ABBOTT PARK, Ill., Jan. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced today its Alinity™ s System for blood and plasma screening received CE Mark and is now available in Europe and other countries that recognize CE Mark. The new testing solution is designed to screen blood and plasma faster and more efficiently within a smaller footprint than Abbott's current systems. In a testing specialty that can require extensive hands-on time, the additional automation and flexibility of the Alinity s System helps blood and plasma centers improve productivity and maintain the highest levels of accuracy, without expanding the instrument footprint.

"The Alinity s System is a significant leap forward when it comes to speed, automation and efficiency for blood and plasma screening," said Louis Morrone, divisional vice president and general manager for Abbott's Transfusion Medicine business. "These elements are important to blood and plasma services of all sizes, supporting Abbott's overall mission to help people live longer, healthier lives by keeping the global blood and plasma supply safe."

The Alinity s System will help transform the blood and plasma screening process in terms of speed, capacity and "walk-away" time (i.e., when lab professionals are free to manage other responsibilities while the instrument processes samples without direct interaction) as a result of a number of new features¹:

• Expands capacity to run up to 600 tests per hour, at least twice as much as competitive standalone instruments.
• Improves centers' ability to track all activities and actions associated with the testing and processing of each donation in accordance with relevant legislation and requirements.
• Increases walk-away time to a minimum of three hours.
• Gives laboratory professionals the ability to continuously load and unload samples and supplies without pausing or stopping the system.
• Features an intuitive software interface, menu design and sample loading layout, shared with other Alinity instruments, making it easy for lab technicians to learn and use.

"When Abbott developed the Alinity s system, we considered the challenges that blood and plasma centers face today as well as in the future, such as adequate space, easier training, and more time for lab professionals to work away from the instrument," said Daman Kowalski, divisional vice president of new product development in Diagnostics at Abbott. "In addressing these challenges, the Alinity s System has the potential to transform how quickly and accurately these centers can screen blood and plasma, which means we can deliver life-saving blood components to the people who need it the most." 

About Alinity
Abbott's Alinity family of harmonized solutions is unprecedented in the diagnostics industry, working together to address the challenges of using multiple diagnostics platforms and simplify diagnostic testing. Alinity systems are designed to be more efficient – running more tests in less space, generating test results faster and minimizing human errors – while continuing to provide quality results.

The Alinity portfolio includes clinical chemistry, immunoassay, blood and plasma screening, point of care, hematology and molecular diagnostics, along with Abbott's AlinIQ—a first-of-its-kind, holistic suite of professional services that combines expertise with process analysis and informatics. Alinity is helping labs and hospital systems solve some of their most pressing challenges to deliver better patient care with fewer resources. More information is available at abbott.com/alinity.

About Abbott
At Abbott, we're committed to helping you live your best possible life through the power of health. For more than 125 years, we've brought new products and technologies to the world -- in nutrition, diagnostics, medical devices and branded generic pharmaceuticals -- that create more possibilities for more people at all stages of life. Today, 74,000 of us are working to help people live not just longer, but better, in the more than 150 countries we serve.

Connect with us at www.abbott.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Abbott and on Twitter @AbbottNews and @AbbottGlobal. 

¹ Abbott "Alinity s" System Operations Manual.

SOURCE Abbott