Indication labels nominated for innovations award
The short-listed eye drop holder is based on an idea from two pharmacists |
An indication labelling system for repeat prescriptions is among the 35 innovations shortlisted for the 2005 Medical
Futures Innovations Awards, it was announced last week.
Nigel Masters, a GP in Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire, has developed a system
which tells patients, both on the repeat prescription request form and
on the prescription itself, what their medicines are for. For instance,
atenolol tablets might have the dose and indication written as “take
one each morning to lower blood pressure”. Dr Masters suggests
that pharmacists also record the clinical indication with the patients’ directions
on the dispensed medicine.
As well as helping patients understand what their medicines are for,
the indication labelling also shows other health care staff what condition
a patient is taking a given medicine for and may decrease the risk of
the wrong drug being prescribed.
The short list also includes an eye drop bottle holder, designed by a
medical device manufacturer in Huddersfield.
The original idea for the holder came, over ten years ago, from Grampian
pharmacists Arthur Winfield and Arthur Williams, who were seeing increasing
numbers of elderly patients being prescribed eye drops and having difficulty
with them.
The holder is shaped to fit against the eye and, with a gentle squeeze,
it administers a single drop straight into the eye, helping
patients who find standard eye drop bottles fiddly to use.
A tubing connection system designed to reduce inapproriate drug delivery
has also been nominated. The tubes are shaped so that, for example, delivery
systems for intrathecal drugs cannot be connected to an intravenous drip.
The finalists were chosen from over 1,100 entries. The winners will receive
their awards at the Medical Futures gala charity dinner in November.
They will receive financial and industry support to bring new products
and services to market. |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
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