- Monitoring Medications More Efficiently
- Administering the Right Dosage Every Time
- How RFID Labels Are Used
- Tracking Trends for Inventory Management
Sep 14, 2022Pharmaceutical and repackaging company Genixus is preparing to release the first of its RFID-enabled prefilled products for use in acute and critical healthcare. Its single-dose propofol syringes leverage the company's KinetiX ready-to-administer syringe platform and Kit Check's passive UHF RFID tags, reader stations and cloud-based registry, to help hospitals individually and automatically identify each unique product. The first 10-milliliter and 20-milliliter propofol syringe products will begin shipping later this year, the company reports, each with a passive UHF RFID tag embedded in its label.
Hospitals employing Kit Check's RFID reader technology can use the labels to track each medication dosage through the pharmacy to patients in operating rooms. KitCheck says hospitals leveraging the technology will have a better understanding of product usage, prevent recalled or expired products from reaching patients, and gain analytics that will enable inventory levels to be adjusted according to hospitals' needs.
Monitoring Medications More Efficiently
A KinetiX ready-to-administer syringe
Genixus calls itself a pharmaceutical company focused on transforming acute and critical care medicines. The business was launched in 2020 after its founder, Kendall Foster, visited a hospital ICU with his young daughter and watched anesthesia medications being administered with syringes labeled by hand. Foster says he wondered if there was a way to support clinicians with a more efficient and safer way to track and administer such medications.
The resulting company attained its federal repackaging and 503B outsourcing registration at its facility in North Carolina this year, says Seth Coombs, Genixus's cofounder and chief commercial officer, and it is now prepared to launch its first product for hospitals: two sizes of repackaged, ready-to-administer (RTA), single-dose propofol. The registration status, as well as the product's long-term shelf stability, enables the company to manufacture large batches of medications to be sold directly to clinics or hospitals that will then administer the drugs to patients.
Propofol is among the most commonly used medications in OR settings. More than 80 million units of propofol are purchased annually, and the drug is currently used to induce sedation in 90 percent of OR procedures at hospitals. It is an IV product, primarily intended for general anesthesia.
Administering the Right Dosage Every Time
The majority of injectable OR, ICU or emergency room medications are provided in RTA formats. The rest must be manipulated manually. Inventory management can be challenging for these drugs, Coombs says. "They have to procure those products and then they have to convert them for use in the hospital," he states. "What Genixus is trying to do is create simplicity in the acute and critical care space," he explains. "We saw opportunities to do that for clinicians so they can focus on patient care," rather than having to manually track inventory or measure out medications for patients.
Since the company's launch, Coombs says, "We've developed the product in conjunction with clinicians, getting their feedback on how we can make this product the best it can be." The goal, he says, was to help clinicians shift from the manipulation of products at bedsides to being able to focus on actual patient care. One benefit to the use of pre-packaged products is a matter of ergonomics. Propofol is difficult to remove from a vial, he says, and some clinicians may have to pull dosages out of vials via syringe 17 to 20 times a day, which could lead to injuries.
With RFID on every single-use container, an automated record can be captured, thereby creating greater visibility, according to Tim Kress-Spatz, Kit Check's co-founder. The company provides RFID tracking solutions for hospitals throughout North America, consisting of its reader workstations and registry, which provides an individual record for each product. Many such products contain propofol, Kress-Spatz says. Because most drug companies do not tag their products with RFID tags, many hospitals apply the tags themselves once the medicines arrive at their pharmacy.
How RFID Labels Are Used
Genixus leverages syringe barrels made from a durable polymer, as part of its KinetiX platform, which is assembled at the company's facility. Genixus worked with Kit Check to determine the best RFID labels to create an automated record of each product's usage and history, with the help of its KinetiX software and the Kit Check registry.
MPI Label Systems builds the RFID inlays into the product labels it sends to Genixus, each pre-encoded with an ID number. After the syringes are filled, they are moved through a Kit Check tunnel reader on a conveyor. At that time, each tag ID is linked to the corresponding lot and batch number in Kit Check's cloud-based registry. Many hospitals are already using the Kit Check system, and those that do can read the tags as products are received, placed in the RFID-enabled cabinet or cart, and removed for use in the OR. "How they're going to use it depends on them," Coombs states.
The registry platform, Kress-Spatz says, allows all Genixus upstream partners (hospitals) to skip the product-tagging process and ensure the tag is serialized without collision. The data can assist pharmacists with inventory counts, restocking and the locating of any products that may have been recalled or are due to expire.
Tracking Trends for Inventory Management
In the long term, Coombs says, many injectable products could benefit from the RTA format, which would leverage RFID. Not only can users locate individual medications in real time, but they can also collect historical data to improve inventory accuracy and appropriate levels. By tracking how often and when products are administered, for instance, they can better understand where the demand is. For Genixus, this information could help the company to forecast production and compensate for shortages, while hospitals can ensure they don't over- or under-stock medications.
Some Genixus customers may benefit from the pre-packaged propofol without using the RFID tags, Coombs notes. "Not every hospital in the country has Kit Check technology," he says, "but we looked at it as a way to make products better, and we incorporate RFID in all products, regardless, because we think it's beneficial." For its thousands of customers, Kress-Spatz adds, Kit Check's technology has provided some benefits for hospitals managing the high traffic of patients who'd postponed elective surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Propofol is the number-one drug Kit Check's products track, Kress-Spatz says, representing about 12 percent of the total units tagged. Hospitals using the technology can have more confidence in their inventory levels, he adds, "So it helps pharmacies with production schedules, and it helps them with better utilization of their inventory." Analytics could also help to guide hospitals with understanding dosage use.
Although 20-milliliter units are more commonly used on patients, when more dosage is required for patients, the 10-milliliter version could provide greater flexibility. "Some of the pharmacists we spoke to said they could see a lot of use of the 10 [milliliter] syringe, Coombs says, "simply because it'll be easier to store from a sizing standpoint. Others say 'I'm very used to the 20 [milliliter], but we'll see.'"
Key Takeaways:
- Genixus's first prepacked doses of propofol come with RFID technology to help hospitals track each item from receipt to administration in the OR.
- In the long term, the company intends to release more prepackaged products for healthcare customers, with RFID tags that can be tracked on the Kit Check registry.
