SUBMITTED By:

Furqan Aslam (Reg # 28733)

SUBMITTED To:

Syed Muhammad Hassan Zaidi

IQRA University Main Campus Karachi,

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to thank our teacher Syed Muhammad Hassan Zaidi who provided us this opportunity to learn, understand, and

enhance our knowledge and confidence in our abilities through his teachings.

He provided us with the knowledge about complex things in simple and easy manner. He also provided us utilize our knowledge by writing this report. It’s been a pleasure to be

his student.

Sincere Regards,Furqan Aslam

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

17th December, 2014S M Hassan ZaidiProject supervisor & Course Instructor Iqra University Dear Sir, With great pleasure we present to you; our final report on Latest Technology (MEDEYE), on 17th Dec 2014. This report on MEDEYE; is prepared keeping in mind Latest Technology. This report is prepared with our own collaboration that is why it might have some mistakes and you are most welcome to point them out so that we can learn and we do also want to apologize for the mistakes or errors.-------------------------------- Furqan Aslam (28733)

Introduction Latest Technology Founding Company

Mint Solutions Background

Breakthrough Innovation Current Situation

MINT Solutions Moving Forward

Researcher MIT (About)

Problems to be Solved Research

Systematic Approach Working

Feed back Vision for New

Technology MEDEYE Advantages

Ensure Medication Safety Saves Time

Easy to Implement Easy to Use

Reception & Investment Funding

Reference

INTRODUCTIONLATEST TECHNOLOGIES:Think of the most frustrating, intractable, or simply annoying problems you can imagine. Now think about what technology is doing to fix them. We’re looking for technologies that we believe will expand the scope of human possibilities.

FOUNDING COMPANY:

MINT Solutions:

Mint Solutions is a medical device company, specializing in medication safety solutions for healthcare institutions. The company was founded in 2009 by three MIT graduates and is now headquartered in Iceland. Mint Solutions is developing Med EYE, an innovative medication scanner for bedside medication verification.

Founders: Maria Runarsdottir, Gauti Reynisson,

Ivar HelgasonCategories: Hospitals, Health Care

Website: http://www.mint.isBoard Members: Hekla Arnardottir, Eva

ReichlInvestors: Seventure Partners, Life Sciences

Partners, NSA Ventures, Startupbootcamp

Background:Medication mistakes happen constantly: 1 in every 5 medication dosages is given incorrectly creating a problem of staggering scale. Across Europe and the US roughly 40 million dosages are delivered every single day and almost none are being verified, leading to a potential 3 billion errors a year.

Breakthrough Innovation:Mint Solutions’ first product MedEYE helps hospitals to increase quality, reduce costs, and save lives. Using state of the art computer vision, MedEYE verifies all medication in a single step – a revolution in closed loop verification that fits naturally into any hospital’s workflow.

Current Situation:Mint Solutions has secured the IP rights to its proprietary technology. MedEYE is currently being deployed in several hospitals and has already reduced costs and saved lives. 

Mint Solutions Moving Forward:After industrialization of our solution, MedEYE will be rolled out across Europe and the United States. Our vision is to end bed side medication errors across the world.

RESEARCHER:Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)About: The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century — whether the focus is cancer, energy, economics or literature.

PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED:Careless staff may explain why medication errors are more likely to occur in nursing

homes than for patients self-administering their medicines at home, research by the

Victorian Poisons Information Centre suggests.

A study of medication incidents involving 97 nursing home residents and over 600 people living at home found a significantly increased rate of medication error in nursing homes, caused by staffing issues such as carelessness, distraction, staff not following standard procedures or being unfamiliar with the patient.  Taking the wrong medication or someone else’s medications was more common in nursing homes, whereas in the home setting, errors were more likely to involve incorrect dosages.  However home cases had slightly higher rates of error for medications where, if taken in overdose, consequences could be considerable. These include bupropion, calcium channel blockers and tramadol, say the authors of the study in the Australia and NZ Journal of Public Health (33:388-94).  

Cases were reported of patients at home inadvertently taking cat or dog tablets, and oral ingestion of vaginal pessaries, suppositories and fish tank tablets.  None of the cases had a serious outcome but it was concerning that the errors in nursing homes were largely preventable and diverted legitimate use of healthcare resources elsewhere, the authors say.  

“The significant differences in the nature and causes of errors...likely reflect the differing

administrators and procedures. There is considerable scope for prevention initiatives. In

particular, attention should be directed to staffing, training and procedural issues within [nursing

homes],” they conclude.RESEARCH:MIT alumni entrepreneurs Gauti Reynisson MBA ’10 and Ívar Helgason HS ’08 spent the early 2000s working for companies that implemented medication-safety technologies — such as electronic-prescription and pill-barcoding systems — at hospitals in their native Iceland and other European countries.But all that time spent in hospitals soon opened their eyes to a major health care issue: Surprisingly often, patients receive the wrong

medications. Indeed, a 2006 report from the Institute of Medicine found that 1.5 million hospitalized patients in the United States experience medication errors every year due, in part, to drug-administration mistakes. Some cases have adverse or fatal results.Frustrated and seeking a solution, the Icelandic duo quit their careers and traveled to MIT for inspiration. There, they teamed up with María Rúnarsdóttir MBA ’08 and devised MedEYE,

“ a bedside medication-scanning system that uses computer vision to identify pills

and check them against medication records, to ensure that a patient gets the

right drug and dosage.”Commercialized through startup Mint Solutions, MedEYE has now been used for a year in hospitals in the Netherlands (where the startup is based), garnering significant attention from the medical community. Through this Dutch use, the co-founders have determined that roughly 10 percent of MedEYE’s scans catch medication errors.

“Medication verification is a pinnacle point of medical safety,”

says Helgason, a physician and product developer.

“It’s a complicated chain of events that leads up to medication mistakes. But the bedside is the last possible place to stop

these mistakes.”Mint Solutions’ aim, Reynisson says, is to aid nurses in rapidly, efficiently, and correctly administering medication.

“We want the device to be the nurse’s best friend,”

says Reynisson, now Mint’s CEO. The device, he adds, could yield savings by averting medication mishaps, which can cost hundreds of millions of dollars.Currently, the startup has raised $6 million in funding, and is ramping up production and working with a Dutch health care insurance company to bring the MedEYE to 15 hospitals across the country, as well as Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

SYSTEMATIC APPROACH:

To use the MedEYE — a foot-high box in a white housing — a nurse first scans a patient’s wristband, which has a barcode that accesses the patient’s electronic records. The nurse then pushes the assigned pills into the MedEYE via a sliding tray. Inside the device, a small camera scans the pills, rapidly identifying them by size, shape, color, and markings. Algorithms distinguish the pills by matching them against a database of nearly all pills in circulation.WORKING:

Although the hardware is impressive, much innovation is in MedEYE’s software, which cross-references (and updates) the results in the patient’s records. Results are listed in a simple interface: Color-coded boxes show if pills have been correctly prescribed (green), or are unknown or wrong (red). If a pill isn’t in MedEYE’s database — because it’s new, for instance — the system alerts the nurse, who adds the information into the software for next time.

“It does all the querying for the right medication, for the right patient, and takes care

of the paperwork,”Helgason says. “We save a lot of time for nurses

that way.”Similar systems exist for catching medication errors: About 15 years ago, some hospitals began using barcode systems — which Reynisson and Helgason actually helped install in some Dutch and German hospitals. These systems also require nurses to use a handheld scanner to scan a patient’s wristband, and then the imprinted barcodes on each pill container.

“But the hurdle has been getting these installed,” Reynisson says. “Companies sell

medications with barcodes, others sell software, or barcode scanners. Hospitals have to make all

these things work together, and it’s hard for small and medium hospitals to afford. No one is

selling turn-key   barcode systems.” That’s where MedEYE is truly unique, Helgason says: As an entire system that requires no change in a hospital’s workflow or logistics,“it’s more usable and more accessible in health

care facilities.”

FEEDBACK:Feedback from nurses using MedEYE to ease their workloads has been positive, Reynisson says. And errors are caught more often than expected. In fact, he recalls a memorable moment last year when a nurse at the Dutch hospital demonstrated the MedEYE for department heads on a random patient. The nurse scanned four pills, which had been assigned to the patient, and added an extra, erroneous pill to show how MedEYE caught errors.

“MedEYE showed the extra pill was incorrect. But, to his surprise, so were two other pills that the nurse had assumed were correct,

because another nurse had dispensed those,” Reynisson says. “Goes to show that even with full focus, it is common for nurses to be in a position where they are expected to catch

errors made in other parts of the medication-delivery process.”

VISION FOR NEW TECHNOLOGY:Helgason conceived of MedEYE while studying in the MIT-Harvard Health Sciences and Technology program. In a computer-vision class in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, he saw that advances in 3-D object-recognition technology meant computers could learn objects based on various characteristics.At the same time, he started taking heed of MIT’s burgeoning startup ecosystem, prompting him to contact his longtime medical-device colleague.

“I remember Ívar called me one day and said, ‘Gauti, you have to come to MIT: Everyone’s

starting companies,’” says Reynisson, a trained programmer who wrote early object-recognition code for the MedEYE.Seeking a change of pace from computer science, Reynisson enrolled in the MIT Sloan School of Management — where he saw that Helgason was right. “There was a spirit there, where you have to go for it, find a solution and market it, because if

you don’t, no one else will,” he says. “That attitude, and seeing others do it, really inspires

you to start a company and take the risk.”Mint launched in 2009 with an initial concept design for MedEYE. Entering that year’s MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition helped the three co-founders fine-tune their business plan and startup pitch, receiving help from mentors, professors, and even business-savvy students.

“That’s when we started to think of a business beyond the technology,” Reynisson says. “We

left with a fairly sizeable business plan to take to investors and get funding.”

The team felt unsure of the technology at first. But a 2010 demonstration at a Dutch hospital of an early prototype — a bulkier version of the MedEYE, with off-the-shelf parts, constructed at MIT — changed their perception. The hospital had to identify about 250 small, white pills of different medications that, in fact, all looked the same.

“We tried them all in our prototype at once, and it worked,” Reynisson says. “That’s when we realized what a change it would be for a hospital to collect data and important safety information, and get it fast and efficiently, without asking the nurse to pick up a pen.”

Mint Solution now has 40 MedEYE systems ready to deploy across Europe in the coming months, with hopes of gaining some client feedback. In the future, Reynisson says, the startup has its sights on developing additional medication-safety technologies.

“At the core of the startup is this belief that better information technology in hospitals can both increase efficiency and safety, and lead to better outcomes,” he says. “We’re starting

with verification of medication. But who knows what’s next?”

MEDEYE:

MedEYE is a revolutionary approach to medication safety in hospitals. MedEYE helps nurses work faster and safer by verifying all medications at once, even without barcodes, just before administration.

ENSURES MEDICATION SAFETY:

THE PATENT PENDING MEDEYE™ DEVICE ALLOWS FOR FAST AND RELIABLE MEDICATION IDENTIFICATION AND

VERIFICATION. THE MEDEYE™ SOLUTION FITS PERFECTLY WITH ANY WORKFLOW AND IT

INFRASTRUCTURE AND REQUIRES ALMOST NO TRAINING FOR THE USERS. SIMPLE, EASY,

PATIENT SAFETY.

Nurses must deliver the right medication to the right patient at the right time - but with increasing medication complexity and demands, mistakes are inevitable.Research has shown that more than half of mistakes can be prevented by implementing a simple bedside verification check, just before the medication is administered.

Some of the most common mistakes are: Right medication but the wrong patient Administering a medication for which the

prescription has recently been stopped Wrong medication delivered from

pharmacy because of similarities in names, the so-called "sound-a-likes and look-a-likes"

Not registering the administration of "as needed" medication, leading to incorrect dosing.

MedEYE can perform this check faster and more reliably than any other available solution. By checking all medications at once, at the patient's bedside, after the medication has been removed from the packaging, MedEYE eliminates virtually all preventable medication errors.

SAVES TIME:

NURSES PERFORM THEIR TASKS UNDER INTENSE TIME PRESSURE, WHERE MISTAKES CAN COST

LIVES.

Nurses perform their tasks under intense time pressure, where mistakes can cost lives. Handling medication is time consuming for nurses, accounting for up to 20% of the nurses workday. Nurses perform their this task with diligence, individually checking and double checking every medication which is given to the patient.With MedEYE, hospitals and healthcare institutions can now implement a safer and faster medication check. Both saving nurses' time and virtually eliminating the risk of medication errors during administration.MedEYE automatically checks all the medication at once. The nurse simply places all the medications in the MedEYE device and

everything is automatically checked and registered in one handling.

EASY TO IMPLEMENT:

MEDEYE CAN EITHER BE IMPLEMENTED AS A STANDALONE SOLUTION OR AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE EPRESCRIBING SYSTEM OF THE

HOSPITAL.Because MedEYE does not rely on any specific logistics or nursing processes, it can be easily implemented in any hospital. Nurses can start tomorrow and immediately start enjoying the benefits.

MedEYE can either be implemented as a standalone solution or as an integral part of the ePrescribing system of the hospital. Integration with existing IT systems is based on established standards and proven interfaces. Adding MedEYE to your IT infrastructure is straightforward - we will work with your existing CPOE or ePrescribing vendor to make transition seamless for users.EASY TO USE:

MEDEYE IS DESIGNED WITH THE NURSE IN MIND.

MedEYE is designed with the nurse in mind. With MedEYE, the nurse simply puts the medication into the device and gets a clear "ok" signal when all the medications are correct.If there is something to be adjusted, MedEYE provides simple, step by step instructions. Thanks to intuitive design, only quick training is required.MedEYE introduces only a minor change in workflow making roll-out and change management straightforward. The MedEYE software identifies, verifies and registers the medication.

RECEPTION & INVESTMENT FUNDING:“This financing is a significant milestone for Mint

Solutions” , said Gauti Reynisson, CEO and co- founder of Mint Solutions. “Response from hospitals has been very strong with many

reaching out directly to us to learn more about MedEYE. We now have the opportunity to get MedEYE in the hands of nurses in a number of

European hospitals. Our starting focus is on the Netherlands” .

MINT Solutions, a hardware startup that’s developed a scanning device designed to help hospital nurses ensure each patient gets the right medicine and the correct dosage, has pulled in a €4.425 million ($6 million) Series A funding round.The funding was led by European investment firm Life   Sciences Partners (LSP) and co-led by Seventure Partners, with participation from existing investors.Mint Solutions’ pill verification device, called MedEYE, uses computer vision to identify tablets placed in a drawer on the front of the unit — based on characteristics like the size, shape, colour and markings of individual pills (medicines are required by law to be distinct).The MedEYE system is designed to work with existing hospital workflow and IT infrastructure

— so, for instance, the nurse accesses the patient’s medical information via a wristband barcode system and is then able to cross-reference their prescription information with the dosage they are about to receive, getting the latter info by scanning their medicine with MedEYE.The aim is to improve medical safety in hospital by preventing errors whereby patients are given the wrong medicine or the wrong dosage of the right medicine — either of which can obviously have extremely serious consequences.It also aims to streamline the pill-dispensing process for nurses, with no need for individual tablets to carry a barcode or be scanned one by one.

References:http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/mint-solutions

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/08/MedEYE-series-a/http://www.agedcarecrisis.com/research/3636-staff-problems-behind-medication-errorshttp://mint.is/http://www.startupbootcamp.org/alumni/eindhoven-2013/mint-solutions.htmlhttp://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/startup-stops-drug-errors-0828http://startupjuncture.com/2014/07/08/medical-startup-mint-solutions/