Abbott and Cerner to Develop Safer Infusion System

An exclusive agreement to develop and co-market a safer new point-of-care (POC) medication-management system for infusion therapy has been announced by Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, IL, USA) and Cerner Corp. (Kansas City, MO, USA).

The system will integrate POC infusion and diagnostic medical devices, bar coding, clinical information, and decision-support tools at the patient's bedside to improve safety, clinical outcomes, and cost management. Initially, the system will aim to improve safety in fusion therapy through a secure identification of the caregiver, patient, device, and IV access site matched with doctor orders, patient-assessment parameters, patient medical history, and hospital-specific best-practice treatment protocols. The system will then be enhanced to include Cerner's software, called Cerner Millennium solutions.

These solutions comprise an integration tool kit, a drug information database, computerized doctor-order entry system, pharmacy information system, and electronic medical record. These will be combined with Abbot's POC diagnostic devices, including its infusion therapy pumps. The system will interface with most hospital information systems and medical devices. Additional functionality may be added for more complex therapeutic applications and clinical specialties.

"The collaboration between our two companies will accelerate the development of software products that provide solutions for therapies with the highest potential for error,” said John Arnott, vice president, hospital business sector, Abbott.





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