulatory requirements.
• Increases walk-away time to a minimum of three hours while adding the ability to continuously access to refill/restock when convenient to the technician.
• Equips laboratory professionals with the ability to continuously load and unload samples and supplies without pausing or stopping the system.
• Features an intuitive software interface, menu design and sample loading layout, shared with other Alinity instruments, making it easy for lab technicians to learn and use.

 
"In order to ensure a safe blood and plasma supply, we need access to the most advanced technologies to screen donations," said Rachel-Louise Beddard, M.D., senior vice president and chief medical officer, QualTex Laboratories. "Alinity s will help us transform the way we conduct screening, so we can do our jobs most efficiently, allowing us to get the life-saving blood and plasma products to people facing their most critical situations."