“BD Preanalytical Solutions is dedicated to high-quality, cost-effective specimen management worldwide. Some of our most promising opportunities are linked to major BD initiatives, including geographic expansion, molecular diagnostics, medication and sample management, and safety-engineered products. Each of these offers excellent opportunities to increase our relevance to customers and to leverage BD capabilities across our three business segments.

”Our commitment to advancing clinical practice is best evidenced by our field work in emerging countries. Many of our potential customers in Asia Pacific and Latin America currently use manual methods for analysis, promote little or no safety awareness, and use open containers for collecting blood specimens. BD Vacutainer blood collection tubes, already used universally in developed economies, are rapidly being adopted in these emerging markets. To build on this momentum, we are establishing local manufacturing capabilities in India and other large emerging countries. While roughly three out of four hospitals that do convert to evacuated systems are choosing BD products, the overall market remains unconverted and will be a key source of growth for the future.

”Just as BD played a key role in helping to standardize the collection and stabilization of specimens for traditional analytical methods, such as chemistry and hematology testing, new products and services will be needed as molecular diagnostics testing moves into the clinical laboratory environment. This year, we formed a joint venture called PreAnalytiX GmbH with QIAGEN, N.V. to create standardized products and services for the preanalytical phase of molecular diagnostics. The most promising aspect for BD is linking QIAGEN’s leadership in nucleic acid sample purification and stabilization to two BD business segments - BD Preanalytical Solutions with its leadership in specimen collection and BD Biosciences with its strength in diagnostic systems.

“Another promising new initiative is BD.id, launched a year ago as a solution to errors in medication administration and specimen collection. The BD.id medication management system (Rx) allows health care providers to access important information about medication dosage and potential drug interactions. To aid in continuous process improvement, this system also offers built-in management reporting tools to track missed doses, errors in identification, and other errors in drug administration. Meanwhile, the BD.id specimen management system (Dx) has won praise at U.S. hospitals. The Dx system combines an easy-to-use, handheld data terminal and a bar code system to help ensure that any specimen collected is from the right patient, at the right time, into the right specimen container, and that all resulting information is ultimately linked back to that same patient. In short, BD.id is a preanalytical solution to a highly relevant problem-errors that cost $4 billion a year in the United States alone.

“A continuing priority for us is building on our longstanding commitment to the safety of health care workers. Since 1992, when we introduced the BD Safety-Lok blood collection set, we have led the market in safety-engineered products designed to help reduce the risk of accidental needlesticks associated with blood collection. The BD Safety-Lok blood collection set is now the most widely used protective device of its kind. The BD Eclipse blood collection needle, introduced this year, has been very favorably received by health care workers, resulting in strong demand in the marketplace.”