October 19, 2007 - Medical Decisions Network (MDN) said yesterday it received FDA 510(k) clearance for its MDN-CGS IV Insulin Dosing Software for use by hospital nurses to quickly and accurately calculate the dosage of intravenous insulin administered to patients with elevated levels of blood glucose.
More hospitals are adopting measures to control elevated glucose levels (commonly referred to as diabetes or hyperglycemia) in critical care units because studies have shown a resulting marked improvement in patient outcomes. These improvements include reduced mortality, length of stay, rate of infection, and a variety of other risks.
"Based on what we've seen so far, by automating our insulin dosing protocol with the MDN-CGS software, we expect to see a decrease in length of stay of one day and up to a 50 percent decrease in mortality in our hyperglycemic ICU patients," said Gary Stouder, M.D., at Indiana's Hancock Regional Hospita.l
Currently, hospitals rely on printed procedures to calculate IV insulin dosage based on hyperglycemic patients' varying glucose levels. More frequent glucose tests - as many as one or more per hour for tightly controlled ICU patients - burden the already overextended nurses. The company says computerizing these calculations and providing automated patient reports may not only improve glucose control and save critical time and resources, but may reduce potentially dangerous dosing calculation errors as well.
The MDN CGS is a networked application, accessible from any computer on a hospital's network. This means that clinicians can continue a patient's infusion progress even when the patient is moved to a new unit.
For more information: www.mdnoutcomes.net