Siemens Medical acquires intellectual property from BD

The medical division of global company Siemens has bought the intellectual property rights for a specimen identification system from Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD).

According to Siemens, the solution from BD enables healthcare workers to reduce the chances of making identity mistakes when collecting samples of blood, urine and other fluids from patients.

To avoid labelling errors, the BD.id Patient Identification System prints out identity tags in the presence of the person who has supplied the sample and then matches the patient to the collection of the test.

President of health services at the IT division of Siemens Medical Solutions Janet Dillione commented: “The patient identification system from BD provides Siemens customers with an additional point-of-care technology to further the goal of connecting positive patient identifiers to everything that is given to or taken from a patient at the bedside.”

The system also incorporates the use of advanced technologies such as bar code identification tags and hand-held computers, which are given to doctors to input patient details.

Meanwhile, medical technology group BD recently announced that it is planning to expand its diagnostics manufacturing plant in Quebec in a project estimated at $34 million (17.6 million pounds).