Urine cultures (UC) constitute up to 30-40% of the workflow in clinical microbiology laboratories. Staffing considerations represent contemporary challenges, new tools are needed to address increasing demands and the evolving diversification of microbiology workflow. APAS Independence is an in-vitro diagnostic system for the automated assessment and enumeration of bacterial colonies, including algorithms for interpretation of UCs from suspected cases of urinary tract infections. The present study aims to assess the accuracy of the APAS Independence for UC reporting in a routine clinical setting.

In this evaluation 6200 UCs were tested using the APAS Independence and compared to the human read as the reference method. Separation into each category [(i) negative/no growth ii) denotation of high clinical significance involving >104 CFU/ml, iii) doubtful reporting/low clinical significance and iv) requires review] was assessed as percent agreement with manual technologist review.

The study concluded automation within microbiology can help define workflow and optimize needed technology resources. The results demonstrated the APAS Independence stratifies UC work by auto-verifying and clearing 35% of the urine cultures from clinical workflow.

Poster Presentation: Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN‍

Conference: ASM Microbe 2022, Washington, DC

‍Date: June 2022

‍Authors: Getty, J., Nussbaum, A., Wesenberg. E., Giglio, S. and Hansen, G.

‍Citation: Getty, J., Nussbaum, A., Wesenberg. E., Giglio, S. and Hansen, G. 2022. Evaluation of the APAS Independence as an artificial intelligence tool for urine culture reporting in a clinical hospital setting. ASM Microbe 2022. Washington, DC.