Cerner Receives FDA Clearance for CareAware iBus to Connect Devices and EHR Systems

The iBus is a further extension of the “smart room”. If you watch the video below it explains a bit more.

What I like is the big screen here, the older we all get, the bigger screen we like. It’s nice to see the electronic records show on a large screen as well. What is interesting to see now is also the roads crossing with both the FDA and CCHIT approved software interacting and the approval of both agencies contributing for certification/approval. I talk quite a bit about devices here and this is one more example of data being entered into a chart without human intervention in some portions, again seeming to be overlooked to a degree with meaningful use in my opinion.

All devices are now plug and play within the smart room and the CareAware system. I did a post back in 2008 about the Smart Room and by comparison, you can see how quickly technology has evolved here, much and many more features and conveniences that reported before. BD

Press Release:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jan. 11, 2009 — Thousands of medical devices are used in hospitals, physician offices and homes to help clinicians provide better care to patients. Medical devices are used to monitor patient vital signs, infuse medication and even help patients breathe. These devices capture important information about patient health, but oftentimes that information resides in disparate systems outside of the patient’s electronic health record (EHR). To solve this problem, Cerner (Nasdaq: CERN) created the CareAware® device connectivity architecture to connect medical devices to the EHR, enabling bi-directional data sharing between medical devices and the patient record. The Cerner CareAware iBus, a solution that connects medical devices to the EHR to support the entire care process, recently received 510(k) pre-market clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is now available in the United States and all U.S. territories.

“For the last two decades Cerner has been an active leader in developing device connectivity solutions,” said Tom Herzog, Cerner vice president for IT and healthcare devices. “In 2007, we launched the next generation of device connectivity solutions known as the CareAware MDBus™. Recently we expanded upon the architecture of the CareAware MDBus solution and are excited to introduce the Cerner CareAware iBus solution. The CareAware iBus solution is an interoperable platform developed in conjunction with our clients and certified device partners to create a standard for medical device connectivity, interoperability and workflow transformation.”

The Cerner CareAware iBus solution provides true plug-and-play capabilities for connecting any medical device to any EHR system. Once a device is connected to the Cerner CareAware iBus solution, it is immediately recognized and can begin transmitting data to the EHR. This connectivity architecture places the EHR at the center of all information created and stored on the patient to create a Single Source of Truth™. The solution also allows waveform data to be transmitted directly into the EHR. The Cerner CareAware iBus solution also provides the ability to correlate and trend various sources of information including various waveforms, heart rate and blood pressure. This trending information allows clinicians to analyze the patient’s data in the context of other clinically relevant data for a specific time period.

The Cerner CareAware iBus solution improves clinician workflow and improves patient safety by:

• Reducing the need for clinicians to manually enter device data into the EHR, allowing clinicians to spend more time on patient care and reducing the chance for transcription-related errors;
• Decreasing the chance of medication errors related to intravenous infusion via direct association of the patient, the infusion pump and the provider’s order from the EHR.
• Helping clinicians make informed decisions about patient care by providing them with access to up-to-date information about patient status gathered from multiple medical devices;
• Providing the ability to automatically perform calculations on data being provided by medical devices; and
• Reducing the amount of time clinicians spend on patient-to-device association, a process that happens through the plug-and-play connectivity feature of the Cerner CareAware iBus solution.

The Cerner CareAware iBus solution also allows a healthcare organization to efficiently manage the various medical devices deployed throughout its facilities. IT teams can use the solution to monitor device performance, connectivity status and device utilization all within one view.

Cerner will demonstrate the ability of the Cerner CareAware iBus solution to connect to multiple medical devices and EHRs at the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Connect-a-thon in Chicago, Ill., on Jan. 11-15.

About Cerner
Cerner is transforming healthcare by eliminating error, variance and waste for healthcare providers and consumers around the world. Cerner® solutions optimize processes for healthcare organizations ranging in size from single-doctor practices, to health systems, to entire countries, for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, and for the healthcare commerce system. These solutions are licensed by more than 8,000 facilities around the world, including approximately 2,100 hospitals; 3,300 physician practices covering more than 30,000 physicians; 500 ambulatory facilities, such as laboratories, ambulatory centers, cardiac facilities, radiology clinics and surgery centers; 600 home-health facilities; and 1,500 retail pharmacies. The trademarks, service marks and logos (collectively, the "Marks") set forth herein are registered and unregistered trademarks and/or service marks owned by Cerner Corporation in the United States and certain other countries throughout the world. Nasdaq: CERN. For more information about Cerner, please visit our Web site at www.cerner.com.