Medovate announced its SAFIRA (SAFer injection for Regional Anaesthesia) has received an Innovative Technology contract from Vizient, a US’s member-driven healthcare performance improvement company.
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The contract has been awarded based on the recommendation of SAFIRA by hospital experts who serve on one of Vizient’s member-led, hospital and healthcare councils. SAFIRA was highlighted for its unique qualities, that potentially bring improvement to the healthcare industry.
This contract is awarded after review and interaction with the product submitted through Vizient’s “Innovative Technology Program” a program that creates visibility to innovative products and services. It is the Vizient members who identify technologies that have the potential to enhance clinical care, patient safety, healthcare worker safety or improve business operations of healthcare organisations.
The current regional anaesthesia procedure typically requires an assistant to inject the anaesthetic whilst the anaesthetist uses ultrasound guidance to place the needle. SAFIRA is a novel technology, developed alongside specialist anaesthesia clinicians in the NHS, designed to reduce the risk of nerve injury during regional anaesthesia.
The SAFIRA system automatically limits injection pressure to a specified threshold to help reduce the risk of nerve injury and improve patient safety. In addition, SAFIRA transforms regional anaesthesia into a one-person procedure by enabling anaesthetists to conduct the entire nerve block process.
Making regional anaesthesia a single-operator procedure further supports the effective application of resources by enabling the anaesthetist to take full control of the injection process, removing the need for a second operator, freeing up nursing staff to carry out other critical tasks.
Stuart Thomson, managing director at Medovate, said: “We are excited to announce that our SAFIRA system is now available through one of the largest national GPO programmes in the USA. This is really positive news for Medovate as it helps streamline the purchase of SAFIRA for healthcare organisations delivering services and treatments which use regional anaesthesia, such as ambulatory care and surgical centres. It is a great opportunity to increase the availability of our game-changing technology to regional anaesthesia practitioners in the USA to help improve patient safety during peripheral nerve blocks.”
Kelly Flaharty, senior director of contract services for Vizient, added: “Congratulations to Medovate for being awarded an Innovative Technology contract. Our member council recommended SAFIRA for this contract based on the efficiencies it offers and its potential to make an incremental difference in healthcare.”
Vizient represents a diverse membership base that includes academic medical centres, paediatric facilities, community hospitals, integrated health delivery networks and non-acute healthcare providers and represents more than $130 billion in annual purchasing volume.
Through its Innovative Technology Program, Vizient works with member-led councils and task forces to evaluate products for their potential to bring real innovation to healthcare. Vizient may award a contract to products deemed worthy of the Innovative Technology designation outside of the competitive bid cycle.
