From the May 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


“IHE PCD profiles aim to improve patient safety and clinical efficacy and reduce health care delivery costs by improving efficiency, reliability, and operational flexibility for health care providers,” says LaMontagne.

All of Hospira’s next-generation pumps, (Plum, LifeCafe PCA, and Sapphire) are integration-ready, according to Montgomery. The company is accomplishing that through their I.V. Integration Solution, a proprietary system that connects EHRs and pharmacy orders to the smart pumps.


Getting an EHR integrated pump on the market is no small task. McGeath breaks down the relationship between the different wheels in motion: “Manufacturers want to get the smart part of the pump FDA approved and available through the market. Standards bodies like IHE are aiming to establish standard messaging protocols to use – not only to get the data coming out of the pump – but also to define and standardize the protocol to push information to that pump. The clinical community, meanwhile, is primarily sitting back and watching those two camps mature.”

Some of the major EHR providers, such as Epic and Cerner, are reaching over from the other side of the software aisle with the same goal. Both companies have built into their EHR platforms the ability to manage smart pump, and other biomedical workflows, through their network databases.

The expanding home care market
As health care continues to emphasize cost effectiveness, many long term patients are being moved out of traditional hospitals to home care or alternate-site treatment facilities. This shift has resulted in a growing demand for cost effective infusion pumps that are worth the investment for facilities operating on a smaller scale.

LaMontagne says the CADD Solis VIP (Variable Infusion Profile), a multi-therapy infusion platform from Smiths Medical, is meeting that need with versatility. The system – which includes a smart infusion pump, medication safety software, and dedicated cassette reservoirs or disposables – has five delivery mode options which can be programmed for a variety of different protocols, and has an interface designed to be intuitive.

Montgomery says that providing care in non-traditional settings creates new obstacles, “Ensuring compliance can be challenging and wireless technology is often not hospital quality.” EHR integration is one way to maintain quality assurance remotely, but security measures are vital.

Cyber security concerns
Cyber security is a big issue for all connected medical systems and devices – not just smart pumps. Knowing how to safely lock down these systems is of paramount concern. If a hacker gained access to smart pump formularies and decided to tamper with them, for example, they could inflict massive harm on all the patients being served by that integrated system.

May 2015 Magazine

Read more stories from the May 2015 issue

Medical Devices Homepage