At every INS Annual Meeting, the exhibit hall is the one of the highlights of the week.  I am very grateful to all the vendors who were there and were always willing to educate us on their products. This helps us contribute greatly to patient care and safety.

As I always do, here’s my disclaimer –  there were many different products represented there and  as the owner of this blog, I reserve the right to point out the ones that caught my attention. For disclosure purposes, I was not paid to write this post  and have no relationship whatsoever with these companies, nor am I endorsing the products. This is my blog, my opinions and not of the Infusion Nurses Society and is just FYI.

This post will feature two new products that caught my attention. Two innovative devices that will perhaps reduce or eliminate complications such as infiltration, extravasation and air embolism.

1. AirPurge System – a device that detects and removes air in intravenous lines. It is designed to extract air bubbles in patients’ IV lines as small as 25 microliters at high or low flow rates. It a stand alone device that removes air bubbles without hindering IV flow when infusing IV fluids, blood and blood products. Air embolism according to their representatives is number 2 on the CMS list of hospital acquired conditions, although it is unclear if the air embolism is just from vascular access devices. It is important to note that this is not an infusion pump but it can restore flow rate if you have set the pump or infusing by gravity. The product is made by Anesthesia Safety Products and have been used successfully in the operating rooms and PACUs. For more information, visit their website – http://www.aspamerica.com/products/airpurge-system/

2. IVwatch – a device that provides continuous monitoring of peripheral IVs on the forearm and back of the hand and can aid clinicians in the early detection of infiltration and extravasation of visually clear infusates. This device consists of a patient monitor, an optical sensor cable, and a small disposable receptacle for attaching the sensor to the patient’s skin near the IV site. A proprietary signal processing algorithm is tuned for maximum sensitivity, while minimizing false alarms. For more information, check out this link for a video of this product. Their website is http://www.ivwatch.com

http://www.ivwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/VideoTwo_4_1_15.mp4?_=1