Thanks very much for the links. I tried to work with the new MDA bulletin from may 2003 but struggled with the unspecified terms like "good" long term accuracy etc. I also used the pump evaluation reports of the Bath Institute for Medical Engineering (BIME), which gives figures regarding performance parameters but unfortunatly not always a judgment like "this performance is good". So I could not match the MHRA categories and the BIME results completely. The BIME reports are helpful, though (see nww.mda.nhs.uk/pumpevaluation). I tried to find the older bulletin from 1995, but could not find it. Instead I used categorization parameters by the Department of Health, but they are even older (1990!).At the moment I am trying to contact an engineer in BIME to tell me which categories our pumps fall under. Regarding the drugs I had some information from Hammersmith Hospital.They did an IV Drug categorization to match the pumps and drugs in 1994. They haven't done any up-date since, because their trust only holds category A pumps now anyway. I contacted a pharmacist there and she advised me not to rely on the old data.cNow I prepared a list of drugs and gave it to my more experienced colleagues to ask them which drugs in their opinion are rather high or low risk drugs. But after the new MHRA bulletin it seems to be more important to match the pump with a certain therapy than with a particular drug.If I manage to get some useful information I'll let you know about it.
Susanne
