May-Jun 2009
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Right patient, right drug, right dose
To avoid adverse drug events it
is essential that the patient is
given the correct drug, with the
correct dose at the correct time.
But this is not always the case.
In fact in the UK an alarming
12% of hospitalised patients
experience one or other form
of adverse drug event.
Unfortunately most of these
incidents arise from human
error.
What is needed is a smart
drug delivery device that automates
drug delivery and cuts out
human error and this is just
what Chicago, US-based Hospira has recently introduced
to the Middle East.
Speaking to Middle East
Health earlier this year, Mark Harvie, Hospira’s director of
marketing for Europe, Middle
East and Africa, explained that
adverse medication incidents
can vary from simply missing a
drug administration at time of
delivery, to the most serious
incidents which can lead to the
death of the patient, such as
drug overdose or administration
of the wrong drug.
“Our products are all
designed to reduce these incidents,”
he said.
Hospira’s key products
launched in the Middle East
include the Symbiq infusion
system, the MedNet medication
safety software, which is
built into the infusion pump,
and the Veriscan Rx system for
bar coding medication at pointof-
care.
“These systems can all be
integrated to ensure you have
the right patient, the right drug,
at the right dose through the
right point of administration
and at the right time. Not only
that, but you ensure that you
are also automatically updating
the patient records at the hospital as well, as the drug
delivery system is integrated
into the Hospital Information
System,” Harvie explained.
In essence this system
enhances workflow and patient
safety.
The Symbiq infusion pump
The Symbiq infusion pump is
Hospira’s second generation
pump – the earlier model is the
Plum-A infusion pump. The
Symbiq infusion pump features
a large, colour LCD touchscreen
with large font and
colour graphical prompts to
provide an at-a-glance view of
medication status from a
distance of up to 4 metres.
Symbiq also uses simple
layouts and touch-activated
buttons to minimise the potential
for programming errors.
This well-designed device
incorporates numerous clinician-
friendly features, to help
decrease medication errors and
improve workflow.
The system has been tailored
for up to 40 different clinical
areas (or hospital departments)
and can handle up to 400 drugs
per department, said Harvie.
MedNet
Hospira’s MedNet medication
safety software has been built
into the Symbiq infusion
pump.
MedNet is programmable
software designed to
improve medication
management at the
point of care by
protecting against
medication errors and
adverse drug events. It
works by linking infusion
devices with the
hospital pharmacy and
the hospital information
system.
This integration helps clinicians
reduce the likelihood of
medication errors during
administration, the phase associated
with the most IV
medication errors. It also
enables hospital administrators
to customise and track IV drug
delivery, such as detailed
reporting on averted medication
errors. These reports help
to optimise clinician workflow
and the development of
medication safety initiatives.
Through the system, pharmacists
can work with a team of
physicians and clinical staff to
develop customised drug libraries
and dose recommendations,
which are then programmed into
a database and transferred to the
infusion pump.
If a clinician accidentally programmes an IV medication
incorrectly, the pump provides
an instant alert to prevent the
dosing error before it occurs.
The software allows hospitals
to set both “soft” and “hard”
dose limits. Soft limits allow
clinicians to manually override
dose limit alerts if medication
outside hospital best practices is
required. Hard limits are those
the caregiver cannot manually
override and prevent clinicians
from activating the pump for
dose changes with certain
medications.
MedNet captures and logs all
alarms and alerts, enabling
hospitals to track trends in
compliance with physician
orders, hospital dosing standards,
clinical guidelines and
safety standards.
|
Dräger wins two product design awards
Two Dräger products received the iF product design
award in 2009: The Ponta beam system and the
Infinity C700 for IT workstation. A total of 2,808
products from 39 countries were submitted. The
international selection committee awarded 802
labels for superior product design. These two
medical devices were among the first Dräger products
developed according to the company’s current
design guidelines.
|
Downs Surgical launches new website
with secure zone for distributors
Downs Surgical, one of the
UK’s leading surgical instrument
manufacturers, which
has strong links in the Middle
East, has launched a new stateof-
the-art website to make it
easier for surgeons, distributors
and customers in the Middle
East to keep up-to-date with
the latest product news and
global news from the company.
Downs Surgical’s new website
– www.downs-surgical.com - has
been designed to be user friendly
and enhance the customer’s
experience, as well as have a
fresh and modern feel which
reflects the company’s global
reputation for quality, excellence
and outstanding service.
There is also a new area dedicated
to distributors. This secure
zone for registered distributors
offers secure online access to
areas of interest, such as promotional
giveaways, supplies of
literature and sample requests.
Steve Spurgin, International Business Manager at Downs
Surgical, said: “This is a very
exciting year for Downs Surgical
and we are delighted to launch a
new website that reflects the
modern and dynamic ethos of
our business. We have collected
feedback from our current
website users, as well as
customers and distributors across
the Middle East and have used
this information to produce a
website that is accessible and
easy to use. We hope people
enjoy using it as much as we
have enjoyed designing it.”
Downs Surgical are much
more than a supplier of high
precision surgical instruments;
they are a trusted and fully
committed partner for the
whole surgical process in hospitals
around the world specialising
in Ear Nose and Throat
(ENT) surgery, cardiovascular,
obstetrics and gynaecology.
● For more information visit:
www.downs-surgical.com
New LeFlap wound dressing developed for maggot therapy
California-based Monarch
Labs, has launched its new,
proprietary wound dressing
specifically designed to make
maggot therapy more easy,
quick and simple to administer.
It has US FDA approval for
marketing under the trade
name LeFlap.
Maggot therapy is used to
clean or ‘debride’ non-healing
wounds such as many types of
pressure ulcers (‘bed sores’), foot
and leg ulcers, and traumatic or
post-surgical wounds. This
method of treating chronic
wounds has seen a steady rise in
use ever since the US FDA
granted marketing clearance to
the Medical Maggots brand of
medicinal maggots in 2004.
Medicinal maggots are
usually kept on the wound
within cage-like dressings that
are placed over the wound. Up
to this point, maggot therapy
dressings have been constructed
by doctors, nurses, podiatrists
and wound care technicians at
the bedside – taping or gluing
together conventional medical
dressings to make the cage.
Specifically designed for
maggot therapy, LeFlap is a premanufactured
cage dressing.
The single-piece LeFlap maggot
confinement dressing is
intended to prevent medicinal
maggots from leaving the
wound before the treatment is
scheduled to end and reduce
the time and cost necessary to
confine them to the wound.
The LeFlap dressing consists
of a bottom hydrocolloid pad
that can be cut to fit the
patient’s wound dimensions.
This foundation layer is hinged
to a polyester monofilament
netted fabric coated with an
adhesive. When the adhesive
liner is removed, the netting
will directly adhere to the
hydrocolloid base, containing
the maggots within. Unless the
patient is active or the wound
area is subject to a lot of movement
or soiling, no additional
dressing materials or adhesives
should be required.
● For more information visit:
www.monarchlabs.com
Codonics in OEM deal for MammoViewer
Three Palm Software, a
developer of innovative
solutions for the breast
imaging market, and
Codonics, a global leader
in image documentation
solutions for the medical
imaging industry, have announced that they will
provide a Codonics Branded Viewer for Mammography for its
international markets. The Codonics MammoViewer by Three
Palm Software will be configured as an option with Codonics’
Virtua Medical Disc Publisher product. The Virtua line of high
performance medical disc recording systems is capable of
recording up to 60 CDs or 30 DVDs an hour.
The MammoViewerTM, a mammography DICOM viewer,
provides referring physicians and patients the ability to view
and/or manipulate a mammography study. The viewer
includes specific tools used for viewing mammography such as
true size, one to one pixel size image ratios and all standard
mammography viewing hanging protocols. MammoViewer is a
great tool for mammography imaging centres because they
don’t have to print and ship films, or set up and maintain a
service for referring physicians to get the images digitally.
Now, imaging centres that purchase the Codonics Virtua with
the MammoViewer can automatically include it on the disc
with the patient study. By the time the patient is finished with
the exam, Virtua has recorded the study, burned the viewer,
and included a custom, full-colour label on the disc, ready for
the patient to take with them.
● For more information visit: www.codonics.com
Date
of upload: 16th May 2009
