Tertiary public healthcare provider St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne has added an extra layer of security in its compounding pharmacy.
For 12 months, it will pilot an AI-driven and cloud-based solution provided by New Zealand-based company Veriphi. The technology uses laser spectrometry to verify intravenous drug identity and concentration at the point of compounding.
WHY IT MATTERS
SVHM compounds most of the chemotherapy and supportive oncology medicines in-house at their sterile compounding pharmacy.
In an interview with Healthcare IT News, SVHM chief pharmacist Andrew Cording shared their growing challenges at this facility.
“Oncology and haematology services continue to experience significant year-on-year growth – far outpacing general demand across the broader public health sector. This growth places continual pressure on compounding services, requiring us to be both efficient and precise while maintaining the highest standards of safety and quality. Balancing this demand with workforce sustainability, quality assurance, and risk mitigation remains one of our biggest operational challenges.”
Cording admits that while they follow best practices (including mandatory double-checking of all compounded chemotherapy products and triple-checking), their compounding process remains error-prone.
“Like all hospitals, we are not immune to workforce pressures; unexpected sick leave, multitasking demands, fatigue, and cognitive overload can all influence performance in a busy and complex environment like a sterile manufacturing unit,” he said.
“While our historical error rate is fortunately very low, the consequences of even a single error in this high-risk setting can be catastrophic. That’s why we are always looking for innovations that reduce reliance on manual checks and further enhance medication safety.”
SVHM first engaged Veriphi following a medication compounding error that occurred several years ago. “Thankfully, no harm occurred to the patient, but it prompted serious internal reflection and an important question from our CEO: What more can we do to strengthen safety beyond our current systems?”
The hospital saw that Veriphi’s laser-based technology “aligned closely” with their needs and started collaborating with them to refine and validate it against their compounding workflows.
“The results have been promising,” Cording exclaimed. “The device has successfully identified errors before products reached patients and added a layer of safety that is objective and digital, reducing the cognitive burden on staff.”
The chief pharmacist believes that having the ability to verify both identity and concentration of a compounded drug using a real-time, non-invasive process is a “game-changer.” “Our primary goal is to further reduce the risk of medication errors in compounded oncology infusions – an area where the stakes are particularly high.”
SVHM is now working with Veriphi to expand the application of the analyser to other medicines, as well as other high-risk areas such as paediatrics and clinical trials. “As the technology matures, we’ll continue to evaluate its broader integration into our pharmacy services,” Cording added.
Following its major rollout at SVHM, Veriphi looks to secure supply deals in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.
THE LARGER TREND
Meanwhile, SVHM has also been involved in the testing of an AI that predicts patient disposition, which refers to a clinician’s decision about where patients proceed after presenting to the emergency department, supporting decision-making. The project is being done in partnership with La Trobe University.
ON THE RECORD
“At St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, medication safety is a cornerstone of our pharmacy service. We have a strong culture of continuous improvement and evidence-based innovation. While digital health technologies offer exciting opportunities, we approach them with a critical lens. Any new technology must solve a real-world clinical problem; it must enhance safety, not just add complexity… The goal is not to replace human checks but to augment them with a digital safety net that supports our staff and ultimately protects patients,” Cording, its chief pharmacist, said.
