A practical approach to instrument selection, evaluation, basic financial management and implementation in pathology...

Area of Science:

• Clinical laboratory science
• Medical device management

Background:

• Increasing demands on laboratory productivity and budgets necessitate avoiding costly instrument selection errors.
• Informed decision-making is crucial as no single instrument suits all laboratory needs.
• A literature search revealed a significant lack of current, relevant information on laboratory instrument selection and evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish appropriate criteria for informed laboratory instrument selection.
• To provide a financial approach for evaluating instrument acquisition.
• To prevent costly and avoidable mistakes in major equipment procurement.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a Medline search using "laboratory instrument selection" and "laboratory instrument evaluation".
• Reviewed additional resources from the American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC) and the internet.
• Established selection criteria based on subjective and objective (technical) evaluations.

Main Results:

• A limited number of relevant and up-to-date articles were found in the literature search (7 out of over 800).
• Developed a framework for instrument selection incorporating technical and financial assessments.
• Proposed a simple financial approach to aid decision-making.

Conclusions:

• Laboratories must adopt a structured process for instrument selection to avoid financial and operational setbacks.
• The proposed guidelines and financial approach support informed decision-making in acquiring major laboratory equipment.
• Implementing these criteria can protect laboratories from costly and preventable acquisition errors.