State-of-the-Art Infusion System Solves Critical Challenges in Infusion Delivery

By HospiMedica International staff writers
Posted on 15 Mar 2022

Image: The Ivenix Infusion System (Photo courtesy of Ivenix, Inc.)

Infusion pump technology has been slow to progress despite the increasing complexity of drug dosing regimens, demand for EMR integration, and significant, widely reported patient safety issues. Infusion pump technology has traditionally innovated with add-on capabilities to existing and often restrictive product designs. In many cases, these products were first created decades ago. Now, a new infusion system directly addresses the call to action to move from smart pumps to intelligent infusion systems with a solution that is designed from the ground up keeping enterprise scalability, user experience, and affordability in mind.

The Ivenix Infusion System from Ivenix, Inc. (North Andover, MA, USA) creates a fundamentally different infusion therapy experience and solves critical challenges in infusion delivery. The Ivenix Infusion System combines three core elements designed to deliver infusion therapy with unprecedented ease and precision.

Firstly, it demonstrates an unbeatable user experience with a large, intuitive, smartphone-like user interface designed to reduce programming errors. This smart IV pump auto-populates values, leverages instinctive tap and swipe movements, and is built with modern touchscreen usability as a design principle. This empowers clinicians to administer medications in less time and with fewer pump interactions. Secondly, the Ivenix Infusion System offers a state-of-the-art informatics platform where the latest information is available at the place and time decisions are made, ensuring immediate, secure access to patient-specific infusion and pump management from any computer or mobile device. Informaticists have flexibility in the stages of adoption of ADT interfacing, alarm notification system integration, charge capture solutions, and electronic medical record (EMR) integration. Thirdly, the Ivenix Infusion System uses a fundamentally new pump technology that sets a new standard in safety and performance by measuring and actively maintaining flow accuracy under all clinical conditions. The system automates the secondary infusions and delivers the entire bag to ensure that the patient receives the full prescribed therapy, resolves air issues without breaking the sterile fluid line, accurately delivers medications independent of the height of the bag or pump position, and provides best-in-class flow continuity especially meaningful at low flow rates.

The Ivenix Infusion System includes a lightweight yet durable pump, an interoperable information system, and a collection of administration sets that are simple to load and prime, ensure flow accuracy, and are demonstrated to be the preference of most clinicians. The pump user interface features a large, intuitive, color touchscreen designed to reduce the risk of use errors during IV pump setup. Because interactions are clear and unnecessary steps are eliminated, programming and training for experienced and new clinicians are simplified. The information system is a cybersecure, wireless, web-based architecture providing a broad array of patient-specific infusion information and analytics out-of-the-box. The web-based platform easily enables open, pluggable, and scalable integration with the EMR and other information systems. This includes rapid EMR formulary adoption, automated testing of integration scenarios, and on-screen barcodes for accurate cybersecure infusion pump identification and reduced implementation time.

A rich and interactive clinical experience is accomplished by leveraging the power of existing hospital HIS platforms like mobile status dashboards, ADT interfaces, alarm notification systems, RTLS, charge capture, or full integration to the EMR. A key tenet of the design is to keep technology out of the way of the care provider while using information to support the clinical workflow. With a pneumatic pumping mechanism measuring flow and automatically adjusting to maintain more precise flow accuracy, the pump delivers flow continuity even at low flow rates, particularly important for critical medications and in special patient populations. Because the IV infusion pump mechanism delivers accurately regardless of external conditions, there is no need to worry about the height of the medication bag relative to the pump. There is no requirement of pump position relative to the patient. The unique pump mechanism also addresses clinical efficiency issues by automating and ensuring complete delivery of secondary infusions, minimizing nuisance alarms, and eliminating the need for calibration.

Additionally, the Ivenix Infusion System updates the drug library while the pump is in use with zero interruption in therapy or action by the clinician. The pump defaults to the drug library without disrupting the clinical workflow. The easy to manage drug library updates in minutes versus traditional infusion technology which can take days, weeks, and even longer. The Ivenix Infusion System also addresses the challenges of managing an infusion pump fleet. It is manufactured with cleaning and disinfectant resistant materials, minimized external connections, redundant batteries, a fast and straightforward wireless software update process, and a simple motion to load the administration set. The Ivenix Infusion System received 510(k) clearance by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the recent guidelines for medical devices and cybersecurity.

“The successful integration of infusion data with an EMR and other HIS platforms is made better by the accurate delivery and reporting of infusion data,” said George Gray, Chief Technology Officer at Ivenix. “Our pump accurately communicates what is infused as well as the exact start and end times of the infusion. This means clinicians have the information they need to make better decisions. The latest upgrade also includes tools that simplify EMR integration and reduce the time and cost of making auto-programming a reality.”

Related Links:
Ivenix, Inc.