#ASHP Midyear 2014 game plan

ASHP Midyear is next week in Anaheim, California. I arrive in Anaheim on Sunday afternoon, and will be there until Wednesday morning. I always look forward to Midyear as it gives me an opportunity to connect with friends I haven’t seen in a while and learn some new things.

One of the great benefits that Midyear offers me is an opportunity to look at large amounts of pharmacy automation and technology in one place at the same time. Midyear is the only place where you will find so many vendors in one space. The exhibit hall is typically full, and it’s where I spend a lot of my time.

While I enjoy visiting with all the exhibitors, limited exhibit hall hours means that I have to prioritize where I spend my time.

My must-see list this year includes:

• All the technology covered in In the Clean Room. This includes visiting with companies like Baxter, BD, MedKeeper, Aesynt, Envision Telepharmacy, ScriptPro, APOTECA, and Intelligent Hospital Systems.
  • Aesynt is of particular interest secondary to their acquisition of Health Robotics earlier this year.  With the addition of i.v. room technology, Aesynt offers quite a range of automation for acute care pharmacies.
  • APOTECA introduced a semi-automated manual system earlier this year called APOTECAps to go along with their APOTECAchemo robot. I want to see APOTECAps in person, evaluate the features, and see how the company integrated it with their robot.
  • MedKeeper has added built-in medication tracking to their suite of products. I would like to see that in action.
  • BD is supposed to introduce new features for their BD Cato system for the i.v. room. In addition I would like to hear more about their acquisition of CareFusion, although I’m not entirely sure how much information will be available at a trade show like Midyear.
• PlusDelta Technologies – PlusDelta introduced IVTrac, an i.v. workflow management system earlier this year. There wasn’t enough information available at the time for Mark and me to include it in our report. I would like to get an up close and personal look at the software to better understand the features, the workflow, and so on.
• ICU Medical – The Diana System is a hazardous compounding system that I’ve seen briefly a couple of times. The last time I saw a demo of the system was a couple of years ago at the ASHP Summer Meeting in Minnesota. I wasn’t impressed at the time. I hope to get a more detailed look to better understand the pros and cons of the system. I would like to get the name of a hospital using the Diana System and do a site visit.
• BD – Not only does BD offer the BD Cato i.v. workflow management system mentioned above, they have an interesting little product called Intelliport that I’m interested in seeing. A few weeks ago I sent out a Tweet asking if anyone knew of a system that spoke the name of the drug when scanning the bar code. One of the Product Managers at BD sent me information on Intelliport. Now I’m curious.
• Codonics – Interesting system with a development team that seems to always be offering new features.
• KitCheck and Intelliguard systems – Get an update on where RFID medication tray management stands in the market. I’d also like to see KitCheck’s Anesthesia Check system. It’s been a year since it was introduced, and I’d like to know how it’s doing.
• CareFusion – A must see as they always have a giant booth with tons of cool stuff. I’m particularly interested to see what they’re doing in the i.v. room with PyxisPrep; especially now that BD is in the picture.
• Omnicell – Like CareFusion, Omnicell always has a big booth with great automation and technology.
• SencorpWhite – These guys do some interesting things with carousels in both the inpatient and outpatient space. Particularly interested to see what they’re doing with RFID technology. I know that they’ve been working on a few things for quite some time.
• Pearson Medical Technologies – I want to get a closer look at NarcoMedic, which I wrote about back in August.

Did I leave anyone out?