Device Detects Human Errors in Preparing Liquid Medications

A tabletop analysis device provides a technological safety net that grants protection from medication errors for patients, pharmacists, and hospitals.

The ValiMed Medication Validation System (MVS), engineered to eliminate mistakes made while mixing compounds at a hospital, uses a technique called enhanced photoemission spectroscopy to determine if the compounds mixed are the correct ones.

The easy to operate, compact, and self contained system only needs a 0.15 ml sample to perform the test, and an average test takes less than 30 seconds to complete. In addition to validating high-risk medications before leaving the pharmacy, ValiMed also monitors and discourages the diversion of controlled narcotic substances by validating the returned (unused) narcotics from patient treatment areas and surgery suites. The system also provides the user with the ability to print both an immediate results label (for log books or product packaging) as well as final reports detailing validation results across many different filters (such as date, user, technician, practitioner, and medication).

Additional features include the ability to monitor the technician's accuracy to improve compounding performance, counterfeit medication monitoring, and regulatory compliance. The system contains a signature library of nearly 200 liquid high-risk medications, allowing each system to be customized to the customer's needs. These proven signatures are derived from tested samples to achieve statistical significance through mathematical processing, dilution and concentration studies, and medical reviews. The development of new medication signatures are undertaken based on client needs. The ValiMed MVS is a product of CDEX (Tucson, AZ, USA).

"ValiMed is the only technology available today that prevents harm to patients from human errors in the compounding of high-risk medications,” said Chris Jerry, President of the Emily Jerry Foundation.” I believe that those hospitals which have adopted the ValiMed MVS as part of their medication safety programs have set the standard of care, and all hospitals should follow suit.”

The Emily Jerry Foundation (Mentor, OH, USA), a nonprofit foundation working to prevent medical errors, was founded in memory of Chris Jerry's two-year-old daughter Emily, who died from an overdose of sodium chloride. The foundation was established in May 2009 shortly after Ohio (USA) legislators passed Emily's Law, which created licensing and minimum education requirements for pharmacy technicians. The foundation's mission is to protect children from medical errors, and it is actively working to save lives as well as make medical facilities safer by partnering with key organizations and businesses to promote life-saving technologies.

Related Links:
CDEX
The Emily Jerry Foundation