New Blood Gas Analyser to Enhance Diagnostic Testing at the Point of Care

Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics has launched the RAPIDPoint® 500 Blood Gas System, its latest cartridge-based point-of-care analyser for critical care testing. Available worldwide, the RAPIDPoint 500 system leverages proven Siemens technology to ensure reliable results and reduce downtime, while also offering new features designed for ease-of-use at the point of care (POC). The demand for POC testing is growing in the hospital setting. Clinicians are increasingly relying on critical-care tests, such as blood gas, to deliver fast, accurate results to help guide important treatment decisions. Given the wide variety of clinicians that use these tests, POC analysers need to be ready to use and easy to operate so that hospital staff are not slowed down with complex operating procedures and maintenance tasks.

“The RAPIDPoint 500 system is designed to satisfy the unique demands of testing at the point of care,” said Hilda Crockett, Business Manager Point of Care at Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. “In addition to being easy-to-use, the analyser leverages proven and reliable cartridge-based technologies to deliver fast, accurate, laboratory-quality results, helping clinicians feel confident in making critical decisions that impact patient lives.” With results in approximately 60 seconds, the RAPIDPoint 500 analyser offers a comprehensive menu of critical-care tests for pH and blood gases, electrolytes, glucose and lactate and full CO-oximetry, including neonatal total bilirubin and total haemoglobin, all from a single, wholeblood sample. Additionally, the measurement cartridges last up to 28 days and contain a full complement of tests, which reduces downtime.

Equipped with fully automated calibration and Quality Control (QC), the RAPIDPoint 500 system is also designed to help POC professionals satisfy organisational and regulatory compliance requirements. Plus, the self-contained Automatic Quality Control (AQC) cartridge operates without manual intervention, helping reduce POC staff’s administrative tasks. An integrated bar code reader – conveniently located on the front of the system – offers a wide scanning area to accommodate patient and operator identification to ensure overall data entry integrity. The RAPIDPoint 500 analyser can be integrated with the Siemens RAPIDComm® Data Management System, as per other Siemens POC solutions, offering centralised management of multiple Siemens blood gas, urine and diabetes analysers and operators.