NEW YORK – Becton Dickinson announced on Tuesday that it has received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration for the BD Kiestra MRSA Imaging Application, which uses artificial intelligence to interpret methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacterial growth.
The new application automates the inspection of petri dishes to check for bacterial growth, reducing the requirement for human interaction and enabling laboratories to release negative specimens and increase efficiency.
"The pandemic created significant and ongoing labor challenges in laboratories, and reading plates is a labor-intense, potentially error-prone process in microbiology," Nikos Pavlidis, VP and general manager for diagnostics at BD, said in a statement.
The imaging application "helps use limited laboratory staff more efficiently and allows lab personnel to bring their expertise to bear on more critical and complex specimens," Pavlidis said.
The imaging application can be used with both standalone BD Kiestra ReadA systems as well as track-based BD Kiestra laboratory automation solutions.