St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno started the operation of a new laboratory

St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno started the trial operation of the second laboratory this week. The laboratory was established to support the existing one due to the increasing demand for evaluation of PCR tests for COVID-19 disease. Laboratory technicians use a new diagnostic method for testing.

The laboratory will be able to process up to 500 samples per day. At the end of October, it could be at least 1000 samples. This is thanks to new methods and procedures that offer a comprehensive, safe and fast solution for laboratory diagnostics of COVID-19. “The big advantage is the use of collection kits with a solution that immediately inactivates viruses and at the same time keeps samples stable for the diagnostics themselves. This provides greater safety for medical and laboratory staff – they do not have to work in respirators and protective clothing – and also speeds up the handling of samples, “said Mgr. Milada Dvorackova, Ph.D. from the Institute of Microbiology of St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno and LF MU.

The new laboratory operates on the hospital premises in the premises of the International Clinical Research Center, and several employees of the center also assist in it. “We trained selected laboratory technicians from the Institute of Microbiology for the new method. The involvement of staff and postgraduate students of the International Clinical Research Center (FNUSA-ICRC) and further cooperation with this center will also help us a lot with the operation of the laboratory. A significant increase in testing capacity at the FNUSA Institute of Microbiology enabled the addition of instrumentation, the use of new modern and faster procedures, and especially the automation and digitization of the entire proces,”Said the head of the FNUSA Institute of Microbiology and LF MU prof. MUDr. Filip Růžička, Ph.D. and added that thanks to the increase in sample processing capacity, the St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno to offer these services to other medical facilities.
“We were looking for a reliable system that could process a large number of samples. The new diagnostic procedure, developed and put into practice by researchers from Charles University, shows the optimal ratio of price, speed and quality of examination. We hope that this will help not only our hospital, but also those around us, “added the director of the St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno Ing. Vlastimil Vajdák.

Of course, the laboratory will remain functional even after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. The hospital will use high-capacity PCR testing and offer it to other medical facilities – such as tests for TB, borrelia, influenza, hepatitis and many others.