Quick and automatic diagnostic testing can ease the strain caused by health emergencies and allow staff and lab facilities to provide better healthcare.
Everyplace Labs’ founder, Michael Tsu, saw how the Covid-19 pandemic increased hospital occupancy and lab testing needs, turning sample processing into a bottleneck for patient care in emergency departments. So he set out to develop a solution: a fully automated, self-service kiosk that tests urine and respiratory samples, and delivers results without human intervention. The key challenge was to ensure precise coordination between testing stages and to avoid cross-contamination between samples. Indeed, reliability is paramount in the healthcare field to earn the trust of physicians, hospitals, and patients. And with up to 12 tests running in parallel, any misstep could increase the risk of errors and delay the diagnosis and treatment process.
“Looking back, without Arduino I think I may not have gotten into what I’m doing today – which is also why I ended up starting a company that’s developing a smart medical device.”
– Michael Tsu, founder and CEO of Everyplace Labs
Everyplace Labs’ Arduino-based self-service kiosk enhances testing efficiency in emergency departments and acute care settings.
The company utilized a variety of Arduino microcontrollers throughout their prototypes and production-ready kiosks, to control the movement and timing of inner robotics that automate the manual steps of the testing process. By remaining within one ecosystem, they were able to seamlessly move through development, troubleshooting, and grow their operations to scale – without the hassle of rewriting code when transitioning from one controller to another. Also, the community resources and open-source libraries helped the Everyplace Labs team arrive at a working solution faster than they would have otherwise.
In addition to a significantly shorter time-to-market, using Arduino components granted Everyplace Labs remarkable savings on licenses. Choosing open-source means not having to pay license fees on top of the cost of hardware and software. Arduino microcontrollers offer outstanding precision and accuracy at a lower price point compared to similar products on the market. This made Everyplace Labs’ testing kiosks affordable, accessible, and trustworthy – meeting the requirements of an environment where reliability is of utmost importance.
Accelerate the prototype development process, reducing time-to-market
Easily integrate into larger healthcare solutions for future growth
Minimize energy use – ideal for portable devices
Access a wide array of compatible sensors and components, streamlining development
Arduino’s open-source libraries and community resources make high-standard, top-quality technology more accessible to all, regardless of expertise.
Arduino’s commitment to making hardware and software accessible to innovators in every field aligns with Everyplace Labs’ mission to create intelligent, affordable, easy-to-use medical devices. Indeed, Michael’s team had not worked with microcontrollers prior to this project – yet, by embracing Arduino’s open-source approach, they were able to develop a new solution to lead the way in medical technology, benefiting patients’ well-being and professionals’ effectiveness. What’s more, Arduino Pro’s products combine innovation with reliability: rigorous testing ensures they meet the healthcare industry’s uncompromising standards, providing a proven platform that meets the regulations governing medical equipment in the United States.