Reducing Lab Protocol Errors With LabTwin
December 19, 2024
Human errors are the most frequent cause of errors in the laboratory. Reducing these errors has been a key factor driving lab automation efforts. Lab automation has driven down the rate of human errors in the analytical phase of laboratory work, where instruments and analytical systems are involved. However, the unaddressed source of most human errors in the lab (or anywhere, for that matter) is omitting necessary task steps.
If you’d like to improve your lab’s error rate, read on to learn how LabTwin, the AI-enabled voice-powered digital lab assistant, can guide your researchers through protocols with confidence so that no step is missed.
Understanding the Root Causes of Lab Protocol Errors
Technicians in busy labs may run the same protocol hundreds of times a week. This familiarity can have them doing their job by rote or by muscle memory alone, as their minds may wander from a repetitive task.
However, skipping steps in a protocol is the greatest source of errors in analytical labs. Another common error is misreading or transposing a measurement value. The source of both error types often is distraction—either self-induced or related to ambient conditions like noise. LabTwin can substantially reduce these types of errors with its AI-enabled, voice-powered protocol guidance.
How LabTwin Reduces Lab Protocol Errors
Although automation has reduced the rate of errors in labs, skipping steps in protocols is still a major source of errors. LabTwin’s voice prompts guide users through specific protocols so that steps can be followed exactly. If a coworker interrupts you for a conversation, LabTwin knows where you left off so you can pick up your work in the right place.
Protocols can be loaded in LabTwin from published standards, but LabTwin also allows custom protocols to be built. The powerful AI in LabTwin, trained on a large language model of scientific terminology, is also capable of helping researchers design new protocols for innovative research.
Because LabTwin interfaces with your electronic lab notebook (ELN), laboratory information management system (LIMS), or individual laboratory instruments, all measurement data flows seamlessly into your systems without the possibility of human error. Captured data can also be structured automatically into tables and reports, eliminating interpretation errors.
No matter how noisy your lab may be, LabTwin has been optimized to recognize an individual’s speech patterns to prevent accidental overlap of instructions. Multiple people can conduct experiments in close proximity without worrying about cross-contamination of data capture.
Managing Lab Protocols to Reduce Errors
LabTwin understands complex scientific terminology and captures 99% of all data accurately the first time. LabTwin makes it easy to update protocols as your research evolves. Watch LabTwin guide a researcher through a pipetting protocol here.
The voice-activated features of LabTwin produce replicable results when following standard protocols. Your lab staff no longer have to worry about missing a step when momentarily distracted or forgetting to log a measurement result. These things are monitored automatically by your digital lab assistant.
In addition to reducing protocol errors, LabTwin reduces the amount of time that researchers spend on documentation. Information that previously needed to be transcribed by hand is now automatically captured, hands-free, by LabTwin.
Are skipped steps in your protocols introducing errors in your lab? Reach out to see how LabTwin can help.