Merck launches QBOX IVF and Geri Assess 2.0

The products will help to serve the needs of its customers and to become the preferred treatment partner for all IVF stakeholders and ART clinics

Merck has launched QBOX IVF, and the new Geri Assess 2.0, in its continued drive to serve the needs of its customers and to become the preferred treatment partner for all IVF stakeholders and assisted reproductive treatment (ART) clinics.

“Our priority is to understand our customers’ specific needs and then make continuous improvements to our technologies based on new insights,” says Rehan Verjee, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Merck’s Biopharma Business. “We incorporated key user feedback to develop QBOX IVF and Geri Assess 2.0 and are proud to launch these two state-of-the-art products for ART.”

Merck is committed to support healthcare professionals (HCPs) throughout every step in the fertility treatment. With lab processes getting increasingly complex, a clear need exists for increased efficiencies and automation of lab procedures while ensuring high quality and precision as well as reduction of the risk for human error. Setting a strong basis for connectivity in the ART clinic, Merck introduces QBOX IVF, a hub that enables two-way unidirectional automated information transfer between Merck’s clinic devices Gidget and Geri Connect & Assess (including Geri Assess 2.0 and Eeva) and industry-leading Electronic Medical Record (EMR) providers, thus improving standardisation and automation.

QBOX IVF is an integrated information management hub, recently developed in collaboration with Planet Innovation, Australia. Offering a simple single integration for multiple systems and reducing manual entry for users, the software minimises the potential for human error and allows ART events to be automatically synchronised, streamlining patient data transfer during treatments across systems. Major EMR providers partnering with Merck for the QBOX IVF 1.1 release include BabySentry, DMDC, eIVF and MediTEX. Merck already works to expand functionality and connectivity of the QBOX IVF hub. Integration of the first third party product, XiltriX, a network-based laboratory monitoring, data logging and alarm system by IKS International, is currently being evaluated.

In addition, Merck and Genea Biomedx, Australia, through their joint development hub ART innovations, developed a new module that extends the embryo assessment offering within the Geri Connect & Assess platform. While Geri Assess 1.0 provided user defined scoring systems to assess and grade embryos, Geri Assess 2.0 provides automated cell event tracking using latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and even allows for custom applied scoring algorithms for embryo assessment and grading. The new module helps clinics simplify embryo assessment, improve consistency across users and reduce the time spent in annotations by automatically detecting key events in embryo and blastocyst development. This new version of Geri Assess maintains the focus on the embryo from a functional perspective and brings higher levels of automation and customisation.