Global healthcare IT solutions vendor Dedalus is planning to introduce a new robotic oncology compounding system to the Australian and New Zealand markets, aimed at automating the preparation of oncology medications while also integrating with EMRs and specialist oncology prescribing, dispensing and compounding software.
Pharmoduct is a TGA- and Medsafe-approved solution for the sterile preparation of personalised antineoplastic drugs that is also able to integrate with software solutions, promising to improve order accuracy, speed and scheduling of compounding orders.
Dedalus says the solution aims to speed up personalised chemotherapy compounding while also making it safer for compounding and drug administration staff.
Dedalus’ senior principal for digital healthcare strategy Byron Phillips said the current approach for delivering complex chemotherapy drugs relies on large numbers of pharmacy staff engaged in highly manual and repetitive tasks with highly toxic substances. The result is a costly process with inherent challenges related to staff recruitment, safety, dose accuracy and audit tracing, he said.
Mr Phillips said Pharmoduct was essentially “a grade A cleanroom in a cabinet”, allowing for significantly greater levels of throughput with smaller physical footprint and staffing requirements.
Pharmoduct is widely used by cancer hospitals in Europe but is now being introduced for the first time to Australia and New Zealand, Mr Phillips said.
“While our attention was first drawn to Pharmoduct due to our hospital pharmacy and medication management footprint, significant opportunity may be within the dedicated compounding businesses and optimising the supply chain between compounding businesses and the hospitals they serve,” he said.
“The promise is a game changer in the oncology workflow, by optimising the cancer drug ordering, preparation and receipting process across the supply chain.”
Mr Phillips said Pharmoduct was able to compounds patient-specific oncology orders into the final container, ready for administration to the patient. It supports the full range of IV bags, syringes, elastomeric pumps and cassettes.
“Currently, a lot of chemotherapy drugs are delivered by IV using elastomeric infusion pumps, one of the most challenging drug administration channels for manual compounding labs and their staff,” he said.
“Pharmoduct not only reduces the time to compound elastomeric pumps but addresses current issues related to repetitive strain injury for staff tasked with compounding such containers.”
The solution is based on closed system drug transfer technology and enables one person to operate two machines simultaneously.
Mr Phillips said that while medical devices and robotics are somewhat outside of Dedalus’ traditional clinical software realm, the introduction of the solution will build upon the company’s long experience in acute hospital pharmacy and patient administration solutions. Mr Phillips said the first Pharmoduct robots are expected to arrive in Australia in the new year.
Dedalus has partnered with Cabrini Technology Group to assist with the engineering support for the robotic device and for the warehousing and distribution of spare parts and consumables in Australia and New Zealand.
