Health Robotics announces IV Station (TM Pending) a centrallycontrolled, modular, distributed, flexible, redundant, patient-specific intra-venous (IV) Automation Robot for non-hazardous drug preparation, compounding, and dispensing in central pharmacylocations, satellite pharmacies, and even patient care workplaces.Health Robotics, the worldwide leader in the robotic automation of patient specific IV Admixtures today announced IV Station (TM Pending), a new IV automation solution that complements CytoCare™, the company’s award winning and world-leading patient-specific chemotherapy IV robot.

IV Station (TM Pending) is aimed at helping global health care providers deliver rapid, cost-effective, and safer IV doses to their patients by addressing medication errors, sterility, accuracy, and waste problems in the preparation, compounding, and dispensing of IV Admixtures. “While many companies have recognized the life-critical importance of IV safety, all patient-specific automation solutions up until now have focused on the prescription and administration steps of the medication delivery process with products such as Electronic Prescription and Smart Infusion Pumps,” said Werner Rainer, CEO of Health Robotics. IV Station (TM Pending) is the first patient-specific automation solution in the world that focuses on the preparation and compounding step of the life critical process of IV Admixtures, where medication errors are arguably more critical given the inherent difficulty in their detection. Beyond its patient safety benefits, IV Station (TM Pending) will address the waste problems of the current pharmacy process of Batch IVs [IVs that are not tailored to a specific patient clinical condition and therapy], whether these Batch IVs are processed by Batch IV automation companies or by hospitals that compound manually in Batch mode.

IV Station (TM Pending) offers global health care providers unique features ad benefits by pioneering the first just-in-time patient-specific automated IV compounding solution. A Rand Corporation study found that the United States ranks a mere 37th in the world in overall health system performance. The study showed the waste of Batch IVs at hospitals in the United States, where the observations of HEALTH ROBOTICS, ALTMANNSTRASSE 9A-BOZEN-SUDTIROL-39100-ITALYformer Secretary of Treasury Paul O’Neill and his team were documented. O’Neill described how “IV drugs are filled in Batch mode every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as a way to optimize the time of pharmacists. However not surprisingly, patient conditions change more rapidly than every other weekday. In fact, 40 percent of the hospital’s IV solutions that are filled on Friday come back on Monday because of changes in patient conditions, and the returned IVs are simply dumped down the drain. The same study found that among three Intensive Care Units treating 1,759 patients, 37 of these patients ended up with infections contracted from the central intravenous lines that had been used to administer medications, and 19 of those patients died from those infections. ”IV Station (TM Pending) is expected to become generally available to customers in Europe and the United States during 2009, after final validation tests and medical device certifications processes are completed at the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, affiliated with the University of London [U. K. ], and Campus Bio-Medico Hospital, affiliated with Opus Dei University in Rome [Italy].

IV Station (TM Pending) will be manufactured, marketed, installed and supported directly by Health Robotics during its market validation phase, while the company seeks regional and/or global partners for its distribution, manufacturing, and support for future global deployment.

IV Station (TM Pending) will be offered to customers at considerable savings over the million-dollar expense of currently available Batch IV automation solutions.

About Health Robotics: Health Robotics is the global leading supplier in the automation of life-critical intra-venous patient-specific medication preparation, compounding, and dispensing, providing health care facilities around the world with automated and robotic solutions to ease pharmacies’ growing pressures to improve patient safety through the production of sterile and accurate IVs, decrease life-threatening medication errors and contamination risks, and to work more efficiently, increase throughput, reduce waste, and contain spiraling costs.

For additional information, visit us at ASHP in Seattle or please contact: Health Robotics Werner Rainer Gaspar G. DeViedma+39 047 120-0372 +39 346 963-4934rainer@health-robotics. com gaspar. deviedma@health-robotics.

Reference: health-robotics.com