Automation and Molecular Diagnostics: a New Era in Clinical Microbiology

The environment of the clinical microbiology laboratory is rapidly changing. Testing methodologies based upon organism growth on an array of liquid and solid media are being replaced by newer methods that enhance the rate of organism identification as well as increase the sensitivity and specificity by which identification occurs. A majority of these new techniques are based upon nucleic hybridization and polymerase-chain reaction technology and range from identification of single-organisms or organism families to multiplexed syndromic panels, which can concurrently examine for the presence of numerous suspect organisms based upon the symptoms exhibited by the patient. In addition, the clinical microbiology laboratory now has access to a level of automation thus far only seen in the chemistry and hematology sections of the clinical laboratory. These transitions have been repeatedly shown to enhance the level of patient care when properly implemented into the laboratory workflow. Conversely, with the rapid encroachment of these new technologies comes potential downfalls, including cost and challenges with training laboratory staff. Collectively, the clinical microbiology laboratory is coming into a new era of technology and patient care that will bring about dramatic changes to conventional testing and organism identification.