News & Events

Oxford, UK : Thursday 4 June 2009 - BD Diagnostics, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), recently announced the worldwide launch of the BD BACTEC™ FX Blood Culture System to detect bloodstream infections. This new system improves clinical decision-making and laboratory workflow by markedly improving blood culturing practices with real-time, remotely accessible, actionable results that can enhance patient care.  The BD BACTEC FX System is designed to continue the media performance excellence expected from the BD BACTEC line: from Plus and Lytic to Peds and media for yeast, fungi or mycobacteria recovery.

“The new BD BACTEC FX System responds to customer requests for an efficient blood culture workflow process by reducing hands-on time and enhancing blood culture observation both inside and outside of the microbiology laboratory. The system utilises the breadth of current media containing our patented resin that provides unmatched recovery of pathogens from the blood,” said Jonathan Barrett, Business Director, UK and Ireland, BD Diagnostics – Diagnostic Systems.  “It is the result of 40 years of blood-culturing expertise and customer interaction, with more than 10,000 blood culture instruments installed worldwide.”

The BD BACTEC FX System enables remote observation of blood culture data from outside the microbiology laboratory through integration with the BD EpiCenter™ Microbiology Data Management System. This innovative capability allows clinician access to laboratory results during any shift and provides a visible and audible alarm on the remote BD EpiCenter client or on an existing computer monitor in a more highly occupied area of the lab. All of the information is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week by fax, e-mail, mobile phone text messaging or beeper to any off-site healthcare professional. Lab personnel no longer need to interrupt evening or midnight workflow to repeatedly check with the microbiology department for positive blood cultures. 
 
By providing data access at the same remote computer that provides the alarm, the system facilitates immediate decision-making.  With the information provided, clinicians can initiate appropriate next steps to diagnose the infection, such as performing a Gram stain, subculture, or direct identification of Staphylococcus aureus or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus with the BD GeneOhm™ StaphSR assay.  These steps could lead to earlier, appropriate clinical decisions for effective antimicrobial interventions.

Multi-source data integration provides comprehensive reporting capabilities across all BD BACTEC FX and BD BACTEC™ 9000 blood culture instruments, eliminating the need for manual report consolidation on more than five instruments. Data from numerous BD BACTEC FX instruments can be consolidated into one reporting system with the BD EpiCenter system. When combined with the BD Phoenix™ Automated Microbiology System, BD EpiCenter will provide rapid and synchronised blood culture, bacterial identification and susceptibility information flow to the laboratory worker and physician, enhancing patient care.

The BD BACTEC FX System maintains the proven high performance and instrument reliability of its predecessor, the BD BACTEC 9000 System. It retains the fluorescent technology that represents excellence in blood culture isolate recovery, along with exceptional instrument and media performance. The BD BACTEC FX System has a compact and versatile system design.  It offers a 200-vial benchtop unit or a full 400-vial stack that includes an embedded, centralised computer - all in a highly compact 24-inch linear space which represents the smallest and most reliable design available. 

Among the pre-launch BD BACTEC FX global owners are:

• County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust in Darlington
• Poole Hospital in Dorset

Additionally, BD has seen successful BD BACTEC FX implementation in the United States and Australia.

For more information, visit: www.bd.com/ds.

About BD
BD, a leading global medical technology company that manufactures and sells medical devices, instrument systems and reagents, is dedicated to improving people’s health throughout the world.  BD is focused on improving drug therapy, enhancing the quality and speed of diagnosing infectious diseases, and advancing research and discovery of new drugs and vaccines.  The Company’s capabilities are instrumental in combating many of the world’s most pressing diseases.  Founded in 1897 and headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, BD employs approximately 28,000 people in approximately 50 countries throughout the world.  The Company serves healthcare institutions, life science researchers, clinical laboratories, industry and the general public.  For more information, please visit www.bd.com.

Contact:
Vikki Lomas
Corporate Communications
T: 01865 781607