Karachi:January 20:Pakistan’s first fully automated biochemistry laboratory was inaugurated at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) by the president of the university, Firoz Rasul, here on Thursday.

The state-of-the-art lab, which is capable of processing 8-10 million clinical chemistry tests annually, is being hailed as a milestone for diagnostic testing in Pakistan. For patients, it means even more accurate test results within a shorter period of time. It is expected to increase AKUH’s clinical laboratory’s workload capacity by threefold.

“With over 700 test menus offered, the university hospital’s laboratories perform over seven million tests every year. Samples from Pakistan as well as Afghanistan, the UAE, East Africa and Central Asia are tested here,” said Dr Farooq Ghani, Director Clinical Laboratories of the AKUH.

“The automated system has streamlined and improved the analysis of blood samples, increasing not only our capacity but our efficiency as we can provide improved quality, a reduction in lab errors and a shorter and more predictable turnaround time,” he added.

The system also requires less space and fewer staff, which helps in meeting cost improvement objectives, added Dr Ghani. The automated lab will help the university hospital maintain a high quality diagnostic testing service not only for patients within the hospital but also for Pakistani society in general, which is currently being serviced by only 190 such laboratory collection units.

All samples that come in for testing have bar codes which contain patient and test information to eliminate any possible errors and to speed up the testing process. Additionally, almost all the centers, the 11 regional labs and the main lab in Karachi, have been linked electronically, which allows for test results to be reported as soon as results come in.The news.