ABSTRACT
This chapter presents somewhat of a devil's advocate perspective on the phenomenon of "automation" in clinical microbiology. It explores rationales, experiences and other microbiologists. The realization that instrumentation has come to clinical microbiology can be had by a stroll through the exhibit area of any major microbiology meeting. Automation of the detection of microorganisms in blood is available only with the Bactec®system. The limited capacity of the Bactec®460 also necessitates some degree of bottle shuffling particularly in large-volume laboratories. The major shortcoming of instrumentation in clinical microbiology appears to be the limited ability of existing systems to deal directly with specimen material. The clinical chemist's dilemma is one of "which", while the microbiologist is asking "whether" with respect to the implementation of instruments. A more fundamental concern might be to question whether improvements in manual blood culturing systems have diminished the advantages of automation.
