Rx Safes, Inc., the developer of autonomous fingerprint healthcare security products, announced that it has acquired intellectual property rights to a Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) control switch (called a pendant) that allows only authorized patients and healthcare workers the ability to dispense doses of controlled substances through PCA pumps. The company today announced the introduction of the SafeDOSE product to the professional healthcare community and will be immediately filing for 510K certification with the FDA.
The company’s founders were involved in the early development of this product and now the company has secured ownership of all of the intellectual property in connection with the newly rebranded SafeDOSE. The SafeDOSE product is a patient controlled analgesia pendant that is biometrically enabled so only authorized patients and caregivers, once authenticated by the pendant, can dispense additional doses of pain medication. “Rx Safes is an emerging leader in the area of healthcare biometrics and is the only company taking steps to secure potentially dangerous medications both at home and in professional healthcare settings, using its autonomous fingerprint technology. Rx Safes’ intellectual property provides the foundation for use of autonomous fingerprint technology in the SafeDOSE product, and we are very pleased with our continuing partnership with Rx Safes to bring this product to market,” noted Dr. Bill Quirk, Chief Medical Officer of Patient Safety Devices, LLC.
Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) has considerable potential to improve pain management for patients, allowing them to self-administer more frequent but smaller doses of analgesia. When used as intended, PCA actually reduces the risk of over-sedation, which is an unintended consequence of the more traditional method of nurse-administered analgesia in larger, less frequent doses. However, concerns have been identified in the last few years regarding the hazards of PCA by Proxy. Current PCA pendants offer no control of access, allowing nurses and family members the ability to activate the PCA pump on behalf of the patient. Overdoses of medication and fatalities have occurred due to this practice.
“The SafeDOSE product enhances patient safety by providing another needed level of security in order to manage PCA by Proxy. Current pendants allow anyone to administer drugs to the patient without any controls or authorization. This is a growing problem and SafeDOSE prevents this unauthorized access,” noted Lorraine Yarde, CEO of Rx Safes, Inc.
The global PCA pump and accessories market was valued at over $7 billion in 2013.
“There are over 6 million PCA pumps in use in hospitals and assisted living facilities in the US alone and the current pendants have an average life of 12 months. With the risks associated with PCA by Proxy, we believe the SafeDOSE product provides a significantly more secure option than the current pendants offered by the leading manufacturers, which include HOSPIRA, BAXTER, SMITH MEDICAL and ABBOTT. The SafeDOSE product is universal and by changing a simple connector, can work with all of these manufacturers’ pumps,” Ms. Yarde added.
Our unique and intellectually protected approach in applying our autonomous fingerprint technology to secure the dispensing of medications with the SafeDOSE product is a powerful example of our commitment as a company to provide products and technology which prevent potential abuse, diversion and misuse of medications both at home and in professional healthcare settings. The acquisition of these exclusive intellectual rights confirms the company’s continued commitment to build our intellectual property portfolio as we identify and develop new products for the healthcare market.
“Through our growing patent portfolio, we strengthen our ability to protect our innovative product’s from competition as we continue to establish Rx Safes, Inc. as the trusted brand in autonomous fingerprint products for healthcare,” concluded Ms. Yarde.
