Privately held Carticept Medical won FDA clearance for the next generation of its Navigator delivery system, which the company touts as the 1st and only computer-controlled injections system on the U.S. market.
The enhanced Navigator includes new software features designed to "improve further office and work-flow efficiency," according to the company. The original Navigator system won FDA clearance in October 2011.
The Navigator system automatically prepares the combination of drugs that often comprise the injections provided to arthritis patients for pain relief, "saving significant labor for a busy physician practice while eliminating needle exposure," according to Carticept.
The system also records treatment data for transfer to an electronic medical record system and integrates with ultrasound imaging to improve injection accuracy.
"Improving patient safety and office work-flow are 2 significant issues facing healthcare today," Carticept president & CEO Timothy Patrick said in prepared remarks. "We believe that the Navigator DS’ computer-controlled preparation, delivery and record-keeping of these medications addresses these issues with technology that will change the current standard of care. We are aggressively pursuing development of our technology’s use in the rapidly growing anesthetic nerve block application and look forward to bringing that product to the market in the near future."
