5.4.1 Automated systems

Automated systems such as Vitek II (Biomerieux), BD Phoenix (Beckton Dickinson) and Beckman-Coulter-MicroScan are used in large human clinical laboratories.

Effectively, these are automated versions of the biochemical test kits, with more reagents, automated reading of results and analytic software so that technician interpretation is not required.

The cost of these systems is high, but they require less work than traditional tests. Another advantage is that antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) can be done at the same time.