Behind the scenes: the technical challenges of automation

Implementation of automation can be daunting. A recent paper in Frontiers in Medicine describes the challenges encountered by the Biobank of the University Hospitals and the Catholic University of Leuven. The team says it took about four years to effectively take the systems into production, with multiple issues contributing to the delayed implementation, including quality of the initial installation and misunderstanding of biobank concerns. For more details, read Linsen et al (2020)  “Automated Sample Storage in Biobanking to Enhance Translational Research: The Bumpy Road to Implementation.”