Cerner Corporation Enters The Clinical Laboratory Automation Market By Acquiring Labotix Automation Inc.

Never before has a major LIS vendor boldly acquired a lab equipment manufacturer with an intent to integrate and sell both products as a bundle to medical laboratories

In an unexpected move, healthcare informatics giant Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ: CERN)  purchased a clinical laboratory automation company. On Monday, Cerner announced that it acquired Labotix Automation Inc., of Peterborough, Ontario.

The acquisition gives Cerner an interesting foothold in the clinical laboratory automation market. For many pathologists and medical laboratory managers, the deal raises interesting questions, since Cerner—primarily known among labs for its laboratory information system (LIS) and its anatomic pathology laboratory information system (PLIS)—now is the owner of a company that manufactures hardware...

...The flagship product for Labotix is what it calls the Rapid Response Universal Specimen Handling (RRUSH) system. One distinguishing feature about this lab automation system is that it is open source. It transports and sorts specimen containers, then delivers them to the appropriate analyzers for processing or storage. Labotix has systems installed at five client clinical laboratories in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. The company has 22 associates and contractors...