Blood Bank Tech

[Sunshinegirl]

Does anyone have any comments on Blood Bank automation instrumentation?  Please share your ideas of why you chose the one you have.

Thanks.

[tbostock]

We have the Bio-Rad Tango and we like it very much.  We'll probably upgrade to a Bio-Rad Infinity next year.  I like the company, the reliability of the analyzer and some of its features compared to others.  Not as many false positives as other analyzers.

[AMcCord]

We have been using an Echo for about 8 years. It is simple to use, has been very reliable, has features that prevent some user errors when processing patient specimens. The sensitivity is increased, which means that there is some loss in specificity - in other words, there are a few positive reactions that are non-specific. In the patient population that we see, the increased sensitivity is worth the extra warm autos and solid phase only reactions that we see from time to time. Its a work horse and we like it. We switched from manual gel to the Echo - the techs here had no problem making the change.