By Vladimir Shterenberg Software quality assurance (SQA) and testing can be as rewarding as it can be frustrating. Every organization has different ideas on what quality means and what level of quality is needed for their products. You would think the highest quality possible would be the universal answer, but when it comes down to... Read more
Categories: Blog | Engineering | Regulatory | SoftwareBy Jonathan Bagot, M.Sc., B.C.Sc. (Hons) Lines of Code (LOC) is a software metric that has been used since the mid-1960’s to estimate effort and productivity [1]. It is the simplest method to estimate the size of a software program. There are many different ways to count LOC, but the gist of the idea is... Read more
Categories: Blog | Engineering | SoftwareBy Walter Eliuk, P.Eng. RIVA is a fully automated IV compounding system that produces IV bag and syringe medications in a Hospital pharmacy. The Port Disinfection Subsystem (PDS) is a powerful feature unique to RIVA. This feature helps to assure reliable aseptic processing of compounded products. A state-of-the-art UV light source is used to disinfect... Read more
Categories: Automation | Blog | Engineering | SafetyBy Mitch Valdmanis, M.Eng. When a person sees RIVA operating for the first time, they see the robot dancing around the cell, shuttling items to-and-fro between subsystems; they watch as fluid is transferred between containers at one of the syringe manipulators; and they notice how the inventory carousels rotate around to present the correct inventory... Read more
Categories: Blog | EngineeringBy Alex Reinhardt, P. Eng. I’ve had some recent discussions with potential customers that raised an interesting question: What is most important to your organization, making a high percentage of doses with IV automation, or, saving money? These are vastly different but both equally legitimate. Let’s look at each in a bit more detail. Read more
Categories: Blog | Productivity | ROI | SafetyHello IHSRIVA Blog readers and thank you for visiting us! Recently, we were asked some of the readers if they can share IHSRIVA Blog articles with their friends and colleagues. The answer is – yes, of course, you can share the articles that you liked and thought could be useful to others. To make it easier, we embedded... Read more
Categories: Announcements | BlogBy Christine Ross A few years before Canada and the USA had enacted privacy legislation, I was working at an IT services company as a software developer customizing, implementing and supporting patient management systems for hospitals. I had been with the company for a couple of months when my director stopped by my desk to... Read more
Categories: Blog | Regulatory | SecurityFor the second consecutive year, RIVA, the fully automated IV compounding system developed by Intelligent Hospital Systems (IH Systems), has been recognized as category leader in “Pharmacy automation: IV robots” by independent healthcare research firm KLAS. The top ranking was announced in its recent “2014 Best in KLAS: Medical Equipment & Infrastructure” report. RIVA’s overall... Read more
Categories: Announcements | Blogby Craig A. Boyce , RPh Over the past month, a number of regulatory changes have occurred surrounding aseptic and sterile compounding. Some of the significant regulatory actions include: FDA release of the cGMP Interim Guidance for Human Drug Compounding Outsourcing Facilities Under Section 503B of the FD&C Act (7-1-2014) Massachusetts passage and signing of... Read more
Categories: Blog | Regulatory | SafetyBy Niels Erik Hansen, PhD If ongoing news reports of pharmacy product contaminations, recalls and patient injuries aren’t enough to prompt reforms to reduce errors in the compounding of IV medications, a study published late last year — which shows the significant cost burden hospitals bear from IV medication errors — should be. The report,... Read more
Categories: Automation | Blog | Efficiency | ROI | Safety