Dutch startup MedEye uses AI to simplify medicine administration

MedEye, owned by the Dutch-Icelandic medical startup Mint Solutions Holding BV achieved a milestone of checking over 1 million medication dosages using the software’s AI-powered visual verification technology. The startup offers a combination of AI-based hardware and software to help nurses administer medicine. It comes with an intelligent scanner that lets a nurse put all of the medications for a patient in a disposable tray, scan in seconds and verify they are correct.

Second nurse

The system is also known as the ‘second nurse’ as nurses can use the system to figure out what medication patients are supposed to receive. It further verifies the medication down to the exact dose and handling all of the documentation required in the hospital information system.

Implementation in MedEye 10% of Dutch hospitals & expansion to the UK

MedEye has implemented its live system in several hospitals. These include Antonius Hospital in Sneek, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust, Nij Smellinghe hospital, and Interzorg, a housing, care, and services provider to the elderly.

“International research has shown that barcode control on its own can prevent 50% of administration errors, but for the other 50% we were looking for additional technologies that could help our nurses with these complex tasks. MedEye provides us with the right option with their photo recognition hardware and intelligent software. Together we are now developing advanced support for high-risk medication so that the risk of errors is reduced significantly,” said Hospital pharmacist, Dr. Michiel Duyvendak from Antonius.

Newcastle is the first hospital in the UK to try out MedEye. At the moment, MedEye is in ‘phased implementation’ meaning it is rolling out the system in various hospitals one after another. This helps the startup identify potential gaps in the ‘live’ environment of the software system.

How it works?

MedEye explains the system’s operations as follows.

“Health care workers make use of a mobile computer during their medication rounds. The computer is installed with a scanner specially developed by MedEye. Care workers use this to scan the client’s medication. The device verifies whether it is the correct medication. This guarantees that the correct patients will receive the right medication, in the right dose and at the right time”.

Raising €5 million (~$5.6M) Series B round

MedEye raised a €5 million (~$5.6M) Series B round back in Aug 2016. The startup previously raised €4.425M Series A funding round in July 2014.

The startup’s MedEye system was also nominated for participation in Accenture Innovation Awards in the category Health & Wellbeing in 2016.

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