While computerized smart systems can deliver drugs intravenously in exact volumes to hospital patients, the systems cannot recognize which medications are in the tubing nor can they determine the concentration of the drug in the tubing, which could lead to serious medication errors. To combat those errors, a team of electrical and computer engineering students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new optical device that, they say, can identify the contents of the fluid in an intravenous (IV) line in real-time. Human errors that can impact IV drug-delivery can include incorrect dosage, unintentional substitution of one drug for another, and co-delivery of incompatible drugs.

The researchers use Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS), a powerful analytical tool with extreme sensitivity in obtaining molecular signals that can be used to identify chemicals. To determine the identity of a particular IV medication, the researchers shine laser light onto a nanostructured gold surface that contains millions of tiny domes that are separated from each other by as little as 10 nanometers. These nano-domes are incorporated into the inner surface of IV tubing, where they are exposed to drugs that are dispersed in liquid. They capture the light scattered from drug molecules that are in contact with the nano-domes and use SERS to determine the drug’s molecular signature. Finally, they match the signature to known signatures for the drug in order to confirm the presence of a specific medication in the IV line.

The team will present its work at The Optical Society’s (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO ) 2013, being held Oct. 6-10 in Orlando, FL.

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