Dr. Flora Returns to Demonstrate the PhenoMATRIX™ Software!

Earlier this year COPAN introduced Dr. Norma Flora and Zip the Robot Boy in an animated film on PhenoMATRIX™, a sophisticated suite of algorithms that automate reading of cultures in the Microbiology laboratory.  PhenoMATRIX™ uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help laboratory professionals, like Dr. Flora, segregate, read and interpret growth on plates quickly and accurately.  The software not only counts colonies, it also recognizes morphology of common bacteria in an instant!  Zip and many in the Microbiology community were excited and amazed to see how this powerful software, consisting of four distinct algorithms can save time and improve patient care.  The PhenoMATRIX™ software has been proven with over 300,000 clinical samples and clinical laboratories all over the world are using this groundbreaking software routinely!

In a new animated short, we visit Dr. Flora once again, as she provides a more extensive look at each of the algorithms in the PhenoMATRIX™ suite.

Urine Culture Segregation
Dr. Flora provides an on-screen demonstration of the actual software.  She shows images of plates which are segregated into categories of no growth or no significant growth and plates that do have growth.  By simply clicking a button, she sends all the negatives (up to 30 at a time) directly into the trash, never having to touch them!

Next, Dr. Flora shows us the remaining two groupings of plates, those with less than 10 CFU and those with greater than 10.  As she views the plates she zooms into the colonies and chooses different lighting based on the media type.  Cultures with

Chromogenic Media Detection
Laboratories using chromogenic media can use the Chromogenic Algorithm to automatically detect specific colors on chromogenic media plates.  Dr. Flora shows how the software segregates plates with a specific chromogenic color change attributed to colony growth of the organism of interest. All other plates where specific chromogenic color change is not detected are quickly segregated and those patient samples can be reported as negative.

In a deeper dive into the software, Dr. Flora shows a plate image and zooms to show us a pinpoint colony that may have been very hard to see without the aid of magnification on a high definition screen.  It’s no wonder that Copan boasts that the software is often more accurate than the naked eye!

After Screening Comes Reading
After the initial screening function is finished, plates that require further work-up are sent to Reading.  Dr. Flora shows us how to manually tag colonies with presumptive ID’s and create work up tickets for MALDI-TOF, AST or Subculture.

Automatic Colony Recognition on Standard Culture Plates and Application of User-Defined Expert Rules Filter
The Phenotypic Colony Recognition algorithm examines colonies present on the plate and compares them against a library of thousands of colony images to match the phenotypic characteristics to assign a predictive value. Dr. Flora quickly confirms the presumptive ID assigned by the software and then performs further work up!

In the final portion of the video, Dr. Flora explains the highly sophisticated application of User-Defined Expert Rules Algorithm, which uses pre-programed rules and analyzes patient demographics to determine if the growth on a plate is significant and relevant. For example, the software can be programmed to check to see if the patient is pregnant or a female of child bearing age and alert for growth that is characteristic of Group B Strep!

What’s Next?
As Copan continues to develop innovative new algorithms, we can be sure that our loveable Zip the Robot Boy and our knowledgeable Dr. Norma Flora will be there to help guide us thru the use and applications of this incredible software!

If you’d like to be contacted by the Copan team to learn more or receive a personalized demo of the PhenoMATRIX™ suite of algorithms, give us a call or send us an email.  Sadly, Zip and Dr. Flora are not available for public engagements…yet! But for now, you can watch the full demonstration, by clicking here.