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For Thermo Fisher Sensititre and SWIN labs

Sensititre antibiogram software for SWIN labs that need one M39 report across every AST system

Sensititre is often the plate your lab reaches for when the main AST panel does not carry the drug. That makes it the system with the newest agents and the fewest isolates, and its results rarely sit in the same database as the rest of the year.

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Short answer

Sensititre antibiogram software turns the MIC results stored in SWIN, together with the results from your other AST systems, into one cumulative antibiogram that follows CLSI M39. SWIN has an optional Epidemiology Module whose Percent Susceptible report Thermo Fisher describes as the routine antibiogram, and it covers what SWIN holds. Labs add a dedicated tool when the antibiogram has to merge Sensititre with VITEK, MicroScan or Phoenix results, apply the first isolate and 30 isolate rules inside each cut, and open in a browser for pharmacy. Antimicrobe does that from a CSV export for $249 a month, bought by card.

Computed from your own isolates, never from a national average.

What SWIN already does for your antibiogram

Sensititre is Thermo Fisher Scientific's broth microdilution system, which came with the purchase of TREK Diagnostic Systems in 2011. Plates are read on the ARIS HiQ, which incubates and reads up to 100 plates, on OptiRead or Vizion, or by eye on a viewbox, and SWIN is the software that Thermo Fisher says consolidates Sensititre results from manual and automated reading. Thermo Fisher lists Gram-negative, Gram-positive, fastidious, yeast, mycobacteria and single drug plates, with over 300 antimicrobials across the range.

For reporting, SWIN offers an Epidemiology Module (catalog SW1202) with five reports: Percent Susceptible, which Thermo Fisher labels the routine antibiogram and Joint Commission requirement, Cumulative MIC, Workload, Occurrence and Interpretation, plus bar graphs. SWIN also carries a three-tier expert system with FDA, CLSI and EUCAST rules.

So a lab whose whole AST workload runs on Sensititre has a percent susceptible report available. The gaps appear when it does not, which describes most US hospital labs that own one.

Microbiology lab manager building an antibiogram on a laptop beside the lab

Why Sensititre results end up outside the antibiogram

Many hospital labs use Sensititre beside a primary automated system, for drugs that the primary panel does not carry yet. CLSI's June 2023 AST news update said cefiderocol was not available on any automated AST system and named Sensititre as one of two FDA-cleared options. Thermo Fisher announced cefiderocol and imipenem-relebactam on IVD-labeled Sensititre plates in April 2020, and its GN7F Gram-negative plate includes ceftazidime-avibactam and ceftolozane-tazobactam. CDC and four public health labs of the AR Lab Network evaluated GN7F in 2023 (Bhatnagar and colleagues, Journal of Clinical Microbiology).

Those are exactly the agents a stewardship committee asks about for carbapenem-resistant organisms. When the antibiogram is printed from the primary instrument's software, the Sensititre results are simply not in it, and the newest drugs show no data.

How each instrument's own software handles the year is covered on VITEK 2 antibiogram software, MicroScan antibiogram software and BD EpiCenter antibiogram software. The resistant organism view is on carbapenem-resistant organisms.

  • Two databases. VITEK, MicroScan or Phoenix results sit in their own data manager, Sensititre results in SWIN, and only the LIS has both
  • Duplicate patients across systems. A carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella tested on the primary panel and again on a Sensititre plate is one isolate, not two
  • Small counts. Agents tested only on resistant isolates rarely reach 30 isolates a year and must not print as a house-wide percentage
  • Selective testing bias. A drug tested only on resistant isolates shows a lower percent susceptible than it would across all isolates, and the report should say so

How to export antibiogram data from Sensititre SWIN

The cleanest route for a mixed lab is the LIS. If Sensititre results are interfaced or entered there, one LIS export for the year carries every system, with the interpretation the lab released to the chart. That is what the antibiogram should count.

If Sensititre results live only in SWIN, export them from SWIN and send them alongside the primary export. WHONET's BacLink added a Sensititre Export format in its November 2022 release, so a SWIN export is a known, documented shape. Keep the patient identifier, specimen date, source, location, organism and the interpretation for each antibiotic. Antimicrobe applies the first isolate rule across both files, so a patient tested on two systems counts once.

Antimicrobe reads comma or semicolon separated files. If your export is tab-delimited, open it in Excel and save it as CSV. The patient identifier is hashed before anything is stored, and a pseudonymous key works just as well.

What a good LIS export looks like is on laboratory information system exports.

  1. 1

    LIS or SWIN

    Export the year with every isolate, Sensititre and primary panel results included

  2. 2

    CSV file

    Save as CSV, one file per source system if the LIS does not hold both

  3. 3

    Antimicrobe

    Map sources and units once. First isolate, 30 isolate and intermediate rules applied across files

  4. 4

    Antibiogram

    House-wide, urine, blood and unit tables, newer agents flagged where counts are small

SWIN Epidemiology Module and Antimicrobe compared

WHONET is the free route and works well for a lab with time to learn it. The practical differences are on the WHONET alternative page.

SWIN from Thermo Fisher product pages, Antimicrobe from its pricing page. Report behavior depends on how each lab configured SWIN.
Question SWIN Epidemiology Module WHONET with BacLink Antimicrobe
Which results it sees Sensititre plates in SWIN Any file you convert Any CSV you export, from SWIN, the LIS or other instruments
Merging several AST systems No Yes, after mapping each format Yes, de-duplicated across files
First isolate per patient Not stated by Thermo Fisher, check your setup Yes, if configured On by default, counts before and after shown
Under 30 isolates Prints what it has Configurable Flagged, not printed as a percentage
Who can open it Staff at the SWIN workstation Whoever has WHONET Seats for pharmacy and infection prevention
Cost Module bought from Thermo Fisher Free, paid in staff hours $249 a month on the Lab plan

Does the Sensititre antibiogram follow CLSI M39?

It can, but check three things. Thermo Fisher describes the Percent Susceptible report as the routine antibiogram, and we found no published statement that it applies the M39 first isolate rule, one isolate per patient per species per period whatever the source. Confirm how your SWIN is set to handle repeat isolates before you sign the report.

Second, M39 asks that species with fewer than 30 isolates are not presented as a reliable percentage, which matters most for exactly the agents Sensititre is bought for. Third, the report should use the interpretations your lab released, under current breakpoints. If technologists edit results in the LIS, SWIN and the chart can disagree.

Every Antimicrobe export prints a rule receipt listing the rules applied and the isolate counts before and after de-duplication, which is the page a CAP inspector or a new stewardship physician asks for.

The full rule set, rule by rule, is on CLSI M39 antibiogram software.

Which plan fits a Sensititre lab

A single hospital lab producing the annual house-wide report and source cuts needs the Lab plan, $249 a month for 1 facility, 25,000 isolates a year and 2 seats, with cuts by source and period, CLSI breakpoints and CSV and print exports. It is bought by card and there is no implementation fee.

A stewardship program that wants unit cuts, syndrome groups, quarterly trends and MDRO counts, including carbapenem-resistant organisms tested on Sensititre, uses Stewardship at $749 a month for up to three facilities. A reference or public health lab producing antibiograms for client facilities fits Network at $2,400 a month for up to 12 facilities.

Every limit is on the pricing page. Labs reporting for outside facilities will find the per-client setup in antibiogram software for reference labs.

What this does not do

  • It does not connect to SWIN, the ARIS HiQ or Vizion directly. It reads exported files, as often as you choose to export them
  • It does not read raw MIC values or reinterpret them. It uses the S, I and R your lab released, so breakpoint changes are made in SWIN and the LIS
  • It does not replace SWIN for plate reading, the expert system or QC
  • It is for human clinical antibiograms, not veterinary breakpoints
  • It does not submit to NHSN or any public health system

Related reading: BIOMIC V3 antibiogram software, CLSI M39 antibiogram software, MicroScan antibiogram software, VITEK 2 antibiogram software, carbapenem-resistant organisms, WHONET alternative. The four steps from susceptibility testing data to an antibiogram cover the method end to end.

Questions

On this page's topic

Can Sensititre SWIN generate an antibiogram?

Yes. SWIN has an optional Epidemiology Module whose Percent Susceptible report Thermo Fisher calls the routine antibiogram, along with Cumulative MIC, Workload, Occurrence and Interpretation reports. It covers Sensititre results only, so check the duplicate isolate setting and the 30 isolate threshold before you publish.

How do I get Sensititre results into my hospital antibiogram?

Export the year from the LIS if Sensititre results are interfaced there, because one file then holds every AST system. If they live only in SWIN, export them separately and combine both files in a tool that de-duplicates patients across files, so an isolate tested on two systems counts once.

Is Sensititre FDA cleared?

Many Sensititre plates and readers are FDA cleared for clinical use in the US, including the ARIS HiQ reader (510(k) K191918, 2019), the GN7F Gram-negative plate and the YeastOne YO4IVD antifungal plate. Some plates, such as MYCOTB, are research use only in the US.

Can I use WHONET with Sensititre?

Yes. WHONET's BacLink added a Sensititre Export format in November 2022, and WHONET is free on Windows. The cost is the conversion time and rebuilding the report layout each year.

Should drugs tested only on Sensititre appear on the antibiogram?

Only with care. Agents tested on resistant isolates alone rarely reach 30 isolates a year and show lower susceptibility than they would across all isolates. Print them in a separate resistant organism table with the isolate count, not in the house-wide table.

How much does antibiogram software for a Sensititre lab cost?

Antimicrobe's Lab plan is $249 a month for one facility, bought by card with no implementation fee, and it reads SWIN, LIS and other instrument exports. Unit cuts and up to three facilities are on the Stewardship plan at $749 a month.

More on antimicrobial resistance reporting

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