Patent Issued for Insulin Pen Smart Administration And Teaching Device (USPTO 10,910,092)

2021 FEB 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Hospital & Nursing Home Daily -- Cerner Innovation Inc. (Kansas City, Kansas, United States) has been issued patent number 10,910,092, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventor is Portnoy, Alan Mark (Exton, PA).

This patent was filed on May 20, 2019 and was published online on February 15, 2021.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Administration of insulin via insulin pens has been widely accepted by patients and providers in the ambulatory setting, and in recent years, the inpatient acute care setting as well. Insulin pens offer several advantages over the traditional insulin vial and syringe. A greater degree of comfort at the injection site and ease of use for the patient provide a better experience. Further, a dial on the insulin pen enables dose selection and makes dose accuracy more precise. Also, a cover or shield provides protection of the needles and helps reduce contamination and prevent needle sticks of healthcare personnel. Further, initiation and education on the use of the insulin pen, during the acute care hospital visit, improves the transition to use in the home/ambulatory setting. Numerous studies have demonstrated that the use of insulin pens in the acute care setting is beneficial to both patients and providers.

“However, the use of insulin pens in the acute care setting has also created problems that are unique to this care venue and are not necessarily observed in the ambulatory setting. For example, managing blood glucose control in the hospital setting is more fluid and dynamic due to rapidly changing patient conditions. Consequently, frequent dose changes are common and can require multiple insulin products and dosing regimens. Some regimens require different dosing schemas even with the same insulin product. These complexities have resulted in numerous medication errors and patient safety concerns. The use of barcode medication administration (BCMA) applications has reduced the incidence of insulin administration errors. However, current systems still depend on the clinician manually confirming or keying in the dose of insulin administered. There is no direct integration between the insulin pen administration device (pen or syringe) and the BCMA application.

“Further, when using BCMA applications, multiple dosing regimens with the same insulin product require multiple labels and barcodes to be placed on a single insulin pen. This results in confusion for the clinician and requires each new pen to be re-labeled with multiple labels.

“Insulin pens are designed for single patient use; however, there have been numerous reports of insulin pens being shared between patients in the hospital setting resulting in cross-contamination and infection control concerns. This problem is frequently attributed to poor practices by healthcare providers.

“Other solutions available in the ambulatory setting have attempted to add a processor unit to the inulin pen itself. This provides dosing regimen information to the end user. However, these insulin pen administration devices do not address the multiple regimens that are often required in the hospital setting, do not prevent the clinician from administering the same syringe to multiple patients, and do not integrate directly with BCMA and electronic health record (EHR) applications.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent: “This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. The present invention is defined by the claims.

“In brief and at a high level, this disclosure describes, among other things, methods, systems, and computer-storage media for insulin pen association. A stand-alone insulin pen administration device integrates with BCMA and EHR systems and also operates independently as an insulin administration patient educational tool. The insulin pen administration device contains a library of insulin products, unique identifiers that allow the pen administration device to identify the correct product (e.g., insulin pen), size, and concentration when the insulin pen is scanned and loaded into the pen administration device or administered to the patient. Additionally, approved insulin protocols (i.e. sliding scales) can be entered into the pen administration device to allow for administration of insulin when these protocols are ordered.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. An insulin pen administration device comprising: a plurality of channels in the insulin pen administration device, each channel of the plurality of channels having a crossbar and a swing arm that locks an insulin pen into a corresponding channel of the plurality of channels preventing unauthorized removal or incorrect insulin pen removal; and a controller cap that attaches to a dosing knob end of an insulin pen and is communicatively coupled to the insulin pen administration device.

“2. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving information corresponding to an insulin pen of an insulin pen administration device; receiving a user interaction at a function button beneath a channel of the insulin pen administration device; unlocking a crossbar of the insulin pen administration device to enable a user to swing the crossbar to an open position; receiving the insulin pen in the pen administration device; and locking the crossbar of the insulin pen administration device to prevent the user from swinging the crossbar to the open position and removing the insulin pen, wherein the insulin pen includes a controller cap that attaches to a dosing knob of the insulin pen; and providing an alert on a display of the insulin pen administration device if the insulin pen administration device has already been associated with a patient.

“3. The method of claim 2, further comprising displaying product information on a display of the insulin pen administration device to confirm a correct product has been selected.

“4. The method of claim 2, further comprising confirming the insulin pen and the channel has been calibrated.

“5. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving a selection of an insulin product to be administered.

“6. The method of claim 5, further comprising guiding the user to a correct channel on the insulin pen administration device via a visual indicator.

“7. The method of claim 2, further comprising accessing a patient, via a barcode medication administration (BCMA) application, to be associated with the insulin pen administration device.

“8. The method of claim 7, further comprising selecting, via the BCMA server, a first insulin order to be administered for the patient causing the BCMA server to enter a pairing mode.

“9. The method of claim 8, further comprising scanning, via a scanner associated with the BCMA server, a barcode identifier on an insulin pen administration device.

“10. The method of claim 9, further comprising communicating insulin order information from the BCMA server to the insulin pen administration device.

“11. The method of claim 2, further comprising prompting the user to disassociate the insulin pen administration device from the patient and clearing out prior data.

“12. The method of claim 11, further comprising requiring removal of insulin pen products secured in the insulin pen administration device.

“13. The method of claim 2, wherein the information is received from a scanned barcode attached to the insulin pen via a barcode reader attached to the insulin pen administration device.

“14. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving a selection of a prescribed dose by turning the controller cap on the insulin pen, wherein the controller cap attaches to the insulin pen administration device by a retractable I/O cable.

“15. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing an alarm if the user turns the controller cap past the prescribed dose.

“16. The method of claim 15, further comprising receiving confirmation of a dose administered of the insulin pen and communicating the confirmation to the BCMA server and an electronic health record.

“17. The method of claim 2, further comprising tracking administrations and quantities of insulin remaining in each the insulin pen and, upon a critical threshold being reached, providing a re-stock notification to a pharmacy application.

“18. The method of claim 2, wherein the pen administration device is operating in a teaching mode and quizzes the user by displaying different questions related to a dosing regimen via a display on the pen administration device.

“19. A system in a healthcare computing environment comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory computer storage medium storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by the processor, causes the processor to: accessing a patient, via a barcode medication administration (BCMA) server, to be associated with an insulin pen administration device; providing an alert on a display of the insulin pen administration device if the insulin pen administration device has already been associated with a patient other than the patient; selecting, via the BCMA server, a first insulin order to be administered for the patient causing the BCMA server to enter a pairing mode; scanning, via a scanner associated with the BCMA server, a barcode identifier on the insulin pen administration device; communicating insulin order information from the BCMA server to the insulin pen administration device; and unlocking a crossbar of the pen administration device to allow a clinician to swing the crossbar to an open position and remove an insulin pen corresponding to a selected insulin product to be administered, wherein the insulin pen includes a controller cap that attaches to a dosing knob of the insulin pen.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Portnoy, Alan Mark. Insulin Pen Smart Administration And Teaching Device. U.S. Patent Number 10,910,092, filed May 20, 2019, and published online on February 15, 2021. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,910,092.PN.&OS=PN/10,910,092RS=PN/10,910,092

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