Clever Culture Systems wins Award at the prestigious 2019 Good Design Australia Awards for its innovative APAS Independence instrument

 12th July 2019

Press Release

The 2019 Good Design Australia Awards, held in Sydney on 11 July, presented The APAS Independence – a stand-alone automated culture plate reading instrument – The Good Design Award Best in Class accolade in the Medical and Scientific category. This award represents the highest level of design excellence in the Medical and Scientific sub-category and represents absolute best in class design. The Good Design Award Best in Class accolade is limited to the top 30 projects in the Good Design Awards.

In addition to this award the APAS Independence was short listed for the Good Design Award of the Year.

Good Design Australia is an international design promotion organisation responsible for managing Australia’s annual Good Design Awards. The awards represent the diverse spectrum of design with 10 specific Design Disciplines, spanning 28 Categories. The program proudly showcase’s superior examples of good design to a national and international audience.
The APAS Independence increases the efficiency of microbiology laboratories by allowing the microbiologists to focus on the specimens that need their expert attention. Where a microbiologist would normally need to sort through all Petri dishes, the APAS Independence uses an innovative triage system to screen and sort 200 dishes per hour. It uses digital imaging analysis software to identify culture plates with non-significant growth (i.e. a negative test result) and remove them from the workflow.

Peter Bradley, General Manager at Clever Culture Systems, said the award was recognition of the company’s innovative work: “The APAS Independence is a unique instrument. There are no other instruments out there that will read the plates the same as a microbiologist does.”

Mr Bradley commended all parties involved in the development of this ground-breaking technology.

“Being recognized by the Good Design Australia Awards is well-deserved recognition of the contribution Clever Culture Systems and parent companies LBT Innovations and Hettich Holding Beteiligungs und Verwaltungs are making to the clinical diagnostics industry,” he said. “It’s also fantastic recognition of the great work of our partners – Planet Innovations, Hydrix and Alphagate.”

“We identified a deficiency in the way microbiologists spent their time.. and decided to invent an instrument to streamline this part of the microbiology culture plate workflow. After nine years, we created the APAS Independence with artificial intelligence and digital imaging at its core, housed in a casing designed to suit most labs with its small footprint and interactive screens. It is highly rewarding to all partners involved in the design and creation of this instrument to receive this award.”