Well, KitCheck is a system that uses RFID technology to track the medications found in all those different med trays, code boxes, etc. I thought it was pretty cool. It’s a great idea. Wish I would have thought of it.

From the website:

The KitCheck solution utilizes Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to accurately determine exactly what is in a kit, what has been consumed or missing and which items are expired.

Pharmacies start by tagging product upon bulk receiving in the hospital. The KitCheck solution makes this process fast and painless by utilizing the bar codes present on most items currently in the pharmacy code kits.

Pharmacists build kits by placing items physically into the kit. When they are finished, rather than manually checking each expiration date and quantity, the user simply puts the kit into the RFID reading station for verification. The kit contents and expiry dates are validated in less than 15 seconds. Any problems with the kit contents are reported and the pharmacist can quickly correct any issues. A control log with the kit contents and expirations is automatically generated.

When the kit is complete, simply seal it up as you would normally. The kit is now ready to be deployed for use in the hospital.

After a kit is broken open for use, simply bring it back to the RFID scanning station. The KitCheck station will show you in less than 15 seconds which items have been consumed as well as which items were erroneously put into the kit. Kit use information is updated in the system to be used for patient billing or supply ordering purposes.Simply rebuild the kit using the automatically generated report, and then you are ready to deploy the kit again for another use.

The ZiuZ Inspector:

• Verifies the contents of each unit dose bag by analyzing the size, shape and color of each item
• Takes a photo of each side of the package and saves it for future reference. The images can be viewed with the ZiuZ Viewer pictured below.
• Can handle up to 3600 unit dose bags per hour

Just think, you don’t even have to be at the packaging site to verify the contents of each bag. All you would have to do is use some type of telepharmacy setup. Tech-check-tech anyone?

That’s pretty simple. Sure beats the heck out of counting the tablets by hand. 5…10…15…20….

More information on the Eyecon Pill Counter can be found here.

Regarding IV Check:

IV Check measures IV samples in the hospital pharmacy or anywhere IVs are prepared, and instantly reports the drug, dose and diluent present to validate IVs and avoid mistakes that can injure or kill patients. IV Check can also be used to measure process streams or final product in pharmaceutical and IV manufacturing operations. It also provides a simple, one-step solution to detect diversion of narcotics, anesthetics, or other drugs, a serious problem in many hospitals. IV Check allows pharmacy technicians and pharmacists to simply and rapidly verify the drug, concentration and diluent of IVs. IV Check provides the first practical and complete verification of important medications prepared in hospital pharmacies, helping achieve a zero error workplace. IV Check is considered laboratory equipment much like an HPLC or spectrophotometer, therefore regulatory approval is not required.

In one of my post from September 2010 I wrote “a smartpump cannot identify an intravenous (IV) medication incorrectly prepared by the pharmacy; without the rare visual queues from certain medications it’s virtually impossible. While most pharmacies have a proven track record of making perfectly safe IV products, mistakes do happen. And as unfortunate as it may be, some of these errors result in patient harm or even death in the most extreme circumstances. Several systems have been developed for use inside the acute care pharmacy to minimize IV compounding errors …. However, even with these systems in place there is nothing outside the pharmacy designed to catch an incorrectly prepared IV infusion.” While IV Check won’t do what I’m looking for it appears that Smart IV by SEA Medical Systems might.

Regarding Smart IV:

Smart IV monitors the IV administration to the patient, ensuring that nurses know exactly what is being administered and alerting them to errors in IV delivery, before they harm patients. The Smart IV closes an important gap in IV safety, for the first time providing the ability to intercept administration errors at the patient’s bedside. The Smart IV system consists of a pole or rack mounted monitor attached to a sensor that plugs into the IV line.

During IV administration to patients, the Smart IV is designed to report drug, dose, diluent, flow rate and cumulative dose instantaneously and continuously, alerting nurses to mistakes that can injure or kill patients. As IVs are changed, the monitor reports the new drug without any intervention required. A history of administrations is kept allowing healthcare providers to review the history of medications for each patient. The documentation of delivery also helps hospitals insure complete reimbursement for IV medications. This product is currently in development, will require regulatory approval in the U.S., and is expected to be launched commercially in 2013.

From HealthOneMed’s website (the interactive display of the DAP’s capabilities is cool):

Dispense-a-Pill
HealthOneMed’s Dispense-A-Pill (DAP) Personal Medication Manager addresses the issue of medication non-compliance by integrating the disparate approaches of pill boxes, reminders, pill dispensers and medication alert devices into a single comprehensive device enabled by new technology developed and patented by HealthOneMed.

Click here to download the DAP brochure.

Safety & Security
DAP is unparalleled in its safety capabilities, including its “No-touch” pill organizing, loading and dispensing, advanced medication on demand capability (e.g. for “take as needed” medications), password protection (e.g. caregiver medication instructions not overridden by individual), childproof setting and battery back-up in case of power loss.

Personalization & Connectivity
HealthOneMed is unique in its approach to integrating personalization into the DAP.  Enabling the DAP to record personalized medication reminders (e.g. a granddaughter recording a reminder message, “Grandpa, time to take your medicine”) helps an individual adhere to his medication protocol. FunMinderstm are personalized reminders that can be set for life’s other important activities, errands or appointments. In addition, caregivers can view medication compliance history and be alerted if an individual misses his medication.

Capacity
The DAP is unique as it can manage up to 16 pill and non-pill medications.  The DAP can store and dispense 90+ days of up to 8 different pill medications as well as manage up to 8 additional pill and non-pill medications, including topical creams, liquids, eye drops, inhalers or insulin injections.

Click here to view an interactive display of the DAP’s capabilities.

Click here to view the DAP’s FAQs.

Anyway the Sharps Waste Eliminator (Demolizer II) is promoted as “the only technology that allows you to safely dispose of both sharps and red bag waste right at your facility while saving you money”. I don’t know what technology the product uses, but it turns sharps and other waste into an unrecognizable block resembling a brick made out of epoxy with all kinds of cool stuff on the inside. Seriously, it would make an awesome paperweight. I wish I’d thought to get a photo of it.

From the BMTS Corp website:

Abstract

Background: People with cystic fibrosis have a high treatment burden. While uncertainty remains about individual patient level of adherence to medication, treatment regimens are difficult to tailor, and interventions are difficult to evaluate. Self- and clinician-reported measures are routinely used despite criticism that they overestimate adherence. This study assessed agreement between rates of adherence to prescribed nebulizer treatments when measured by self-report, clinician report, and electronic monitoring suitable for long-term use.

Methods: Seventy-eight adults with cystic fibrosis were questioned about their adherence to prescribed nebulizer treatments over the previous 3 months. Self-report was compared with clinician report and stored adherence data downloaded from the I-Neb [2] nebulizer system. Adherence measures were expressed as a percentage of the prescribed regimen, bias was estimated by the paired difference in mean (95% CI) patient and clinician reported and actual adherence. Agreement between adherence measures was calculated using intraclass correlation coefficients (95% CI), and disagreements for individuals were displayed using Bland-Altman plots.

Results: Patient-identified prescriptions matched the medical record prescription. Median self-reported adherence was 80% (interquartile range, 60%-95%), whereas median adherence measured by nebulizer download was 36% (interquartile range, 5%-84.5%). Nine participants overmedicated and underreported adherence. Median clinician report ranged from 50% to 60%, depending on profession. Extensive discrepancies between self-report and clinician report compared with nebulizer download were identified for individuals.

Conclusions: Self- and clinician-reporting of adherence does not provide accurate measurement of adherence when compared with electronic monitoring. Using inaccurate measures has implications for treatment burden, clinician prescribing practices, cost, and accuracy of trial data.

1. CHEST August 2011 vol. 140 no. 2 425-432
2. Detailed information on the I-neb AAD System.

Dan Garza, assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Stanford School of Medicine, and his team recently completed a study of the mouth guards using crash-test dummies, and  plan to publish the data soon…

Garza believes that the mouth guards may turn out to be more accurate than helmets because they don’t shift as much during impact. They also read forces inside the skull more closely, and they’re cheaper…. The Stanford studies will collect data from the mouthpieces as well as video of plays, when available, and clinical information about players’ injuries. 

Seriously, how cool is that. Leave it to Stanford – yes that wonderful school just up the road from where I live – to make science fun. How can you go wrong applying science to football?

You can read more about impact sensing mouthguards at the X2IMPACT website here.

The ReVac Retracting Safety Syring by Revolutions Medical “use a proprietary patented technology in which a vacuum causes the needle to retract into the barrel of the syringe or device after an injection is administered or blood is drawn.”

According to the Revolutions Medical website “[t]he RevVac™ Safety Syringe and Phlebotomy (blood drawing) Device operate the same as a standard syringe and device. No additional training, skills, or procedures are necessary. The both products work on a vacuum principle, where pressing the plunger in them creates a vacuum. When the plunger reaches the bottom, the needle is captured. A further push on the plunger breaks the seal, and the needle retracts into the plunger barrel. The vacuum is maintained, so the needle cannot be removed from the plunger.”

Olson’s lab prints 3D models of molecular structures, both targets—like the HIV protease enzyme in the video—and the drugs they’ve made to bond to those targets. The models are rigged up so that when Olson holds them in front of a webcam, they instantly interact with chemical analysis software his team has built. The result is a system that allows researchers to see, physically, how well the drugs fit their targets, and simultaneously test how well the two are likely to bond on a chemical level.”

A 3D printed molecule with augmented reality! This is downright awesome. There’s no other way to say it. Drug development will never be the same. The only question I have is… where can I get one for myself?