Background

To exercise tighter control of the medication process, hospitals have begun to take advantage of new medication safety systems for unit dose distribution, pharmacy automation and computerized order entry.  However, until recently, no technology safeguards were in place for what is almost certainly the most vulnerable point in the process, where medications are actually administered to patients.  Now with the release of the MedPoint Medication Management System, featuring a bedside sentry station developed by Speck Design that last gap is finally being addressed

Challenge

Although Bridge Medical knew it had the necessary expertise to develop software for drug monitoring and verification, building an inexpensive touch-screen bedside system was another matter.  Bridge needed help and needed it fast.  In fact, the company wanted to be ready to go to market within just six months.  So they turned to Speck Design.  The challenge for Speck Design was to develop a cost-effective, flexible and readily expandable architecture for the bedside computer, while also creating an industrial design that would be intuitively natural and ergonomically friendly for nurses.

Solution

Meeting Bridge Medical's aggressive pricing targets and development schedule meant using off-the-shelf components, a fairly significant departure in a field where monolithic device design is generally the rule.  Besides accelerating development, that bit of independent thinking also yielded a system that can be readily adapted to take advantage of emerging technologies.  In addition to the system architecture, we designed the system's complete mechanical enclosure, including sheet metal chassis and plastic housing.  To accelerate the review of all these designs, 3D CAD and thermal study files were regularly exchanged with Bridge Medical's internal engineering team.  In a similar fashion, Speck Design worked with the client to refine an industrial design providing for easy integration with a cart already available to Bridge Medical's customers while also creating a mount for attaching the system directly to patient bedsides.

Results

Speck Design's ability to move forward rapidly on multiple design fronts concurrently made it possible for Bridge Medical to get its product to market on time.  More importantly, as a result, MedPoint Medication Management Systems are in use today in medical centers around the world, working to prevent adverse drug events that could otherwise cause patients serious harm.

PROJECT INFO

• Client:

  Bridge Medical

• Project:

  Medication Management System

• Industry:

  Medical