OR Medication Safety Tool Wins FHIR App Competition

A real-time medication safety software platform for the operating room was awarded first place at the AMIA/HL7 FHIR App Competition at the 2023 AMIA Annual Symposium. 

The competition, sponsored in part by Leap of Faith Technologies, showcases the best and most innovative software applications in real-world practice that use the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources. 

Karen C. Nanji, M.D., M.P.H., co-founder of Guided Clinical Solutions and an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, demonstrated GuidedOR alongside nine other finalists, and GuidedOR was selected by conference attendees as the First Place winner.

GuidedOR says it is fully integrated with clinical systems and runs on operating room computers to provide real-time critical safety checks as clinicians administer medications to patients. When clinicians scan medication barcodes, GuidedOR provides patient-specific information including recommended doses based on the patient's age, weight or medical history, and alerts for allergies or other critical problems. GuidedOR then sends the medication information to the electronic health record for automated documentation. The company says this improves OR efficiency and saving 20 percent of clinicians' time. It also reminds clinicians of important medications or tests that may have been missed.

The standard safeguards to prevent medication errors that exist elsewhere in the hospital are not available in the operating room due to the fast-paced nature of the operating room and the patient condition, which can change rapidly during surgery. As a result, about 1 in 25 medication administrations in the operating room involves a medication error. Due to the large number of medications administered during surgery, this means that 40 percent of operations involve at least one medication error, according to GuidedOR.

"This is an exciting time for GuidedOR to be recognized, especially in light of new guidelines from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices and the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation recommending the use of point-of-care safety checks with clinical decision support software like GuidedOR," said Nanji, in a statement "Medication safety in the OR is a high-priority issue, and we are honored to receive this award as we begin implementing GuidedOR at hospitals across the U.S.”