Abbott Park, IL � Abbott Laboratories announced Abbott Maestro, an integrated solution for recording and manipulating data in clinical laboratories. The product includes the newly completed NEXTSTEP port of Borland's Interbase database engine.
With connections between current lab data, historical data, and the laboratory's mainframe, Maestro brings elements of NeXT's Object�Enterprise concept to the health-care marketplace.
"Even though labs have mainframes, they don't have flexibility. Using an intelligent workstation, Maestro offers all the flexibility of access to data through the use of a GUI," said Jim Cureton, product manager at Abbott Laboratories.
The hardware- and software-based solution connects stand-alone automated Abbott-brand analyzers, such as those for blood or urine, to a Lantronics terminal server. One or more terminal servers then connect to an Intel PC running NEXTSTEP and a suite of 12 custom and shrinkwrapped apps.
Maestro sends data to the lab's mainframe and maintains a local copy for manipulation using the Interbase engine and custom apps. Up to three NEXTSTEP PCs can be connected to share the data.
Abbott, a $7 billion health-care giant, claims that Maestro can automate tasks that consume 17 percent of labor costs in clinical laboratories. The product will be available by January 1994 and priced according to configuration.