University of Iowa Health Care recently adopted the ASTar system, a rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) instrument, to expand the organization’s statewide blood culture testing abilities. Rapid AST allows health care providers to quickly identify the most effective antibiotics for treating bacterial infections, which can significantly improve patient outcomes and survival rates.

“We were early adopters of rapid phenotypic AST six years ago and it had a positive impact on improving outcomes for our septic patients: it greatly reduced length of time to optimal therapy, days on therapy, and length of stay,” says Bradley Ford, MD, PhD, the medical director of clinical microbiology at UI Health care. “We’re excited to implement this new generation of AST testing, which has enhanced testing capabilities and improved throughput.”

ASTar system has full automation and inoculum control, high instrument throughput with random-access testing, as well as a broad antibiotic panel and wide dilution ranges. The platform integrates directly with Epic’s electronic medical record system.

“UI Health Care now has a broader statewide reach, with multiple campuses and dozens of outreach locations throughout Iowa, making it critical we expand our ability to rapidly test blood cultures submitted to our laboratory,” says Ford. “The improved throughput of the ASTar system will allow us to better serve our growing patient population.”