#ASHP Midyear final thoughts

I concluded my time at ASHP Midyear in Anaheim on Tuesday evening. Here are my parting thoughts.

• The show felt more lively this year than the past couple. It’s hard to explain, but it felt like people were interested in everything around them; a good sign.
• There was an infusion of new products in the exhibit hall. The “normal” stuff was there, but it is clear that the vendors are once again ramping up. The introduction of meaningful use several years ago put a stranglehold on pharmacy budgets and projects. Everyone put all their eggs in one basket, i.e. all resources redirected to a single goal. During that time hospital pharmacies entered a black hole in regards to the implementation of new technology. It appears that equilibrium has been restored.
• The “Pharmacy of the Future” Pavilion was anything but the pharmacy of the future. It was nothing more than a giant advertisement for the vendors. Nothing stood out as futuristic.
• There was virtually no discussion/exhibits for track and trace. Given the state of H.R. 3204, the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA), this is going to be a big deal over the next several years. I expected to see more. Then again, the exhibitors have to reserve their booths a year in advance. Hard to plan around that.
• Didn’t see much to do with Telepharmacy. In fact, I can only think of a single exhibit and that was an outpatient system.
• The acquisition of CareFusion by BD is interesting for several reasons, but I wonder how the two companies will handle their i.v. workflow management systems. CareFusion has PyxisPrep and BD has BD Cato. Given the limitations of PyxisPrep in its current state it would be hard for me to imagine them not going with BD Cato as their flagship system in the i.v. room. Only time will tell.
• The acquisition of CareFusion wasn’t the only big move that BD made this year. Apparently BD has partnered with Aethon for medication tracking outside the pharmacy.
• Envision’s exit from the i.v. workflow management space should be interesting. With their intellectual property for image capture/remote verification going to BD, I wonder what will become of the rest of the product, i.e. the software. The product had a solid foundation and some nice functionality. Hmm, gives me a couple of ideas.
• APOTECA was conspicuously absent from the exhibitor floor. I found that odd considering that they are one of only two manufacturers of hazardous compounding robots in the U.S. The company also introduced a semi-automated i.v. workflow management system, APOTECAps earlier this year. I fully expected to see the products on display at ASHP Midyear. Not the case.
• Omnicell entered into an agreement with Baxter to both sell and integrate with DoseEdge. This should allow Omnicell to track CSPs prepared with DoseEdge throughout their suite of products. Everyone is scrambling to get into the i.v. room.
• As mentioned previously, Closed System Transfer Devices (CSTDs) seemed to be popular among the exhibitors. At least three separate companies – EQUASHIELD, BD, ICU Medical – were showing off their products. I’m not surprised with USP <800> looming in the not too distant future.
• RFID seems to finally be picking up some steam in pharmacy practice. Several companies were displaying RFID solutions. Several others announced partnerships with those same companies. The most popular areas for RFID appear to be refrigerated inventory management, anesthesia, and medication trays/carts.