Improving drug safety

Errors when injecting drugs into patients could be eradicated thanks to a pioneering Cardiff University invention.

Professor Judith Hall, Head of Anaesthetics, Intensive care and Pain medicine, School of Medicine, has developed the Hall Lock system – a colour-coded piece of plastic which prevents healthcare staff from mistakenly injecting drugs and other substances into the wrong part of the body.

Professor Hall said: “One reason for drug errors in medicine is that humans make mistakes and wrong route administration is a recurrent cause of drug errors.

“This can be avoided by the use of connectors that simply make it impossible for drugs meant for one injection route to be given via another route.

“We needed to stop all these wrong-route injections so I invented a series of connectors that will not fit with any other connector. There’s one shape for intravenous injections and then another different shape for nasogastric tubes, for spinal injection and so on.”

The Hall Lock system is expected to go on sale this month but it is already being used in the Czech Republic.

It is also on sale in the Gulf states and in China.

Professor Hall added: “These are really just little plastic bits, which connect to a series of other plastic bits so they should cost less than pennies but they should save lives.”

(Source: Cardiff University)