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Special thanks to IBD Online for the following article. A portion follows:
SABRATEK CORP. Niles, Illinois Drug
Infusion Pumps Cut Costs Via Modem
Date: 2/11/97
Author: By Laura B. Benko
A woman with a back injury is suffering from severe chronic pain. Her
doctor decides that a higher dosage of morphine is needed, so he
reprograms the woman's bedside intravenous pump to deliver more of the
drug into her arm.
It's the kind of consultation that takes place in medicine all the time. But in
this case, the patient and pump are at home. The doctor is at the Cleveland
Clinic 20 miles away. They interact via telephone modem.
Sabratek Corp. is pioneering this technique, called telemedicine, for
infusion therapy. The goal is to help doctors and clinics ensure proper care
while cutting down on costly house calls.
''Our mission is to build a virtual hospital room . . . where certain kinds of
health care are delivered and monitored from remote sites,'' said company
CEO Shan Padda.
Sabratek makes infusion pumps for use in ''alternate sites,'' including
nursing homes, outpatient centers and patients' homes. Infusion pumps
deliver fluids, such as cancer drugs, antibiotics and nutrition, into patients
intravenously.
What makes the pumps unique are their modem capabilities. Using the
company's interactive software, called MediView, doctors can control the
pumps and track patients' progress from a PC at the hospital. The software
stores six months of data per person.
It gives patients a sense of security, reassures nurses that their patients are
getting proper care between their regular visits, and helps HMOs verify the
services they're being billed for are actually being provided, he said.
The system also helps alternate sites save a lot of money by cutting ''soft
costs'' - namely, nurse training and travel time. Typically, pumps and drugs
account for just 35% of the total cost of infusion therapy. The remaining
65% is soft costs.
The alternate-site market is mushrooming now that managed-care
companies are treating more patients in lower-cost settings instead of
hospitals. These sites are expected to spend $7.9 billion on infusion
therapy this year, up from just $3.2 billion in 1992. Sales should continue
to grow roughly 20% a year through 2000, analysts said.
In September, it inked an exclusive, five-year deal to provide pumps and
software to Omnicare Inc., the nation's largest provider of pharmacy
services to the outpatient market. In December, it won a three-year
contract from the Cleveland Clinic's pain management program.
'
Sabratek is also working on devices that let doctors use MediView to
monitor patients' vital signs - temperature, pulse, blood pressure and
blood-gas levels. The first of these could hit the market in 1998, Padda
said.
Currently, Sabratek's main products include the 3030 stationary pump for
bedridden patients and the 6060 ambulatory pump, which mobile patients
can carry on their belts or in a shoulder pouch. Recently, the company
launched a new diagnostic device, called the PumpMaster, which tests and
recalibrates pumps so that clinics don't have to send them to labs for
servicing.
The company has 10,000 pumps installed worldwide, with 20% of its sales
abroad. Each pump costs roughly $4,000.
Several big-name companies, such as Abbott Laboratories, Baxter
International Inc., Ivac Corp. and Sims Deltec Inc. , make infusion
systems, too. But Sabratek's focus on telemedicine could give it a leg up on
the competition, Wise said.
Sabratek raised $28 million in June through an initial public offering of
roughly three million shares. Its stock has almost doubled to about 20 since
then. The shares trade by SBTK.
(C) Copyright 1997 Investors Business Daily, Inc.
Any and all comments/contributions are appreciated.
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