Sample Testing with Vitalab Flexor

Abstract

The Vitalab Flexor is a high-tech medical instrument designed to perform a large number of simultaneous measurements on samples of blood and urine. For future purposes it is desired to increase the throughput, i.e. the number of tests per hour, of the instrument.

The analysis in this report gives upper bounds on the throughput if the Vitalab Flexor is operated in modes which are standard in the present situation. It is shown that a desired throughput of at least 266 tests per hour can not be realized on the basis of these standard operation modes. Possible improvements are suggested via so-called parallel or on-line operation modes, or a combination of these two modes. These possible improvements however require a number of changes in the technical design of the Vitalab Flexor.