Digital Assistant Appliance for Liquid Pharmaceutical Preparation

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Solution Overview

Problem

The manual preparation of liquid pharmaceutical compositions for intravenous administration is prone to errors due to incorrect aspiration or dosage of active principles, and existing digital assistant appliances are limited in detecting configuration changes of vials and syringes, and do not allow flexibility in selecting different types of vials and syringes.

Innovation Solution

A digital assistant appliance equipped with a gravimetric control system, artificial viewing system, and user-interface, which includes a biometric authentication system, barcode reader, and RFID data-reading system, to authenticate operators, visually identify and verify the correct selection of vials and syringes, and adjust for configuration changes during weighing, allowing flexibility in vial and syringe types.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If gravimetric control is used to measure the weight of vials and syringes, then the dose of active principle can be calculated, but measurement errors occur when the configuration of vial or syringe is modified during weighing operations

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveweight measurement accuracyVSAvoiddose calculation reliability
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by capturing images of the vial and syringe configurations before weighing operations begin. These images are stored and later compared with images taken during weighing to detect any configuration changes, allowing the system to identify and correct measurement errors caused by such changes.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring the configuration of vials and syringes during weighing operations through image capture and comparison. When configuration changes are detected, the system provides feedback to alert the operator and can recalculate doses using corrected weight measurements, ensuring reliable dose calculation despite configuration modifications.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

2Productivity

If the digital assistant appliance assumes the operator's selection of vial is correct, then the operation can proceed quickly, but the system cannot detect selection of vials containing incorrect active principles

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepreparation speedVSAvoidactive principle selection accuracy
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system replaces manual verification of vial selection with an automated image recognition system. The artificial viewing system captures images of the selected vial and uses pattern recognition algorithms to automatically verify whether the vial contains the correct active principle, maintaining fast operation speeds while ensuring selection accuracy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system introduces an intermediary verification step using image capture and analysis between the operator's selection and the preparation process. This intermediary mechanism automatically checks the vial selection without significantly slowing down the overall preparation process, ensuring that incorrect active principles are detected.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Ease of operation

If the system forces the operator to use preset vial and syringe types, then dose calculation is simplified, but flexibility is lost when the envisaged vial or syringe is unavailable

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedose calculation simplicityVSAvoidvial and syringe type flexibility
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements dynamic adaptability by allowing the operator to select from multiple types of vials and syringes during the preparation process. The gravimetric control system automatically adjusts dose calculations based on the actual weight measurements of the selected items, maintaining calculation simplicity while providing flexibility to use different vial and syringe types as needed.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The system achieves universality by designing the gravimetric control mechanism to work with various types of vials and syringes. Instead of being limited to preset types, the system can measure and calculate doses for any vial or syringe configuration, making the preparation process adaptable to different available equipment while maintaining ease of operation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Applied Scientific Principles

This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.

Function Achieved in This Case

The appliance ensures accurate calculation of active principle doses, reduces the risk of using incorrect active principles, and allows for the preparation of pharmaceutical compositions using different syringe and vial types, enhancing the safety and accuracy of the preparation process.

Implementation Method 1

a gravimetric control device for measuring the weight of the vials containing the active principles and the sterile syringes used for transfer of the active principle

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectGravimetric measurement:

Implementation Method 2

RFID data-reading system, which reads the data contained in transponders}

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectRFID (Radio Frequency Identification):

Data Source

PatentEP2360609B1Digital assistant appliance for assisting an operator in the manual preparation of a liquid pharmaceutical composition
Publication Date: 2019.10.23 OMNICELL INC
  • EP2360609B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2360609B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2360609B1 patent drawingFigure 2

AI summary

Digital assistant appliance (1) for assisting an operator in the manual preparation of a liquid pharmaceutical composition comprising: a memory device (15) containing, for each active principle of the liquid pharmaceutical composition: one or more first sample images of vials containing the active principle, and one or more second sample images of syringes that can be used for transferring the active principle from the vials to the medical instrument (2); an artificial viewing system (4) designed to acquire: a vial image of a vial chosen by the operator and/or a syringe image of a syringe chosen by the operator; and an electronic processing system (6) configured in such a way as to compare the vial image with each of the first sample images for determining whether the vial chosen by the operator is incorrect, and/or compare the syringe image with each of the second sample images for determining whether the syringe chosen by the operator is incorrect, and warn the operator of an error condition in the preparation step when the vial or the syringe chosen by the operator is incorrect.