Portable Blood Culture Device from Q-linea
Portable blood culture unit from Q-linea: When a patient shows symptoms in line with sepsis, one should immediately take samples for blood culture and begin empirical antibiotic treatment. To detect if there are bacteria in the blood, the blood sample needs to be incubated in culture cabinets, which allows microbial growth until the pathogen content reaches a level that is detectable. The incubation step takes several hours, depending onthe pathogen. These culture cabinets are most often found in microbiological laboratories located in the regional hospitals and usually at a long distance from the smaller hospitals in the region. Blood culture bottles from the smaller hospitals must then be transported, often several hours to be able to begin an incubation. In current solutions, the transport time is not used because the bacteria grow very slowly, if at all, during transport.
Several studies indicate that the transport time for blood cultures has the greatest impact on the total time required for blood culture diagnostics and subsequent escalation or downsizing of antibiotic treatment. Q-linea's solution Podler uses the transport time for incubation and detection of bacteria by starting the incubation and detection of bacterial growth immediately after blood sampling, regardless of where in the logistics flow the sample is (in the department, in logistics center, in the transportcar, etc.). Thus, the total time to see results is reduced so that the right treatment can be prescribed earlier, which ultimately saves lives for many patients suffering from sepsis.
When we were briefed to find the right name for the product, there was a desire that the device would feel 'almost like a person, a friend, a friend on the road'. We had a few names left after filtration and selection that radiated this – finally the choice fell on the name proposal PODLER which can be associated with both'a friend - a Podler' and at the same time it has a certain technical atmosphere.
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