Abstract
To help address the limitations of operating conventional microbiological culture incubators in low resource environments, a new incubator design was developed and tested to meet the requirements of operation in laboratories without reliable power (power outages up to 12 contiguous hours) or climate control (ambient indoor temperatures from 5 °C to 45 °C). The device is designed to enable adherence to incubation temperatures recommended for growth detection, identification, and drug susceptibility testing (DST) of human pathogenic bacteria. During power outages, stable temperatures are maintained in the device's internal sample compartment by employing phase change material (PCM) as a bi-directional thermal battery to maintain incubation temperature. Five prototypes were tested in a laboratory setting using environmental test chambers and programmable power supplies, and three were field tested in the Lao PDR in situations of intended use. The prototypes successfully held their temperature to within ±1 °C in both laboratory environmental chamber testing as well as during the field test. The results indicate that the device will maintain stable culture temperatures across periods of intermittent power supply, while enabling normal workflow of this could greatly increase the availability of microbiological culture for diagnosis and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) monitoring.
Highlights
Microbiological culture remains important for diagnosis and surveillance of certain diseases through controlled growth of pathogens, and for determining antimicrobial drug resistance to inform patient treatment and/or integrated disease surveillance and response
Reliable performance of a prototype microbiological culture incubator during power outages and off nominal voltage and AC frequency variations as well as in very low and very high ambient temperatures, without the use of electrical batteries
The incubator performed well under both simulated power loss events and real-world conditions in hospitals in Laos, maintaining incubation temperatures through heater regulation based on TOF measurements of the phase change material (PCM)
Summary
The device is designed to enable adherence to incubation temperatures recommended for growth detection, identification, and drug susceptibility testing (DST) of human pathogenic bacteria. Five prototypes were tested in a laboratory setting using environmental test chambers and programmable power supplies, and three were field tested in the Lao PDR in situations of intended use. The prototypes successfully held their temperature to within 61 C in both laboratory environmental chamber testing as well as during the field test. The results indicate that the device will maintain stable culture temperatures across periods of intermittent power supply, while enabling normal workflow of this could greatly increase the availability of microbiological culture for diagnosis and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) monitoring. MARCH 2019, Vol 13 / 011007-1 Copyright VC 2019 by ASME; reuse license CC-BY 4.0
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