It has been 10 years since the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) held the first national ISMP Sterile Product Compounding Safety Summit to address best practices for preparation and verification of sterile preparations. That inaugural Summit resulted in the far-reaching, and frequently referenced, ISMP Guidelines for Safe Preparation of Compounded Sterile Preparations (rel. 2013, rev. 2016).
Over the past 10 years, there has been increased uptake in the use of technology for sterile compounding. However, despite advancements, a recent ISMP survey on pharmacy compounding systems and practices revealed that there remain opportunities to improve the safety of sterile compounding practices as well as increase and enhance the safe use of technology in the process.
To this end, ISMP will hold an invitational, virtual sterile compounding safety summit to address safe practices related to the use of sterile compounding workflow software, automated compounding devices and robotic compounding automation. An Expert Advisory Panel of informed users is helping ISMP design the summit to meet our safety objectives and outcomes. The summit will include representation from pharmacy practitioners, the vendor community, and key organization partners. The virtual summit will be held on September 27, 28 and 29, 2021 from 2-6pm Eastern Time each day.
The objectives of the summit are to:
-
Review current state use of technology and automation in compounding sterile preparations.
-
Examine sterile compounding-related events and published studies on the use of various forms of technology in the compounding process.
-
Identify best practices for the safe use of technology and automation in sterile compounding processes.
-
Recommend best practices associated with sterile compounding when technology cannot be used.
At the conclusion of the summit, the ISMP team will develop Best Practice Guidelines based on summit consensus recommendations. We are confident that the deliverable from this summit will have a far‐reaching safety impact on use of technologies for compounding of sterile preparations.
The summit is funded through the generous support of ARxIUM, Inc, Baxter Healthcare Corporation, B. Braun Medical Inc, BD, Consortiex Inc., Grifols, ICU Medical Inc. & Omnicell Inc.