Setting-up of a core laboratory in hospitals: strategic planning for automation of pre-analytical processing

Hospital laboratory automation improves itself, with the emergence of new organizational concepts. Nevertheless, the pre-analytical phase often remains manual, whereas the industrial supply is important and now covers all the preparatory steps to analysis. The selection of a pre-analytical robot must fulfill specific requirements, considering the development of instruments, biological subjects and working methods. Within a context of biological core laboratories reorganization and concentration, it seems judicious to draw up an inventory of the various available systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]