In developing this instrument, Ray Martino recalls, Specific Diagnostics had two main challenges. They needed to choose a set of chemicals best-suited for identifying the bacteria that cause bloodstream infections, and they needed to create a buildable instrument to grow and identify the bacteria cultures. The instrument would consist of an incubator, a computer processor, a touch-screen display, and a scanning component.
In developing prototypes, Martino says, “We evaluated all of the scanners on the market and found Epson® was the best for our needs. The color performance, illumination and resolution are amazing for such small, low cost devices.”
