What are the advantages of a programmable pump?
Ken Follet: There are different types of infusion pumps. Some pumps are of the type we refer to as a constant flow rate. The pump always delivers the same amount of medication. There is no battery in the pump. so the longevity of the pump is very long, the pump should last indefinitely.
The drawback is it's hard to adjust the dose of medication that the patients receive with that pump, because the pump gives the same amount of medication everyday. The other type of pump is referred to as a programmable pump. The programmable pump is actually computerized, which means it has electronics and it has a battery inside. So we can adjust the drug dose using a little remote control device that sends a signal through the skin to the pump to either speed it up or slow it down, makes it very easy to adjust the dose of medication to meet the needs of each patient.
The other advantage of programmability of the pump is that it allows us to vary the drug dose throughout the day. For example, suppose an individual is fairly comfortable during the day but at bed time becomes very uncomfortable. We can program the pump to give a little extra squirt of medicine just prior to bed time to help the patient be more comfortable at bed time.
Nagy Mekhail: If I am dealing with what we called dynamic pain or a dynamic disease process, the disease is progressing and this patient adjusts medications as we go along. And the programmability gives us a adaptability to adjust the dose as we go along. Another example of patients where the programmability is very important, people with multiple sclerosis where they need during the day, they need to have some muscle tone to be able to sit, to be able to participate and exercise in the rehabilitation. While during the night, they don't need the muscle tone, they'd like to sleep as straight as possible.
So the programmability allows me to give more medications during the night to allow them to be relaxed and less medication during the day to make use of the muscle tone to participate in the exercise.
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