The DataCaptor™ Connectivity Suite from CapsuleTech, Inc recently earned the 2006 Enabling Technology of the Year Award in the patient-monitoring medical technology industry from Frost & Sullivan, a business research and consulting firm that offers market analysis, market research, and reports.

CapsuleTech’s DataCaptor system converts medical device data to XML or HL7 format to ease integration with many health care information system applications. DataCaptor Device Interfaces (DDIs) support the integration of information from all medical devices into a common data repository.

Automating routine collection and documentation of patient vital signs and equipment settings—including ventilator status checks and weaning protocols—can help improve the efficiency, accuracy, and completeness of respiratory care documentation. This can help respiratory therapists by allowing them to focus on the application without concern for supporting the underlying data-gathering tasks. More complete documentation also contributes to a more comprehensive continuous quality improvement (CQI) process and, ultimately, a more favorable patient outcome.

“CapsuleTech is honored to receive the Frost & Sullivan award that affirms its positive impact on clinical care and its industry leadership position in helping to re-engineer clinical workflow,” said Sylvie Peterson, marketing communications manager, CapsuleTech. “Implementing DataCaptor saves the valuable time of clinical professionals and improves the accuracy of clinical documentation, thereby reducing medical errors. By automatically collecting patient vitals into the electronic clinical information system, CapsuleTech’s solutions save thousands of clinical charting hours each year.”

According to the company, studies of DataCaptor implementations demonstrate a rapid, tangible return on investment based on cost savings generated by higher efficiencies.

A middleware solution, the DataCaptor system is designed for use primarily by information technology professionals in the health care organization. As a result, physicians, nurses, respiratory care professionals, and other clinicians simply see patient vital signs and equipment data, such as ventilator settings, automatically populated into available data fields on the electronic chart, eliminating the need to enter this information. An option is available for verification and sign-off by the clinical caregiver.

DataCaptor integrates medical device data with enterprise and specialty respiratory care IT vendor applications including those from Epic, Eclipsys, Cerner, Meditech, McKesson, MediServe, Dräger Medical, Theronyx, and Visicu. The most popular clinical IT applications that integrate medical device data today are electronic nursing, critical care, surgical, and respiratory care documentation flowsheets.

“It is amazing how much time nurses spend manually documenting patient vital signs,” says Arnaud Houette, CEO of CapsuleTech. “By automatically collecting patient vitals into the electronic clinical information system, CapsuleTech’s solutions save thousands of ... hours each year and deliver a rapid, tangible return on investment. Our solutions can benefit hospitals of any size.”

CapsuleTech promises even more connectivity in future enhancements of the automated solution.

“Medical device connectivity to clinical IT and other systems is rapidly emerging as a key enabler to benefit patient safety and caregiver efficiency across the continuum of care,” said Peterson. “Upcoming versions of DataCaptor will address market needs for wireless, mobile connectivity solutions, point-of-care patient identification, more sophisticated bidirectional connectivity, and data redundancy.”

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.