Tag Archives: microbiology automation

“Bread and Butter”

Confessions of a Microbiologist, Future of Microbiology,

Chleb_z_Połajewa

If you are a microbiology scientist your bread and butter might be reading plates and  identifying Staph aureus etc from wound swabs. In the future, this will be done for you by interpretative software analysing digital images.

If you are a senior scientist, your bread and butter might be validating/authorising microbiology reports. In the future this will be done for you by sophisticated rules engines.

If you are a microbiology technician, your bread and butter might be putting up swabs onto agar plates, setting up Maldi-TOF plates or inoculating susceptibility broths. In the future this will be done for you by automation. (if not already)

If you are a clinical microbiologist your bread and butter might be giving antibiotic or best testing advice to clinicians. In the future this will be done for you by robust apps on the clinicians’ smartphones.

Worried?

The nature of our jobs are going to change in the future. This might be 2 , 5, 10 or 20 yrs down the line depending on the nature and pace of change. If we expect to continue doing our current job in its current format, then sooner or later your job will be made redundant by advancing technology. Difficult news to swallow, but absolutely the truth.

You might think that the above will lead to a loss of jobs, and it may well lead to a net loss. (This has been debated ad nauseum elsewhere) However on the plus side new jobs (and job descriptions) will almost certainly be created.

For example in the future, new jobs may be available for those who:

  • are expert at maintaining, troubleshooting, configuring and calibrating automated equipment.
  • can develop apps and write rules engines.
  • are comfortable developing testing algorhythms, and composing and formatting online manuals.

We will still need microbiological knowledge, but not in the encyclopaedic way we did a generation ago….

When it comes to this it doesn’t really matter how fast you work or how good you are at your routine work. Advancing technology never pays much attention to these parameters. It just targets bread and butter work and eventually eats it up.

We need to be aware of what our daily bread and butter is in the workplace, what is likely to happen to it in the future, and how we (personally) are going to adapt in order to stay relevant.

Michael

“No one here gets out alive…”

Confessions of a Microbiologist,

We think we have the latest methods, the most up to date innovations, the best manuals & quality controls, the most advanced IT system and the smartest diagnostic algorithms. No one else comes close to our lab. We must be the best!

We are ahead of the game?

Think again….

We sometimes forget that whilst we are busy in our own little world looking after our patch, everyone else is doing the same for their respective laboratories or workplaces. It can therefore come as somewhat of a shock when suddenly it dawns on us that you may not be that advanced after all. You might be ahead in one area, but behind in others.

Do anything and everything you can to visit other labs and meet with colleagues who have different areas of expertise than yourself. Use any excuse you can! It’s not just useful, it is completely essential. See how others do things. Don’t be surprised to find that the issues that your lab face are uncannily similar to other laboratories, both locally and internationally.

The world of laboratory microbiology is currently moving at a frightening pace, certainly quicker than I can ever remember. Think about bacteriology automation, multiplex PCRs and the use of IT logic to develop testing algorithms for starters. No one individual can keep pace with everything.

Team work and information sharing is key in keeping up to speed.

Rest on your laurels and you are dead in the water in this profession.

Michael