A new partnership between Health Robotics and Costa-Rica-based Nutricare S.A. will allow doctors in Latin America for the first time to prepare IV medications, like those used in chemotherapy, to be handled in a safe and sterile way. CytoCare, the robotic system developed by Health Robotics and now adopted by Nutricare, helps to eliminate dosage errors and protect providers from potentially dangerous drugs.

Pharmacists and other healthcare providers face severe exposure risks to hazardous, toxic agents, like the substances used in chemotherapy. They heal the patient but can be unsafe for those who handle them. Inhalation, ingestion, and skin contact through needlesticks or other critical mistakes can be extremely harmful.

In the critical area of cancer care, healthcare providers are experiencing growing pressure to improve patient safety and decrease operators' risk while at the same time working more efficiently and containing costs. The University of Colorado Hospital was the first in the U.S. to use the robotic mixing of chemotherapy drugs in 2008.

The higher incidence rate of cancer and the growing complexity of treatment protocols, combined with a shortage of qualified staff, results in an increasing workload, which directly affects the quality of patient services. Health Robotics' CytoCare robotic system permits healthcare facilities to safely compound hazardous, life-critical cancer therapy medications without exposing themselves to harm. The use of robots in CytoCare systems eliminates human handling of chemotherapy and other hazardous IV drugs that could be dangerous for medical personnel to handle during medication preparation. CytoCare systems can also be used to prepare IV medications for monoclonal antibody therapy and gene therapy.

Especially in cancer treatment, dose calculations errors, prescription errors, and drug exchange errors have the extremely high potential for adverse consequences to patients. Cross-contamination during IV mixture preparation can prove deadly. Coupled with sterility concerns and multiple points of drug exposure between the pharmacy and the hospital bed, there are many risks for human handling and compounding of hazardous drugs.

ICytoCare can increase dosage accuracy, improving patient safety, and can reduce waste and operational costs. Three separate systems control dosage accuracy. Digital indexers control the syringe-driving mechanism, position encoders double-check the accuracy of syringe movement, and fluid measurements are then verified using pre- and post-weight checks.

Independent studies have shown that U.S. hospitals waste as much as 5 to 40 percent of hazardous drugs each year. With CytoCare’s waste management system, partial vials are managed using “hold” stations to minimize drug waste. If only a fraction of a drug is used, CytoCare keeps the unused drug portion in its compounding chamber for later use. The drug’s shelf-life is also recorded.

CytoCare can also eliminate operational costs associated with medical errors, waste, supplies, and the use of closed-system transfer devices.

The CytoCare system is now used on six continents.

Deborah DiSesa Hirsch is an award-winning health and technology writer who has worked for newspapers, magazines and IBM (News - Alert) in her 20-year career. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.