Medical technicians charged to embrace new trend for urinalysis

The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) has been charged to embrace the technological trend of doing urinalysis to ensure quality productivity, accuracy and efficiency.

The call was made during the product launch of the UN Series-the modular way of urinalysis, themed: Bridging the gap between patient care and quality diagnosis using medical technology in the laboratory held in Lagos recently.

Speaking on the efficiency of the urinalysis machine, Director of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIRM), Prof. Babatunde Lawal, emphasized that it would eliminate human error to the barest minimum level, hence, improving health care in the country.

“The machine is capable of taking care of virtually everything concerned with urinary test and on the long run; the laboratory technicians would see other numerous uses of the machine,” he added.

Furthermore, Lawal said human error could occur if the laboratory technician has colour blindness, because the likely diagnosis is based on the urine colour. Also, if it has to be with the use of the microscopic lens, the end result depends solely on the technician’s vast knowledge and experience in the field, which obviously would lead to varied interpretations and result.

“You now have caliberated automated machine that can carry out urinalysis that would drastically reduce human error,” he argued. Highlighting the challenges that the automated machine could pose to medical technicians, Lawal reiterated that, “There is need to be certain that the range of normal that has been used for the machine also applies to us in Nigeria, so that the machine will not say what is normal for us is too high or low for us.

“We need to be sure that the range is accurate because they are being caliberated based on the country where it is produced,” he added.Looking at the relevance of the UN Series to medical laboratory research, he added that urine test remains an integral part of routine medical test, which enables practitioners have access to the kidney and virtually any other disease detected. Reiterating the commitment of Sysmex to enhancing health care by its product, the Chief Medical Director of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, represented by Professor Olufemi Fashola, said the global health research institute is aimed at shaping the advancement of healthcare in Africa by producing machines that would provide and lead a reliable way of diagnosing disease and innovate solutions for in-vitro diagnosis. “Sysmex products are of immense benefits to the laboratory technicians because your diagnosis is as good as your equipment,” he noted.