Avoiding Catheter Misconnections
Standards may be on the way to support safe administration. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is reporting that The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has been working on ISO/IEC/FDIS 80369-1, "Small-bore connectors for liquids and gases in healthcare applications," to make various healthcare catheter fittings and associated tubing sets or syringes incompatible with one another. continued Supply Chain Security Still Desperately Needed Improving supply-chain safety is an important mission for the pharmaceutical industry. While awareness of counterfeiting and adulteration is certainly growing, threats do remain. Counterfeiters continue to advance their own operations while the pharmaceutical industry struggles worldwide to settle on standardized solutions. Reuters reports the shocking sum of 10.5 billion euros spent each year by Europeans "on illicitly sourced medicines, many of them counterfeit." continued Plan to Attend Pharmapack and BIOMEDevice in 2011 Pharmapack and BIOMEDevice will be held February 23–24, 2011, in La Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris, France. Now together as an annual co-located event, Pharmapack focuses on pharmaceutical packaging and drug-delivery innovations, while BIOMEDevice narrows in on the development of combination products. The events complement each other nicely, given the convergence of medical device, biopharmaceutical, and pharmaceutical technologies for delivering next-generation drug-delivery systems. Two full days of concurrent conference tracks will offer attendees a plethora of educational opportunities. Conference details are just now taking shape, so attendees can expect to hear the latest developments in packaging technology for drugs and health products, while BIOMEDevice speakers will explore the engineering and regulations behind emerging combination products as well as enabling technologies. continued |
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Enteral feeding solutions have mistakenly been delivered to patients via an intravenous route, resulting in patient injury and even death. Dr. Catherine Blanchon, Operations – Supply Chain Quality Management, Nestle Nutrition, Switzerland, spoke about the risk of such misconnections at Pharmapack in 2009, urging attendees to devise solutions with their own product development.