DURHAM, N.C. — Parata Systems is expanding its pharmacy automation lineup with the Parata Perl Pouch Inspector and the Parata Pivot software platform.

Announcing the new solutions this week, Parata said that while pouch packaging benefits patients and pharmacies, verification can be a chore. The Parata Perl Pouch Inspector is designed to operate on demand and learn on-the-fly.

Parata Perl Pouch Inspector

Parata Perl uses two cameras, one 2.5-megapixel camera and one infrared camera, to capture 40 frames per second. The system then reads the size, shape and color of each pill to verify the contents of each pouch, imaging and inspecting up to five pouches per second more than three times faster and with higher accuracy than competing solutions, according to Parata.

With its high speed and exception rates as low as 2%, Perl reduces hands-on pharmacist verification time for PASS packaging by more than 90%, Parata noted. The company said Perl’s self-learning software detects and images new pills, making it possible to update the master drug database in as little as 3 seconds.

Pharmacy staff also don’t have to wait or push a button to get started with Perl. When ready to inspect a strip, they just swipe it through the machine to start. The optional Cut & Roll accessory automatically cuts and rolls strips by patient, hour of administration or facility and separates flagged pouches for fast retrieval.

“Parata Perl increases pharmacy efficiency and gives pharmacists more time to engage patients and make meaningful clinical interventions,” stated DJ Dougherty, chief executive officer of Parata Systems. “Pharmacist verification is one of the most time-consuming and expensive processes in a pharmacy, and it’s absolutely essential to make sure every prescription goes out the door correctly. The Parata Perl Pouch Inspector automates and accelerates this critical step with speed and accuracy rates the industry has never seen before.”

Meanwhile, the Parata Pivot software helps save time by identifying the most efficient packager and improving the workload balance across a pharmacy’s fleet of packagers, Parata said. The platform centralizes inventory and enables canister sharing and facilitywide reporting.

Parata noted that pharmacies using Pivot have reduced the use of special tablet trays by more than 25%, resulting in a more efficient, automated process and fewer opportunities for human error.

“With the patent-pending Parata Pivot software platform, pharmacies can integrate multiple Parata PASS packagers as one,” commented Marcus Kennedy, vice president of product development at Parata. “Pivot creates efficiency gains that increase a pharmacy’s daily throughput by up to 50%.”

Parata unveiled the Perl system and Pivot software to specialty, long-term care and infusion pharmacists on Thursday at the 2017 MHA Business Summit in Las Vegas.