COMPARISON OF EFFICACY AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF BIOMIC VIDEO AND VITEK ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY TEST SYSTEMS FOR USE IN THE CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY LABORATORY

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing expense mag be a significant port ion of a clinical microbiology laboratory's budget. This study compare s the BIOMIC VIDEO system (Giles Scientific, Inc., New York, N.Y.) wit h the Vitek system (bioMerieux Vitek, Inc., Hazelwood Mo.), an establi shed automated method of antimicrobial susceptibility testing with the ability to generate MIC data. The BIOMIC system is relatively inexpen sive and automates the reading of the classical disk agar diffusion te st to provide both qualitative (susceptibility interpretation) and qua ntitative (MIG) data. The overall MIC correlation between the two syst ems for the 2,913 drug-organism combinations tested was 92.6%. The ove rall agreement for susceptibility interpretationm was 97.4%. The BIOMI C system offers a 57.4% savings per test over the Vitek system. The BI OMIC system utilizes an older technology which is more efficient and y et yields results comparable to those of established automated MIC met hods. The savings achievable in laboratories and hospitals nationwide may contribute significantly to the containment of national health car e expenditures.