Perceptimed Awarded NIH Development Grant

PERCEPTIMED AWARDED $1.5M NIH DEVELOPMENT GRANT

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – PerceptiMed, Inc., was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop and test a secure, individual medication system for long-term care facilities.  Dr. Alan Jacobs, CEO and founder of PerceptiMed will serve as the principal investor and scientific leader.  Co-investigators on the grant are Amy A. Vogelsmeier, Ph.D., RN, assistant professor at the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing; and Dr. Eric Poon, associate professor of medicine and vice president and chief medical information officer at Boston Medical Center.

As specified by the grant, PerceptiMed will develop and test an individual locking med-pass system that will leverage the company’s proprietary vision technology and IdentRx medication verification device.

According to Dr. Jacobs, “Our point-of-care medication administration system will greatly improve medication safety by virtually eliminating the margin of human error in medication dispensing in long-term care facilities.  Patients will no longer need to rely on staff vigilance or memory to ensure they receive the right drugs, dosage and quantity during each med-pass cycle.  Our automated system will also improve workflow and provide physicians with a complete history of each medication dispensed to each patient.  Information that is essential to the optimal medical care of patients.”

Medication errors injure more than 1.5 million people each year.  More than 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries occur in hospitals; more than 800,000 occur in long-term care facilities.   One in every 28 pills dispensed is either the wrong drug, the wrong dosage or delivered to the wrong patient (Barker et al, 2002).  The average patient in a nursing home takes between six and nine pills on a daily scheduled basis, with an average of 2.6 additional “as needed” medications (Tobias and Sey).

The widespread adoption of electronic prescribing systems and medication administration records (eMAR) has opened the door for the development and deployment of new technologies that address errors associated with the administration of medications.  Specialized packaging that ensures appropriate delivery of prescribed medication can help mitigate medication errors across the board.