The Roundtable: Infusion Therapy Equipment

This month, TechNation asked infusion therapy equipment experts to weigh in on the latest trends in purchasing and service. Responders include Greg Alkire, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Pronk Technologies; Andrew Davis, Account Manager for Tenacore Holdings and Dr. Tim Vanderveen, Vice President of the CareFusion Center for Safety and Clinical Excellence.

TechNation: What are the biggest trends right now in the infusion therapy equipment market?

Alkire: There has been a focus in the industry to improve the safety and effectiveness of infusion devices by integrating them into the hospital information network. Having infusion pumps connected to the hospital network provides additional safeguards prior to infusing the patient such as verifying the medication matches what was prescribed by the physician and reviewed/released by the pharmacy. This can also provide additional tools to the clinician for configuring the infusion device to ensure it is programmed according to the patient’s electronic records. In addition, it has the potential to capture errors in infusion therapy providing the biomedical engineer with additional information regarding the infusion pumps performance and error codes to aid in servicing and maintaining the device.

Vanderveen: With an estimated 65 percent of the U.S. market having already adopted smart IV pumps, most hospitals are now focused on maximizing the safety afforded by infusion technologies. Adopting wireless connectivity to infusion pumps has facilitated management of drug libraries, provided continuous quality improvement data, and created new opportunities for interoperability between the pumps and other elements of the medication use process.

TechNation: How will the market for infusion therapy equipment evolve in the next five years? How will that affect service of the equipment?

Alkire: Infusion devices are becoming smaller, more portable with advanced techniques for achieving greater accuracy of flow rate and volume delivered more quickly than previous designs. These devices are being placed throughout the hospital and are a challenge to find and service. Biomedical engineers are looking for tools to perform the necessary testing with a high level of accuracy, traceable to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which enable them to maintain a 4:1 testing accuracy ratio relative to the infusion device specifications. Having very accurate test equipment, that is also portable, will enable the biomedical engineer to go to the infusion pumps in the clinical departments to perform the service work instead of having to bring them back to the repair shop, thus increasing their efficiency in servicing these critical devices.

Davis: It appears that medical device manufacturers are focusing on designing pumps with more controlled safety features to reduce medication error. Many smart pumps nowadays record every keystroke in the history log. Some medical companies such as CareFusion and B Braun have even come out with pumps that require purchase of proprietary software in order to use them.With this proprietary software, the medical companies have more control of the servicing market, which will affect third-party repair vendors since they will not have access to the software.

Vanderveen: Integrating infusion devices into healthcare information technology (HIT) systems will be the primary focus over the next decade. Without this integration, it will be difficult to realize additional safety and productivity gains.

Click here to read the full article in the July 2013 issue of TechNation!