Breakfast Session EMMD 2019 - LDT syndromic panels at AZ lab

The Molecular Biology lab of the AZ hospital in Bruges have set up 3 LDT diagnostic syndromic panels: respiratory (48 reactions), STD (19 pathogens) and GI (32 pathogens). Dr. Descheemaeker heads the lab and explains how they developed and implemented these complex multiplexed assays on 348 well TaqMan array cards and ramped them to a volume of 500000+ analyses per year.

The multi-target designs avoid reflex testing but increase interpretation complexity assessing the many PCR reactions per sample, the various controls, and the thresholds and QC rules that are included in the design, and combining the targets into the final assay pos/neg call according to the lab SOP.

Patrick talks us through how they implemented these panels, with a focus on removing the burden of manual interpretation, integrating real-time QC in the process, and tying the outcomes directly into the LIMS.

You'll learn how the lab increased accuracy, reduced false positive and negative error rates, improved turnaround times and lifted the manual review burden by taking their assay and  standardizing the PCR protocol, solving the interpretation challenges that come with running thousands of assays per month, and tracking the controls and assay results in visual QC module in real time.