Jerry Fahrni

Tag: Cool Stuff

  • Firefighers in Australia using ingestible capsule to monitor core body temperature

    Equivital LifeMonitor CapsuleEngadget: “A new swallowable pill has been trialled with 50 firefighters in Australia, aimed at monitoring body temperatures and other vital readings when working under extreme conditions. Using Equivital’s VitalSense Core Temperature capsules, they transmit readings to the companion EQ02 LifeMonitor, housed on the chest. This then sends data on skin temperature, heart rate and respiration rate to an external computer.”

    The ingestible capsule works in conjunction with Hidalgo‘s Equivital belt. According to medGadget the belt is the same one “used by Felix Baumgartner in his brilliant Red Bull Stratos jump”.

    I have to admit, this is both creepy and cool all at the same time. The capsule, along with all the tech wizardry is made by Equivital.

    Image credit news.com.au

  • Cool Pharmacy Technology – Diana Hazardous Drug Compounding System

    I came across the Diana Hazardous Drug Compounding System from icumedical while doing a little internet surfing the other day. As the name implies it’s a small, closed-looped system designed for compounding hazardous medications, i.e. chemotherapy.

    The “Diana System” utilizes a dual channel system, one for small volume and another for larger volumes. It’s a little difficult to understand exactly what the device does without seeing it in action, which is what the video below is for. It’s a pretty cool concept. I like the fact that it’s compact and needleless, but there are a couple of things I’d like to see added to the device. It appears that there is a lot of manual programming with the “Diana System”. It would be nice if it was integrated with the pharmacy information system so that it could utilize barcode scanning to automate the programming, much like what we see on the newer generation of smart pumps that are hitting the market.

    From the website:

    Accurate, safe, and efficient hazardous drug compounding technology right at your fingertips.

    • User-controlled automated compounding for maximum accuracy & safety. Unlike automated technologies that require huge investments and do not fit within existing workflows, the Diana system cost-effectively keeps pharmacists and technicians in control of the compounding process from beginning to end.
    • Closed system assures safety of clinicians and the sterility of the mix.The Diana system fits under the hood of your biological safety cabinet and protects clinicians from exposure to hazardous drugs and accidental needlesticks while protecting the patient preparation from exposure to environmental contaminants.
    • Reduces risk of repetitive stress injuries. Free up pharmacists and technicians from many of the repetitive motions required during preparation and reconstitution and reduce the stresses and injuries that can occur as a result.
    • Increases efficiencies and reduces drug waste. By helping you improve the efficiency of high-volume compounding, the Diana system can deliver workflow efficiencies while helping you reduce drug waste by extracting every drop of drug from every container.

  • Augmented reality has potential for use in pharmacy

    Augmented reality has been a standard of science fiction for decades, but now it’s a reality. We all remember the Starbucks app that made the Red Holiday Cup come to life last year, right? If not here’s a video on YouTube. Of course that’s just the tip of the iceberg as Google and Microsoft have both started playing with the concept; Google with Project Glass and Microsoft by filing a patient with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for “event augmentation with real-time information” last year. Google’s Project Glass was even named one of 2012’s best inventions by TIME.

    Setting aside the marketing hype for such things for a minute consider the practical uses in pharmacy practice for something like Google’s Project Glass. Imagine two similar, but distinctly different scenarios:
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  • Cool Pharmacy Technology – NFC-enabled medication compliance

    Thanks to Timothy Aungst for the tip. His Tweet led me to this Quand Medical page where I found a little bit of information about their medication compliance software. Their solution utilizes NFC technology to aid patients with tracking and taking their medication as well as potentially reducing errors.

    The Tweet from Timothy was timely as I’ve been musing about using NFC technology in the medication use process. With the popularity of smartphones and the slow, but steady adoption of things like Google Wallet, it makes sense to take a deeper dive and give the technology a long hard look.

    I would have liked to have seen a video of the product in action, but I couldn’t find one. Who knows whether or not this is the solution for medication compliance, but it’s certainly a tool worth investigation.
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  • Cool Pharmacy Technology – RxMedic ADS

    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 the video. The process includes photo verification. Lends itself to remote checking and tech-check-tech, don’t you think?

    As technology like this becomes available it is becoming increasingly clear that the traditional role of a pharmacist is obsolete. Not sure if the new role is a completely “clinical” one, but it certainly isn’t what it is now.

    From the RxMedic website:

    The only retail robotic dispensing system with photo verification. The RxMedic ADS packs high speed processing into a very small footprint. Its 256 cells enable you to fill as much as 80 percent of your daily processing, complete with verification, labeling and capping.

    • Interfaces with any pharmacy management system
    • Save 50% – 80% of time spent preparing orders
    • Can pay for itself in pharmacies with as few as 150 prescriptions per day
    • Fill up to 80% of your daily prescription volume
    • Special HEPA filtration combined with vacuum technology helps reduce dust and cross-contamination
    • Nationwide on-site service

  • Cool Pharmacy Technology – Kirby Lester KL1Plus

    The Kirby Lester KL1Plus is a piece of technology designed to count medications in a retail/outpatient pharmacy setting. The device was introduced at the recent National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and Department of Defense Joint Forces Pharmacy Services annual conventions in San Diego, CA.

    The KL1Plus is based on Kirby Lester’s KL1 tablet counter combined with new verification software. It’s small enough to fit in your hand and uses barcode technology to provide medication verification during the counting and filling process.

    The is pharmacy technician scans the barcode on the patient label, then scans the corresponding stock bottle or package when counting.

    What I really like about this technology is that it’s simple, it’s small, it fills a niche, it uses barcode scanning for verification, and uses touch screen technology. It’s a smartly designed product. I like it.
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  • PEG coated nanoparticles improves drug delivery into the brain

    Delivering drugs into the brain is notoriously difficult. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have published a report in the August 29 issue of Science Translational Medicine that they have designed nanoparticles that can safely and predictably infiltrate deep into the brain. Pretty cool.

    A Dense Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Coating Improves Penetration of Large Polymeric Nanoparticles Within Brain Tissue Elizabeth A. Nance, Graeme F. Woodworth, Kurt A. Sailor, Ting-Yu Shih, Qingguo Xu, Ganesh Swaminathan, Dennis Xiang, Charles Eberhart, and Justin Hanes Sci Transl Med 29 August 2012

    ABSTRACT
    Prevailing opinion suggests that only substances up to 64 nm in diameter can move at appreciable rates through the brain extracellular space (ECS). This size range is large enough to allow diffusion of signaling molecules, nutrients, and metabolic waste products, but too small to allow efficient penetration of most particulate drug delivery systems and viruses carrying therapeutic genes, thereby limiting effectiveness of many potential therapies. We analyzed the movements of nanoparticles of various diameters and surface coatings within fresh human and rat brain tissue ex vivo and mouse brain in vivo. Nanoparticles as large as 114 nm in diameter diffused within the human and rat brain, but only if they were densely coated with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). Using these minimally adhesive PEG-coated particles, we estimated that human brain tissue ECS has some pores larger than 200 nm and that more than one-quarter of all pores are ≥100 nm. These findings were confirmed in vivo in mice, where 40- and 100-nm, but not 200-nm, nanoparticles spread rapidly within brain tissue, only if densely coated with PEG. Similar results were observed in rat brain tissue with paclitaxel-loaded biodegradable nanoparticles of similar size (85 nm) and surface properties. The ability to achieve brain penetration with larger nanoparticles is expected to allow more uniform, longer-lasting, and effective delivery of drugs within the brain, and may find use in the treatment of brain tumors, stroke, neuroinflammation, and other brain diseases where the blood-brain barrier is compromised or where local delivery strategies are feasible.

  • Cool Pharmacy Technology – RxAdmix

    In this issue of The Imaginary Journal of Pharmacy Automation and Technology (IJPAT) we take a look at RxAdmix, a system designed to provide barcode scan verification in the IV room. Now why didn’t I think of that? Great concept when you consider the dangers associated with compounding an intravenous medication incorrectly. Doxorubicin? Daunorubicin? Eh, what’s the difference.
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  • Cool Pharmacy Tech – Fillmaster Plus

    I was talking with someone the other day about extemporaneous compounding and they mentioned FLAVORx. I like extemporaneous compounding and have been aware of FLAVORx for quite some time. In fact I featured it as a “Cool Technology for Pharmacy” back in February 2010.

    While I was at the FLAVORx website I came across a link to Fillmaster Plus made by Fillmaster Systems out of El Cajon, CA. The Fillmaster Plus is genius in its design because it’s simple, eloquent, makes use of current technology – barcode scanning, SD card, liquid pump, etc – and fits a niche.

    Fillmaster Systems is only a couple of hours from LA. Next time I’m down that way I should take an excursion to Fillmaster HQ and get a close-up look for myself. I wonder how they would handle a surprise visit.

  • Cerner “smart room” tour [video from 2010]

    “…a tour of the All-Digital Smart Room and discusses components including Cerners Room Wizard, Clinical Dashboard, myStation, medical device integration and RxStation.”

    The video references Fisher-Titus Medical Center in Norwalk.

    • “Medications tab” ~5:33. Home meds, current meds, and discharge meds presented with option to view drug information.
    • “Medical device integration” ~8:45 to feed info into the EHR.
    • “Cerner RxStation” ~9:35. Not sure why they call it RxStation. Looks like an ADU to me. The first thing that comes to mind when I see “Rx” is “pharmacy”. “RxStation” is a poor choice of name in my opinion.