Tech Product News

Gold Standard/Elsevier (Tampa, FL) has launched its MedCounselor Consumer Drug Information Modules, which help pharmacists to ensure that their patients have access to medication education and safety information. Created specifically for pharmacies and health information Web sites, MedCounselor informs patients about how to safely take their medications, helps them to identify unknown tablets or capsules, and checks for drug interactions. Including regularly updated drug information for all commonly prescribed US medications, MedCounselor also provides hard-to-find facts on herbal remedies, vitamins, and OTC products. It not only screens for interactions between prescription, OTC, and herbal and nutritional products, but also checks for food, caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco interactions. The interactions are ranked by severity, allowing the safety alerts to be prioritized by patients. MedCounselor’s Drug Identifier feature helps patients to identify unknown tablets or capsules through a search function that recognizes markings, shape, and color of the medication in question, and then provides results with product descriptions and full-color images. The modules can be integrated with a pharmacy’s existing Web site. For more information, visit www.goldstandard.com.

New Training Modules Ensure Clean Compounding

CriticalPoint (Gaithersburg, MD) and Baxa Corporation (Englewood, CO) have released 7 new training modules offered in the CriticalPoint Virtual Compounder training series. With the new additions, the available training now encompasses 10 self-paced, interactive modules that are approved by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) and provide participants a total of 10 hours of ACPE credit. The comprehensive lessons contained in the modules allow users to become fully proficient in USP 797 sterile compounding concepts, including daily cleaning activities, monthly cleaning activities, hazardous spill cleanup, biological safety cabinet cleaning, compounding aseptic containment isolator cleaning, compounding aseptic isolator cleaning, performing volumetric air sampling, garbing and gowning, solution preparation, and laminar airflow workbench cleaning. The software also includes a Learning Management System, which makes it easy for pharmacy managers to track personnel training progress. For more information on the CriticalPoint Virtual Compounder training series, visit www.baxa.com/criticalpoint.

(Johnson City, NY) recently unveiled its new and enhanced PharmASSIST SmartCabinet counting technology. This next-generation SmartCabinet incorporates a high-resolution, touch screen display, a tuck-away keyboard and mouse drawer, and 46 independently operating tablet and capsule dispensers, all of which count prescriptions simultaneously. The system maintains its original features of having the smallest footprint in the industry at 3 square feet and the highest individual dispenser capacity, at 800 cc, as well as on-site dispenser calibration and computer-controlled, locked hopper doors. Pharmacies have the option of expanding the capacity of their PharmASSIST SmartCabinet system by adding individual Standard Cabinets, each of which comes with 50 dispensers and the same small footprint, or transfering their existing SmartCabinet system to PharmASSIST Symphony+ or PharmASSIST ROBOTx. For further information on the new and improved PharmASSIST SmartCabinet, visit www.innovat.com.

Biomeasure Helps Patients Track Health, Creates Revenue

Glenview Health Systems’ (Glenview, IL) Biomeasure Adult Measuring System allows patients to track their health and fitness progress while creating a virtually effortless source of revenue for pharmacies. The device measures height, weight, body mass index (BMI), and body fat percentage, then displays the data on an LCD screen and prints it out on a customizable ticket. Aside from its scale platform, the self-calibrating Biomeasure Adult Measuring System has an ultrasonic height-measuring mechanism. A keypad allows users to input basic information into the system before grasping handles on each side, which are used to calculate the impedance between handles, determining body fat percentage. Thermal printed tickets show the time, date, weight, height, BMI, recommended weight, and body fat percentage. The tickets can be customized to include advertisements or marketing messages. A smart card option maintains and prints a personal record of a patient’s past 10 measurements, and the device accepts rechargeable, custom printed smart cards. For more information, visit www.biomeasure.net.