RapidLabs' Distinctive Advantage

The RapidLabs AST/ID clinical application can provide antibiotic susceptibility and identification test results in less than 30 minutes from a clinical isolate, which is significantly less time than is required by current technology.

Unlike all other automated AST/ID systems on the market, the RapidLabs method does not need to wait for microbial growth in the test wells. This significant and fundamental advantage allows our system to deliver accurate microbial AST/ID results in less than 30 minutes. The capability to perform an AST/ID test without microbial growth also translates into the ability to test a wider variety of microorganisms (like the fastidious organisms, anaerobes, fungi and yeast), since a unique environment to sustain growth for these classes of microorganisms is not required.

The value that clinical laboratories will derive from the RapidLabs application is significant:

• RapidLabs provides the ability to report both ID and AST results in 30 minutes. Current commercially available products are able to provide complete ID results in 3-15 hours and AST results in 7.5-16 hours. This decreased time to results of 2.5-16 hours will drive more appropriate prescribing practices, reduce the number of additional tests performed on a patient, and will allow the patient to leave the hospital sooner, saving the hospital significant money.
• RapidLabs streamlines the operations of the lab. In addition to testing members of the Enterobacteriaceae and other non-fermenting gram-negative bacilli, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and Enterococcus groups of bacteria, which the current commercially available systems can manage, the RapidLabs system will also be able to test a wide range of other microbes include Gram-Positive bacilli, fastidious Gram Negatives, anaerobes, fungi and yeasts. Test preparation and results reporting will be standardized for a broader set of organisms, reducing the number of third party test kits, reducing the clutter on the desk of the lab tech, and improving the efficiency of the lab tech.
• RapidLabs provides identification to the species and strain level for most of the commonly pathogenic microorganisms. This additional specificity will provide the physicians with additional detail to ensure their understanding of the origin of the infection and the treatment options.