Clinical laboratory automation has developed over the past decade as one me
ans of consolidating testing, reducing costs, and improving the effectivene
ss of laboratory testing. Most of the developments have been aimed at core
clinical laboratory operations, and have primarily addressed preanalytical
and analytical processing of traditional specimens arriving in blood collec
tion or similar aliquot tubes. Much less attention has been given to specia
lized applications such as processing specimens for urine toxicology, and o
nly recently have vendors attacked the problems associated with sorting and
maintaining the laboratory's inventory of specimens. This report highlight
s selected developments in these areas, describes one approach to cost-effe
ctive custom platform development, and discusses the advantages and pitfall
s to solving problems with laboratory automation. (C) 2000 American Associa
tion for Clinical Chemistry.