Swisslog has been making these little robots for a long time, although I don’t see many of them in the wild these days. They’re pretty cool in their own right. The robots themselves are reasonably small. The previous version was only 35-inches tall, and weighed in around 100 pounds. But they could carry up to… Read More »
According to the CDC website, the fungal meningitis outbreak linked to a tainted batch of steroid injections made by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts has resulted in more than 500 case reports and 36 deaths (as of November 28, 2012). A lot of things happen when something like this occurs. People become… Read More »
I came across this press release yesterday. The press release is from Health Robotics, a company that builds and distributes automation and technology aimed squarely at the I.V. room. Their product line includes several robots designed for specialized I.V. room compounding, including i.v.STATION ONCO, i.v.STATION, CytoCare and TPNstation. It looks like the company is taking… Read More »
The RxMedic ADS robot is kind of cool. I’m not a big fan of robotics because I think they’re basically slow and I don’t believe the technology is mature enough yet; in healthcare that is. The thing that makes this interesting to me is the checkout process, which can be found at about 1:30 into… Read More »
So much happens each and every week that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Here are some of the tabs that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts…. The coffee mug to the right is my trophy for winning the 2010 ASHP Midyear Twitter contest. It was the second year… Read More »
MedPage Today: “Robotic prostatectomy has spread all over the U.S., despite the fact that we don’t have clinical trial data to show that it’s better than traditional open surgery. The company marketing the robotic surgery systems boasts on its website about news coverage from ABC’s “Good Morning America” and from CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta. And,… Read More »
I have a soft spot for robotics, especially for IV preparation. I’m not quite sure that pharmacy is ready to fully embrace the idea, but we’re well on our way. APOTECAchemo is an IV preparation robot modeled in the image of i.v.STATION. Prior to yesterday I had not heard of APOTECA. Fortunately someone visiting my… Read More »
Cleanroom environments, a.k.a. IV rooms, inside acute care pharmacies compound some of the most complex and dangerous medications used inside a hospital. Unfortunately this area is often overlooked when implementing safety features such as bar-code verification, identification of high-alert medications, advanced training and competency and so on. I was reminded of the dangers of intravenous… Read More »
As usual there were a lot of things that happened over the past week, and not all of it was related to pharmacy automation and technology. Here are some of the things I found interesting.
UCSF: “Although it won’t be obvious to UCSF Medical Center patients, behind the scenes a family of giant robots now counts and processes their medications. With a new automated hospital pharmacy, believed to be the nation’s most comprehensive, UCSF is using robotic technology and electronics to prepare and track medications with the goal of improving… Read More »