Researchers at the University Hospital of Granada belonging to the Institute of Biosanitary Research Granada (ibs.GRANADA) have developed, in collaboration with the Granada based company Naranjo Intelligent Solutions (NIS), an intelligent system to improve the efficiency and safety of medication dispensing processes and consumables in hospitals, called iPharma .
The new system consists of some electronic devices and software that uses artificial intelligence, which, from the prescription, identifies the drug and the patient that should receive it. This allows to record electronically this information for their preparation. In addition, the new system is able to automatically control the stock of each drug, something that previously had to be done manually by the workers at the pharmacy.
So far, the dispensing of medicines and consumables in hospitals is done manually. The operator of the pharmacy was in charge of finding drugs and fill in the boxes for each patient with the right dose. “In a hospital pharmacy this process can be repeated up to 3,000 times a day, with the respective tiredness that this causes in the workers,” said Pablo Alvarez, head of Innovation and Transfer of Ibs. Granada. “The new system simplifies the work and reduces the possibility of errors in dispensing drugs.”
This innovative system has been patented by the SAS and NIS through the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer for Biomedical Research of Eastern Andalusia (FIBAO). and it is noteworthy that NIS has received the award for best Spin-Off of the UGR and the Andalucía Emprende award for the province of Granada for this start-up project. “It is a successful example of public-private partnership, in which the patent has been licensed to NIS in exchange for secured royalties” has said Alvarez from Ibs.Granada “We have managed the patent protecting these innovations which is very important because also generate local employment.”
At the moment, public hospitals in the province of Granada are interested in its implementation, having been the first to know. But it’s raised its extension to hospitals of the Andalusian Public Healthcare System and private hospitals as well as social and health centers. Progressively, they want to open to the other autonomous communities of Spain , and are currently studying other markets by extending the patent internationally in 146 countries.
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