Safety syringe wins Pharmacy Shark Tank

A three-pronged safety system aimed at cutting errors in medicine dosing in hospital settings has won the Pharmacy Shark Tank at PSA18.

Professor Lyndal Trevena has won the Pharmacy Shark Tank at PSA18 after impressing the panel of experts with her project team’s proposal for smart syringe system SetDose.

The judging panel of Sharks commented on how Professor Trevena’s winning idea ‘addressed a much-ignored problem with huge implications.’

NSW’s Professor Trevena and her team were awarded a combined $6,000 of prize money from the three Shark Tank Judges to bring their innovation a step closer to reality, which the team is aiming to trial in a hospital neonatal unit in late 2019.

With research indicating a rate of 1 in 5 dosage errors occurring in the paediatric hospital setting, the SetDose impressed judges in its incorporation of software, individually encoded keycards and a device that attaches to standardised syringes. The smart syringe system reduces errors in calculation, dispensing and administration of liquid medication dosing (both injectable and oral).

Crowd favourite Samuel Keitaanpaa MPS, of the Northern Territory, was presented with the People’s Choice Award for medicine supply tracking system VeriPharm. An electronic system that links physical medicine packets to their contents and creates a universal record of when stock is transferred between parties, it is aimed at identifying supply issues and investigating interventions where more cost-effective or efficient services can be implemented.

All three judges were impressed with Mr Keitaanpaa’s obvious passion and enthusiasm for improving the quality use of medicines.   

Victoria’s Michelle Cassumbhoy MPS and Carson Au MPS were also contenders, presenting their unique moisturising formulation containing a high concentration (10%) of colloidal oatmeal suspended in oat oil. Focusing on Ms Cassumbhoy’s work in the radiation oncology space, the pair saw the potential for the product to be trialled alongside the leading hospital-recommended moisturising regimen using sorbolene.

The panel congratulated all three finalists on their courage and dedication to bringing their projects to life.