The first time I saw an ink jet printer it was rather bulky, only printed in black and white, and printed course text at a couple pages a minute. Today you can find much smaller printers that print, scan, fax, copy, etc. in color 2 sided and can be tied to multiple devices, including your phone wirelessly. I bring this up because I believe that over time we'll see the same sort of advancements in the FlaskWorks units.
I cannot say that in the original form that's approved to make the vaccine that the unit won't have to be operated by a limited number of people with special training and skills. At first I'd expect that there will be limited number of sites that are utilizing the units and they're capable of handling the initial demand for the vaccine. I don't believe that the FlaskWorks Adam unit will always have it's current form, just as the first ink jet printer didn't keep it's form.
I don't know if the process accomplished in the FlaskWorks Adam unit can be accelerated or improved, perhaps not once they've arrived at the optimum way of operating it. What I do believe can happen may be in streamlining the look of the unit, the packaging, and in fact it's possible that it all can be fit into a specially made case in which it's easily transported and once placed in a proper lab room would only require two connections, one would be to a qualified UPS, the other would be to the internet, and that might be done wirelessly. A qualified technician would then properly load the disposable cassette and install it in the FlaskWorks unit, prior to that time the unit would have gone through a full diagnostic test while tied to a centralized computer that is controlling many similar units and determined to be ready to accept the loaded cassette. Once loaded the computer would be in control of the unit through the entire process and would notify the operator if anything needed to be done manually and finally instruct the operator to remove the cassette and use the proper equipment to properly remove the vaccine and install it in vials for treatment of the patient.
I imagine that by this time the FlaskWorks unit would be second, third, or fourth generation, but at that time the idea of FlaskWorks units being distributed is one which could be accepted for it's use in many of the hospitals where patients are being operated on for tumors found to respond to the vaccine. Control of the disposable cassettes would assure that NWBO is properly paid for each use of the device, and of course the central computer would register each time every unit was operated. Every cassette would be tracked from it's creation until it's destruction after use.
I'm not suggesting that this will happen overnight, it won't, but if as many of us believe DCVax-L, and ultimately Direct are found to work on many cancers, and if the one FlaskWorks unit can make both of them, the shear volume of cancers being operated on will make having units distributed all over the world make production of the vaccine fare easier than having to transport human products to a limited number of production sites. Some production sites will still be utilized for many of the hospitals, etc. that don't have all the equipment needed to properly support the units, but for the many that do have the labs and all the rest that's needed, all will be done at the site where the patients tumor is removed and leukapheresis is done.
It may be a decade from where we are today till then, but look at how far the ink jet printer came in a decade or two, I believe our FlaskWorks units may do much the same.
Gary
