UK – 2 July, 2012 – CSL Behring UK Ltd today announce the launch of the Hizentra Dosing Calculator App at The British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI) Annual Scientific Meeting, taking place in Nottingham. The mobile app, for use on smart phones, is designed to assist healthcare professionals with dosage calculation when administering its product Hizentra(human normal immunoglobulin, SCIg).
The mobile app, available on both iPhone and Android handsets, will calculate the correct volume of Hizentra to be infused based upon entry of only two key pieces of information: a patient’s weight and the weekly dosage required. This is important for healthcare professionals where there are increasing pressures to provide fast and efficient patient care whilst ensuring that medications are administered correctly.
Dr Sinisa Savic, Consultant Immunologist, St James’s University Hospital, Leeds said “Doctors are coming under ever increasing pressure due to heavy clinical workloads, limited time and decreased budgets. Any application which can help to ease the burden on medical staff is welcomed. The Hizentra dose app is easy and straight forward to use and allows important dosing information to be accessed at the touch of a button.”
Teresa Green, Nurse Consultant, Regional Immunology & Allergy Unit, Royal Victoria Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne said: “We see many patients in our immunology clinics. Patients receive differing doses of Hizentra according to their varying weight and frequency of their infusion. Having the ability to double check our dose calculations at the touch of a button is invaluable. It saves time and will help us to ensure our clinics continue to run efficiently and effectively. More importantly, it would also help us to easily ensure dose calculations are correct, which is vital for patient safety. Having an app means we don’t have to seek out a paper version of the dose calculator.”
Research indicates a high level of smart phone usage amongst healthcare professionals in the UK. 82% of healthcare professionals own a smart phone and 88% use them to communicate with other colleagues at work1. 59% use their device for accessing information on the internet or intranet and 30% use work related software apps1. The new Hizentra Dosing Calculator App supports this growing trend by providing fast, accurate, and easy to obtain dosage information to healthcare professionals when time is of the essence.
Commenting on the new app Eddie Owens, General Manager, CSL Behring UK Ltd said: “We see that healthcare professionals are clearly using mobile technology to access health information and for us to engage with this growing target audience, we need to be present in this medium. The new Hizentra Dosing Calculator App aims to meet the demand that healthcare professionals have to access sound medical data from anywhere and at anytime.”
Healthcare professionals have several ways to download and install the new Hizentra Dosing Calculator App for free onto their device:
– Directly from the phone
– Going online to the iTunes™ store at:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/hizentra-dosing-calculator/id483147404
– Visiting Google Play at:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nitrogen.hizentradose#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDIxMiwiY29tLm5pdHJvZ2VuLmhpemVudHJhZG9zZSJd
CSL Behring is a global leader in the plasma protein therapeutics industry. Passionate about improving the quality of life for people with rare and serious diseases, the company manufactures and markets a range of plasma-derived and recombinant products and related services. CSL Behring therapies are used in the treatment of rare diseases such as immune deficiency disorders, hereditary angioedema, haemophilia, von Willebrand disease and other bleeding disorders. Other products are used for the prevention of haemolytic diseases in the newborn. The company also operates one of the world’s largest plasma collection networks, CSL Plasma. CSL Behring is a subsidiary of CSL Limited, a biopharmaceutical company with headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. For more information, visit www.cslbehring.co.uk
References 1. BMJ 2011;342:d1124
For further information please contact:
Joanna Tubbs
Account Manager, Healthcare
Munro & Forster
Tel: 020 7815 3903
Email:Joanna.Tubbs@munroforster.com
Becky Turner
Communications & E-business Executive
CSL Behring UK Ltd
Tel: 01444 447 429
Email:Rebecca.Turner@cslbehring.com
Images of the new Hizentra Dosing Calculator App are available upon request.
Notes to editors
About Hizentra
Hizentra is indicated for replacement therapy in adults and children in primary immunodeficiency syndromes such as:
• Congenital agammaglobulinaemia and hypogammaglobulinaemia
• Common variable immunodeficiency
• Severe combined immunodeficiency
• IgG subclass deficiencies with recurrent infections
Hizentra is also indicated for replacement therapy in myeloma or chronic lymphocytic leukaemia with severe secondary hypogammaglobulinaemia and recurrent infections.
Hizentra is a registered trademark of CSL Behring.