Calling a halt on downtime

How can remote diagnostics – which have been used by aircraft manufacturers for years – help prevent downtime in the medical laboratory?

Remote diagnostics – the act of diagnosing a given symptom, issue or problem from a distance –has been used in non-medical industries for decades. Aircraft manufacturers have been routinely monitoring aircraft engine performance and remotely diagnosing issues for years, however, remote diagnostics in the medical laboratory setting is a newer phenomenon. Thanks to advances in technology and data security, the evolution of remote service solutions to address constraints of the lab, such as downtime, labour shortages and inconsistent results, has enabled the medical industry to take advantage of remote diagnostics as well. The progression of remote diagnostics allows customers to benefit from proactive support to service their issues in real-time. However, the full benefits can be further realised as manufacturers and customers alike move to predictive maintenance which allows manufacturers to respond to issues even before they impact the lab.

Unscheduled downtime is a disruption to labs of any size. To help alleviate unscheduled downtime and achieve optimal operating efficiency, it is essential to monitor performance of instruments and the reagents, and react to any problems as soon as possible. Prior to remote diagnosis, lab managers would need to notice an issue had arisen, inform the service personnel and wait for the manufacturer to send support to fix the problem. With remote diagnostics, manufacturers are able to utilise what is called “predictive maintenance” (PdM) which provides the ability to troubleshoot, isolate and possibly solve the issue by detecting deterioration patterns and by taking corrective action before the instrument halts (Figure 1). Additionally, using remote troubleshooting allows for the issue to be investigated without the need to send a service representative or scheduling time, ultimately resolving issues more swiftly and effectively. Labs benefit immensely from the proactive monitoring of the instrument error conditions which enable remote support personnel to detect, analyse and respond to errors even before the customer is aware of a potential issue.

The predictive maintenance model is beneficial to all parties, as it maintains uptime for the users, allowing rapid detection of system inconsistencies, flags result variances and is cost effective.

The benefit of implementing a remote service capability through a connected system is not limited to predictive and proactive monitoring alone, but can also unlock the following benefits:

• Remote software updates pushed directly to the instrument, saving customer time to schedule updates at their convenience.

• Real-time chat with service personnel, giving more control and instant accessibility to the lab personnel.

• Remote access for service team to aid in rapid troubleshooting.

• Exchange video over the remote channel for training, troubleshooting or servicing.

The above services built on the instrument connectivity enhance customer satisfaction by providing a real-time connection with the support folks and also leave the customers assured that their systems are being actively monitored for uptime.

Accuracy of test results is paramount to the customers. Remote services built on the connected instruments provide labs and manufacturers a means to run analytics and catch variances rapidly. While reduced downtimes due to predictive maintenance means customers can get their results without any delay, value added services such as peer comparison of lab results can directly benefit by providing them the confidence that results outside control limits will be analysed in real-time.

Providing proactive and predictive support through remote service is not something that can be developed quickly. The first key requirement is to provide the means for the instruments to be able to be connected remotely and provide troubleshooting information. Challenges include working with systems developed with little or no remote troubleshooting support. The right remote services solution needs to consider instrument’s capabilities and the service organisation’s priorities.

The next key phase for the supplier is to deploy the solution. This entails connecting a hitherto stand-alone system to the internet, addressing any security and privacy concerns, and gaining the support of IT groups responsible for the lab network. Gaining customer’s confidence in remote solution’s security and privacy capabilities is critical for the success of deploying the solution in the field. The remote solution needs to encompass security measures through proven technologies such as SSL, VPN, and advanced encryption algorithms. Hardware appliances such as firewalls will also provide an additional shield of security to the instrument and also allow advanced configuring to direct the data traffic between authorised sites. Security mechanisms such as these are already in widespread use in industries such as banking, e-commerce and mobile devices. Figure 2 describes how connections are usually implemented in medical laboratories.

A key milestone in remote services is to get the critical mass of on-market instruments connected, which provides manufacturers the opportunity to leverage the volume for meaningful analysis, trends and to extract the full benefits of remote services. The benefits in this state will also be apparent for the instrument or reagents R&D teams, marketing, data analysis groups, etc. to use the population of instruments for analytics and decision making purposes.

It is certain that as new instruments enter the market, they will include not just the basic remote troubleshooting features, but several value-added benefits including real-time trending of results and variances, superior instrument configuration management, and real-time interaction with the support.  As the benefits of remote diagnostics and troubleshooting become clearer and more common-place in the medical industry, laboratory managers will begin to demand instant support and will rely more and more on remote services.  For laboratories, the growing usage of remote services will eventually mean increased satisfaction due to reduced downtimes and the ability to serve their patients efficiently and with the highest quality.

The Author
Philippe Ameryckx, GM Remote Diagnostics