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The arrival of an automatic machine at CHUM has made it possible to slow down the spread of the coronavirus in the province.
While all COVID-19 screening tests were done by hand in the early summer, this device has significantly accelerated testing at CHUM laboratories, where 2,000 tests are performed every day.
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Costing around a million dollars, the machine delivers results at lightning speed, capable of analyzing 94 samples at a time. Thanks to this, a person who has taken a screening test can know the result within 24 hours.
This machine was a real acquisition for the hospital. In fact, since March, 250,000 analyzes have been carried out at the CHUM and 650,000 in the OPTILAB COVID cluster that brings together the CHUM, the Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital and the Sacré-Coeur hospital. 25% of COVID analyzes in Quebec come from these centers.
The arrival of the car also helped the employees a lot. This allowed staff to be assigned to other laboratory duties to ensure the continuation of the medical activities delayed last spring.
“We have gone from fifteen employees who have worked directly on COVID to three employees who are on this device,” explains Optilab-Montreal-CHUM director Bruno Lamontagne.
When COVID is no longer relevant in the next few years, the automaton will still have a role to play.
“It will be used to do a series of analyzes: viral loads for HIV, viral loads for hepatitis C, chlamydia, gonorrhea …” says molecular biologist Simon Gagnon.
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