Infusion Pumps Key to Healing and Cutting Hospital Stays.

If you need to go to the hospital for a pressing medical condition, this unknown device may be the very thing that keeps you alive and facilitates your treatment.  It also may be the key to getting you out of the hospital faster. It is an infusion pump.

Infusion pumps are used to infuse necessary fluids, which include medications and/or nutrients, to a patient's circulatory system. They are often used in situations where continuous monitoring and treatment by a nurse or other health staff would be expensive, impractical, or unreliable. They are used for everything from very simple requirements such as rehydration to more complex requirements such as those needed for chemotherapy and pain management. Accuracy and consistency when delivering medications and other fluids are essential due to the possibility of severe consequences.

 Who makes these systems.   Some companies are large, others small innovators.  More than 100 companies participate in the infusion pump market. These include well-known companies such as Abbott, Medtronic, Fresenius, CareFusion, Johnson & Johnson (Animas) and Baxter. However, a number of companies specialize in certain areas. Among these companies are Insulet whose OmniPod delivers insulin without tubing, MRI safe pumps from IRadimed, enteral feeding pumps from Moog and I-Flow home care pumps.

As this article in Virtual Strategy Magazine notes, the market for these systems is increasing in size.  http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2012/11/02/opportunity-new-entrants-and-innovators-infusion-pump-market-kalorama-reports