I am looking at the Participant Summary for latest CAP proficiency, anti-D titer. For tube testing using the "uniform procedure tube method" that CAP suggests, they reported the following results: 333 participants, mode 64, consensus range 16 to 256. For Gel testing "uniform procedure gel method", 138 participants, mode 256, consensus range 64 to 1024. Per CAP, Consensus is determined by the Mode +/- two of the most frequent titers.
It looks like in the previous 2 surveys for the gel anti-D titers, the mode for gel was 1 to 2 dilutions higher than tube, but so was the consensus range. It seems like there are a fair number of labs reporting gel and if you report that as your method you should be compared to other gel titer users. I would also think as more instruments are implemented that can do gel titers, the number reporting gel will go up.
And of course what ever you do, perform method correlation and communicate with the obstetricians any changes they may see in titer results. We are contemplating this also.
Also I am little confused by ""Do you want it to be faster and more hands-off or more exact?" It seems to me that automated titers in gel should be much more reproducible.
We are just starting to look in to performing titers on Vision.