CareFusion and Epic announce technology interoperability alliance

CareFusion has announced that its Alaris system is to be made compatible with Epic's electronic medical record (EMR) platform.

The partners intend to develop bi-directional connectivity capabilities between the two devices to enable clinicians to remotely pre-populate infusion orders from the EMR to the Alaris system.

It will help medical facilities to reduce the risk of potentially harmful intravenous medication errors that can sometimes occur during manual programming.

The partnership will also allow clinicians to improve their workflow and efficiency by reducing manual or duplicative documentation that can occur through disparate systems.

JC Kyrillos, senior vice-president and general manager of CareFusion's infusion systems business, said: "This agreement with Epic builds on recent progress we have made across CareFusion to improve device interoperability and represents yet another way CareFusion helps hospitals bridge the gap between medical devices and HIT systems."

Earlier this month, the company announced plans to acquire UK Medical, a medical product distribution firm.