Automated instrument for blood culture

Omnica partnered with bioMerieux’s marketing and engineering teams in developing this entry to their Lab of the Future with contributions to basic functionality, user experience, Industrial Design and prototyping. Their introduction announcement follows:

Get ready for a new dimension in blood culture detection: the BACT/ALERT^® VIRTUO^® is seamlessly efficient blood culture technology in one automated system.

• Motion-activated “Set and Forget” loading
• Advanced robotics provides hands free bottle loading and unloading
• Flexible and scalable instrumentation adapts to any size laboratory
• VIRTUO^® helps you redesign your workflow by reducing hands on time and increasing efficiency

BACT/ALERT^® VIRTUO^® ushers in a new dimension of blood culture detection. Almost endlessly versatile it fits into any size lab, even outside the routine microbiology lab. The latest example of ingenuity in automation, VIRTUO™ reduces hands-on time for increased lab efficiency. These benefits can be further boosted through highly sophisticated MYLA^® software that puts relevant information from multiple instruments and your LIS at your fingertips, when and where you need it. In these ways and more, BACT/ALERT^® VIRTUO^® seamlessly integrates your blood culture workflow to provide efficient and actionable results to help you achieve better patient outcomes.

NeoMatrix Halo

The HALO® Breast Pap Test is a patented fully automated noninvasive breast disease-screening device for use in physician offices. It is FDA-cleared for the collection of nipple aspirate fluid (NAF) for cytological evaluation. Like the Pap test for cervical cancer, HALO looks for cellular changes years before breast cancer is detectable by mammographic imaging. To learn more about the test and locate a physician who offers it, visit www.neomatrix.com or call (877)-HALOPAP.

Ocular Implant

Omnica assisted in the design of patented Scleral Implants to treat presbyopia and glaucoma, and in the specialized scleratome tools and technique to make the implants easy to install, achieve more accurate placement, improve patient comfort, and decrease surgery time.  The Oculock fixation device secures to the eye insuring correct placement of the lamellar scleral tunnels which are created with an ergonomic disposable scleratome tool.

Baby Movement Tracker

The innovative KickTrak by babykick is a non-invasive, handheld device that tracks a baby’s movement patterns, counts down pregnancy progress and reliably tracks the time between contractions to better estimate when labor will begin.  KickTrak provides peace of mind to expecting mothers as fetal movement is an important indicator of babies’ health.  Pregnant women use kickTrak beginning at 24-28 weeks to record their baby’s movements with the touch of a button.

MiniMed Insulin Pump

Minimed Paradigm® for MiniMed (now Medtronic) – This percutaneous insulin infusion pump is the basis for a family of wearable and water-resistant insulin pumps. It supports three basal programs and a bolus delivery option. We developed a custom, non Luer lock connector to allow for the water-resistant design. It uses a proprietary stepper motor with a captive lead screw and is powered by an easily replaceable AAA battery. We performed project management and coordination with the client’s engineering team, industrial design, graphic interface, enclosure design, electronics packaging and others. We also fabricated test fixtures for life testing motors and force sensors, and designed the occlusion sensor and thin film force sensor transducer design. We coordinated tooling, drop, immersion, and acoustic testing, and documentation transfer to production.

Ellipse Technologies

A novel platform of magnetically adjustable implant systems based on its MAGnetic External Control technology.  Ellipse’s novel and proprietary implants are adjustable at the time of implantation and are distracted non−invasively over the course of treatment to accommodate the changing clinical needs of patients as they heal, grow or age.  Ellipse’s technology enables physicians to customize therapy for patients in a non-invasive manner, reducing the need for further repeat surgical procedures, and providing meaningful improvements in patient clinical outcomes and quality of life while generating cost savings to the healthcare system.

Cardiac Recovery System

Omnica was part of a multiple discipline team that developed an LVAD related system for animal testing. We were responsible for the packaging, Industrial Design, fluid and electrical inter-connectivity, power supply, user interface, and prototype fabrication. The system was comprised of an “Acute Controller/Console”, a “Chronic Controller Assembly” and “Telemetry-linked Clinical Console”.

PhotoThera

The NeuroThera System, De Taboada said, consists of a fiber optic cable, a handpiece, a cap that guides the laser energy to treatment locations on the scalp, accessories and a cart for portability.

When the system establishes contact with the patient’s completely shaved head, detectors in the handpiece trigger it to emit a specific wavelength of near-IR energy. “A total treatment regimen consists of treating 20 locations on the head for two minutes at each location for a total of 40 minutes of nominal treatment time,” De Taboada said.

The mitochondrial photoreceptor cytochrome C oxidase absorbs near-IR and drives adenosine triphosphate (ATP) formation by oxidative phosphorylation, he explained. The hypothesis goes that improved energy metabolism leads to mitigation of cell death in the stroke-affected tissue and to the enhancement of neuro-recovery mechanisms.

The improved neurometabolism could be beneficial not only in stroke treatment, but also in treating traumatic brain injury, and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, he said.

Quidel Optical Laboratory Instrument

Intraoral Scanner

We developed an intraoral scanner for use by dentists to capture optical impressions of both the soft and hard tissues of the dental arches and digitally transfer them to an interface, lab or a computer monitor for printout and interpretation.