BOLZANO, Italy, December 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Robotics and Devon International Group (DIG) today announced their plans to kick-off the launch of the i.v.STATION(TM) Robot with a prototype demonstration at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Midyear Meeting in Orlando, Florida [Booth 1307], and the simultaneous start of 12 i.v.STATION(TM) Beta Installations for market validation and testing around the world.

The primary challenges in today's IV Admixture operations are serious medication errors, high costs, turn-around time, waste, regulatory issues, lack of audit trails, motion injuries, space constraints and difficulty in maintaining adequate and trained staff. i.v.STATION(TM) was designed to address these issues and overcome the fact that until now, the range of products and technology available to mitigate these challenges has consisted of variations on the IV piggyback bag, outsourcing of IVs, and partial robotic solutions that have seen very limited adoption and success over the past decade. i.v.STATION(TM) represents a revolutionary approach in the quest for safe, accurate, efficient, and cost effective IV Admixtures. It offers unprecedented IV container flexibility, life-critical patient safety, and robotic precision and performance, all within a scalable and fail-safe architecture.

In the wake of prominent IV Solutions and Pharmacy Automation companies' [B|Braun, TOSHO, AHCSC-Olayan, Can-Med's] due diligence and endorsement of Health Robotics' products, DIG started to study the market and existing technology in the IV sector in March 2008, with visits to multiple Health Robotics' customers, factories, and RD laboratories in the United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. I have personally witnessed how i.v.STATION(TM), at 20-25% of the cost, 5-10% of the footprint, and comparable throughput of other IV automation solutions in this space can truly expand Health Robotics' sole leadership position with CytoCare(TM) beyond Oncology and Immunology into assuring that virtually all dispensed IVs and Epidurals are safe, sterile, accurate, ready-to-administer, and cost effective, stated John Bennett, MD, DIG's CEO.

i.v.STATION(TM) may be deployed in a variety of locations, including central and satellite pharmacies and patient care areas, due to its self-contained form and small foot print. Pharmacies may, for the first time, choose a robotic configuration that suits their needs, rather than being forced into the dated alternative of one-size-fits-all robots. Whether a Pharmacy chooses single or multiple i.v.STATION(TM) configurations, it will benefit from fully automated compounding while producing its patient-specific or batch IV doses in a variety of syringe (1 to 60cc), bag (50ml to 1 liter), and vial (1 to 100ml) sizes. Furthermore, i.v.STATION(TM) supports just-in-time IV filling, avoiding premium prices associated with specialty pre-filled bags and syringes and high cost closed-system-transfer devices.

Health Robotics has reached agreements for upcoming i.v.STATION(TM) installations to go-live and deliver non-hazardous IV doses to patients at the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston), Fairview Pharmacy Services University of Minnesota Children's Hospital (Minneapolis), University of Colorado (Denver), Allegiance Health (Jackson, Michigan), Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (University of London, UK), King Faisal Specialist Hospital Research Centre (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia), Kameda Medical Center (Japan), Dubai Health Authority (Dubai, UAE), Agean University Hospital (Izmir, Turkey), Tawam Hospital-a Johns Hopkins Medicine Affiliate (Abu Dhabi, UAE), Bozen Krankenhaus (Bozen, Italy) Campus Biomedico University Hospital (Rome, Italy).

The strategic partnership between Health Robotics and Devon is quickly paying off as evidenced by the recent addition of several renowned American hospitals to other i.v.STATION(TM) Beta installations around the world. I am very pleased with the prestige and diversity of the hospital pharmacists that have chosen to partner with Health Robotics in North America for the purpose of validating with live patient IV Admixtures our new non-hazardous-IVs Robot's features, functions, and R.O.I. model. After developing the only existing hazardous IV Robot [CytoCare(TM)], we have now leapfrogged the competition in non-hazardous IV Robotics as well. I look forward to meeting these pharmacists at the Beta Kickoff in Orlando on December 9th, where Paolo Giribona and Gaspar DeViedma, the two architects behind i.v.STATION(TM) will kick-off the installation process. The upcoming i.v.STATION(TM) installations in America represent a great mix of hospitals [academic and community, general and oncology, adult and pediatric] and even a centralized compounding service stated Werner Rainer, Health Robotics' CEO.

This simultaneous global launch is a testament to Health Robotics defying the conventional wisdom that a start-up technology company in the healthcare sector cannot leave its competitors behind in less than 2 years. Health Robotics will complete its i.v.STATION(TM) strategic partners' line-up over the next 60 days after the conclusion of ongoing technical due diligence and financial negotiations with multiple healthcare companies in Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America, some of which will take place during ASHP. The Beta installations will be key in assuring that Health Robotics can deliver a mature, feature-rich, flexible, and cost-effective product to the more than 750 i.v.STATION(TM) purchase orders the company has registered from all over the world.

About Health Robotics:

Health Robotics is the global leading supplier of life-critical intra-venous medication preparation, compounding, and dispensing Robots, providing health care facilities around the world with robotic technology and software automation solutions. The world-leading solutions CytoCare(TM) [hazardous IVs] and i.v.STATION(TM) [non-hazardous IVs] have and will greatly contribute to ease global hospitals' clinics' growing pressures to improve patient safety through effective and efficient production of sterile, accurate, and ready-to-administer IVs, to decrease life-threatening medication errors and contamination risks, and to work more efficiently, increase throughput, reduce waste, and contain spiraling costs.

About Devon International Group

The Devon International Group (DIG) is a multi-national group of companies headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, spanning the healthcare, information technology, and international business industries. Its flagship companies includes Devon Health Services, a national healthcare cost management company and the largest privately held Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) in the Northeast U.S., Devon IT, the world's third largest manufacturer of thin clients, Devon Medical, and Devon Robotics.

For additional information, please contact: Health Robotics Gaspar G. DeViedma USA: +1-609-980-7976 EUROPE: +39-346-963-4934 gaspar.deviedma@health-robotics.com

Health Robotics: Gaspar G. DeViedma, USA: +1-609-980-7976, EUROPE: +39-346-963-4934, gaspar.deviedma@health-robotics.com