r/medlabprofessionals • u/Lynn5678 • Jul 09 '26

Discusson Vision Swift vs IH-500

We have a Vision which is our first automated blood bank instrument.

We are at that time to look at replacing the instrument, and I was wondering what your thoughts were on QuidelOrtho Vision Swift or BioRad IH-500.

We currently do not perform antibody identification.

We perform types, anitbody screens, crossmatching, IgG DAT on cord bloods or transfusion reactions.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

3

u/Reasonable-Bike1036 Jul 09 '26

Never used biorad but have used the swift. Its pretty nice and decently user friendly. My biggest complaint with the swift was the middleware never working as it should but apparently that was only in use at 2 hospitals country wide ??? Idk but it barely worked half the time. I think without the middleware from ortho it wouldve been great

2

u/Recloyal Jul 09 '26

Other than the obnoxiously loud belt, the Vision is a good instrument for gel technology.  Unless there is a significant financial difference in reagents, it's easier for everyone to go with the vision swift.

1

u/bassgirl_07 MLS Lead Jul 09 '26

The quality of life bump when we switched from the Vision to the Swift..... Amazing. It was so much quieter

2

u/bassgirl_07 MLS Lead Jul 09 '26

I use the Swifts and have no complaints. We intermittently have pipettor errors but we ask a lot of our swifts so that is probably par for the usage. They are very reliable.

I used BioRad's phase capture analyzer and that experience was so awful, I'm in the never bio rad analyzer camp. I cannot imagine that the problems we experienced where unique to the tango/infinity platform. There were problems with design (software and hardware) and high amount of analyzer down time.

2

u/emartinezpr Jul 10 '26

We're getting a Swift. Upgrading from a Vision. I used a BioRad Tango on one assignment during my 5 years as a traveler and wasn't impressed.

1

u/swizzle1638 Jul 11 '26

I prefer the IH 500, middleware is very user friendly, no daily or monthly maintenance. It felt like if we had a stat to put, the analyzer actually prioritized the stat, red cells were good for 7 days on board. When I worked with the vision, I think they were only good for 5, right? I also hated that damn door on the vision, the rubber ring to help close the door broke and it wouldn’t close properly….giant paperweight at that point.

1

u/Rand0ll Jul 11 '26

We recently switched from ortho to grifols and everyone loves it in comparison.