Dosage verification system and method for safety syringe
A dosage verification system for use prior to administering an injection of a medicinal fluid drawn into a medical syringe, the system comprising a medical syringe having a barrel with an outwardly facing, flat indicia display surface, plunger having a plunger seal disposed inside and slidably engaging an inwardly facing wall of the barrel and a plunger handle projecting rearwardly from the barrel, and a hypodermic needle projecting forwardly from the barrel, all in combination with an imaging device configured to view and selectively capture, store or transmit a digital image of the plunger position relative to the barrel when a dose of the medicinal fluid is drawn into the fluid chamber of the barrel prior to an injection to verify and provide a record of the dosage drawn, and to alert a user prior to injection when an incorrect dosage is drawn into the fluid chamber of the syringe.
1 . A syringe dosage verification system for use prior to administering an injection of a medicinal fluid, the system comprising:
a medical syringe comprising a transparent barrel having a cylindrical fluid chamber and an outwardly facing flat indicia display surface, a plunger handle having a plunger seal slidably engaging the cylindrical fluid chamber, and a forwardly projecting hypodermic needle, wherein an entirety of a volumetric scale and associated numeric indicia are disposed on the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface between a finger flange and a nose of the barrel; and
an imaging device configured to view and selectively capture a digital image of the forwardly extending end of the plunger seal as positioned inside the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel in relation to the entirety of the volumetric scale and the associated numeric indicia disposed on the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface between the finger flange and the nose of the barrel when a volumetric dosage of the medicinal fluid is drawn into the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel and when at least a portion of the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface and the entirety of the volumetric scale and the associated numeric indicia dispose on the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface between the finger flange and the nose of the barrel are disposed within a field of view of the imaging device to determine the volumetric dosage of the medicinal fluid drawn into the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel prior to administering the injection of the medicinal fluid.
2 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 1 , wherein the imaging device is a mobile imaging device.
3 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 2 , wherein the mobile imaging device is a cellular telephone.
4 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 2 , wherein the mobile imaging device is a digital scanner.
5 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 2 , wherein the imaging device is configured by downloading and installing application software on the imaging device.
6 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 5 , wherein the application software is configured to generate an alert to notify a user if the fluid dosage drawn into the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel is not correct.
7 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 6 , wherein the alert is at least one of an audio alert, a visual alert, and a tactile alert.
8 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 7 , wherein an alert generation device is configured to generate the alert.
9 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 1 , further comprising: a comparator configured to determine whether the dosage drawn into the medical syringe is within a permissible range of deviations from a predetermined value.
10 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 9 , wherein the comparator is configured to notify a user of an incorrect fluid dosage drawn into the medical syringe.
11 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 1 , wherein the medical syringe comprises at least one needle safety device configured to protect a user or a third party from an accidental needle stick.
12 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one needle safety device comprises a mechanism that selectively retracts the hypodermic needle into a needle retraction chamber that is integrally molded with the cylindrical fluid chamber and the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface following use.
13 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 11 , wherein the hypodermic needle has a forwardly extending needle tip, and wherein the needle safety device comprises a needle safety shield that is forwardly moveable by the user to cover the forwardly extending needle tip of the hypodermic needle following use.
14 . A syringe dosage verification system for use prior to administering an injection of a medicinal fluid, the system comprising:
a medical syringe comprising:
a barrel having a nose, a finger flange, an outwardly facing flat indicia display surface disposed between the nose and the finger flange, and an inwardly facing surface defining a cylindrical fluid chamber inside the barrel, wherein an entirety of a volumetric scale is disposed on the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface between the finger flange and the nose of the barrel;
a plunger having a plunger handle and a plunger seal disposed on a distal end of the plunger handle and slidably engaging the inwardly facing surface of the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel; and
a forwardly projecting hypodermic needle; and
an imaging device configured to view and selectively capture a digital image of a position of the plunger seal relative to the entirety of the volumetric scale disposed on the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface between the finger flange and the nose of the barrel when a dosage of the medicinal fluid is drawn into the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel and when at least a portion of the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface and the entirety of the volumetric scale disposed on the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface between the finger flange and the nose of the barrel are within a field of view of the imaging device to determine the dosage of the medicinal fluid drawn into the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel prior to administering the injection.
15 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 14 further comprising a comparator configured to determine from the digital image of the position of the plunger handle relative to the barrel for a specified syringe and dosage whether a volume of medicinal fluid drawn into the medical syringe is within a permissible range of deviation from a predetermined dosage.
16 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 15 , wherein the comparator is operatively coupled to an alert generation device to notify a user of an incorrect fluid dosage drawn into the medical syringe.
17 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 16 , wherein the alert generation device is configured to generate at least one of an audio alert, a visual alert and a tactile alert.
18 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 14 , further comprising: an alert generation device configured to notify a user of an incorrect fluid dosage drawn into the medical syringe.
19 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 14 , wherein the imaging device is a mobile imaging device or digital scanner.
20 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 19 , wherein the mobile imaging device is a cellular telephone.
21 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 14 , wherein the imaging device is configured by downloading and installing application software on the imaging device.
22 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 21 , wherein the application software is configured to generate an alert to notify a user of an incorrect fluid dosage drawn into the medical syringe.
23 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 22 , wherein the alert is at least one of an audio alert, a visual alert and a tactile alert.
24 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 14 , wherein the medical syringe comprises at least one needle safety device configured to protect a user or a third party from an accidental needle stick.
25 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 24 , wherein the at least one needle safety device comprises a mechanism that selectively retracts the hypodermic needle into a needle retraction chamber following use.
26 . The syringe dosage verification system of claim 24 , wherein the hypodermic needle has a forwardly extending needle tip, and wherein the needle safety device comprises a needle safety shield that is forwardly moveable by the user to cover the forwardly extending needle tip of the hypodermic needle following use.
27 . An apparatus for injecting a verified dosage of a medicinal fluid, the apparatus comprising:
a syringe comprising:
a barrel having a cylindrical fluid chamber and an outwardly facing flat indicia display surface comprising a volumetric scale, wherein a full length of the volumetric scale is disposed on the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface between a nose and a finger flange of the barrel, and wherein at least a portion of the full length of the volumetric scale overlies at least a portion of the cylindrical fluid chamber to facilitate simultaneous viewing of a medicinal fluid dosage disposed inside the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel and the full length of the volumetric scale disposed on the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface between the nose and the finger flange of the barrel;
a plunger handle having a plunger seal slidably engaging the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel; and
a hypodermic needle in fluid communication with the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel and extending from the nose of the barrel; and
an imaging device configured to view and selectively capture at least one digital image of the medicinal fluid dosage disposed inside the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel and the full length of the volumetric scale disposed on the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface between the nose and the finger flange of the barrel and overlying the portion of the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel when at least a portion of the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface and the full length of the volumetric scale disposed on the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface between the finger flange and the nose of the barrel is within a field of view of the imaging device, from which a volumetric dosage of the medicinal fluid dosage drawn into the cylindrical fluid chamber can be determined prior to injecting the medicinal fluid.
28 . The apparatus of claim 27 , wherein the imaging device is a mobile imaging device.
29 . The apparatus of claim 28 , wherein the mobile imaging device is a cellular telephone.
30 . The apparatus of claim 28 , wherein the mobile imaging device is a digital scanner.
31 . The apparatus of claim 27 , wherein the imaging device is controlled using application software installed on the imaging device.
32 . The apparatus of claim 27 , further comprising a comparator configured to generate an alert to notify a user of an incorrect fluid dosage drawn into the syringe.
33 . The apparatus of claim 32 , wherein the alert is at least one of an audio alert, a visual alert, and a tactile alert.
34 . The apparatus of claim 27 , wherein the syringe further comprises at least one needle safety feature configured to protect a user or a third party from an accidental needle stick.
35 . The apparatus of claim 34 , wherein the at least one needle safety feature comprises a mechanism that selectively retracts the hypodermic needle into a needle retraction chamber that is integrally molded with the cylindrical fluid chamber following use.
36 . The apparatus of claim 34 , wherein the hypodermic needle has a forwardly extending needle tip, and wherein the needle safety feature comprises a needle safety shield that is forwardly moveable by the user to cover the forwardly extending needle tip of the hypodermic needle following use.
37 . The apparatus of claim 27 , wherein the imaging device is configured to determine a volumetric dosage from the digital image of a plunger handle position relative to the barrel.
38 . The apparatus of claim 37 , wherein the imaging device determines the volumetric dosage using by a plunger position ratio calculation.
39 . The apparatus of claim 37 , configured for use with a syringe having a barrel that is not transparent.
40 . The apparatus of claim 27 , wherein the imaging device is configured to determine the volumetric dosage of the medicinal fluid dosage drawn into the cylindrical fluid chamber from the digital image of medicinal fluid dosage disposed inside the cylindrical fluid chamber of the barrel and the full length of the volumetric scale disposed on the outwardly facing flat indicia display surface between the nose and the finger flange of the barrel.
41 . The apparatus of claim 27 , wherein the volumetric scale is visible in relation to the plunger seal, and wherein a position of the plunger seal in relation to the volumetric scale is used to determine the volumetric dosage of the medicinal fluid dosage drawn into the cylindrical fluid chamber.