SEATTLE, July 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Magnolia Medical announced today that Newsweek®, in partnership with The Leapfrog Group, an independent, nonprofit healthcare industry watchdog organization that evaluates healthcare quality, designated the Steripath® Initial Specimen Diversion Device® as a Best Infection Prevention Product of 2021. This is the second year in a row Steripath has been the only blood culture collection and contamination reduction system named to the distinguished list.

According to Nancy Cooper, Newsweek's Global Editor in Chief, selections are made by teams of experts and analysts that independently review publicly available data to identify superior products along four criteria: effectiveness, safety (to both patients and healthcare workers), successful real-world implementation, and company stability. When assessing safety and effectiveness, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) evaluations are considered, along with published research studies.¹

"Patient safety and outcomes are our top priority, so we are tremendously honored to be named as a recipient of this prestigious award two years running," said Greg Bullington, CEO and co-founder of Magnolia Medical. "We have long been in pursuit of changing the formal standard of care for sepsis testing accuracy. This recognition, along with major formal policy and guideline changes, affirm the criticality of our Steripath technology platform to help solve this longstanding patient safety and healthcare quality issue."

Blood cultures are essential to diagnose bloodstream infections including sepsis, determine the specific pathogen causing the infection, and based on the results, what type of antimicrobial is appropriate to treat the patient. The problem with the test lies within the collection process. During venipuncture, skin fragments containing viable microorganisms are often dislodged and collected with the blood specimen. These organisms contaminate the sample and cause the patient to receive a false-positive result. Decades of research shows that false-positive blood culture results routinely lead to unnecessary and prolonged use of toxic broad-spectrum antibiotics which can have significant downstream clinical and cost consequences.

Steripath, a sterile vein-to-bottle or vein-to-syringe closed-system device, solves the issue by diverting and sequestering skin microbes that most commonly cause contamination, helping to ensure specimen integrity and accurate test results. Steripath^®, the only FDA 510(k)-cleared device platform indicated to reduce blood culture contamination,² provides hospitals a reliable, best-in-class technology for better patient outcomes and decreased cost burden due to serious bloodstream infection misdiagnosis.

Based on demonstrated customer results, Steripath has prevented tens of thousands of patients from potentially harmful antibiotic treatment associated with false positive results and thus helped hospitals avoid in excess of an estimated one hundred million dollars in blood culture contamination event costs.³

About Magnolia Medical

Magnolia Medical Technologies develops, manufactures, and markets innovative blood and bodily fluid collection devices to facilitate significant improvements in the accuracy, consistency, and predictability of critical laboratory tests. Magnolia Medical invented and patented the Initial Specimen Diversion Technique (ISDT™) and Device (ISDD®) for blood culture collection and contamination prevention. The company has amassed an intellectual property portfolio including more than 80 issued method, apparatus, and design patents with more than 70 additional patent applications pending. For more information, visit www.magnolia-medical.com.

References:

1. https://www.newsweek.com/best-infection-prevention-products-2021
2. Indicated for use as a blood collection system that diverts and sequesters the initial specimen prior to collection of a subsequent test sample to reduce the frequency of blood culture contamination when contaminants are present in the initial blood sample compared to blood cultures drawn with standard procedure without manual diversion.
3. Data on file

 

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SOURCE Magnolia Medical Technologies