A retrospective analysis of 7,922 intravenous chemotherapy preparations during the first year of a two-arm robot at Maha Vajiralongkorn Thanyaburi Hospital found a mean volume error of -1.19 ± 1.32% and mean preparation time of 11.86 ± 3.47 minutes. Smaller syringes and more cycles tended toward slight under-delivery, but all deviations remained within the study's ±5% acceptance threshold.
Key findings
- Mean error was -1.19 ± 1.32%, with median -1.14 ± 1.86%. Mean preparation time was 11.86 ± 3.47 minutes and median 11.29 ± 3.06 minutes. Smaller syringes and more cycles tended toward under-delivery, yet all deviations stayed within ±5%; bootstrap estimates indicated stable margins across tested configurations.
Why this matters globally
Chemotherapy compounding demands precision and exposes staff to hazards. Consistent automation may standardise quality and reduce exposure, but investment, maintenance, uptime and error recovery must be evaluated by setting.
Thai researcher contribution
Maha Vajiralongkorn Thanyaburi Hospital generated a large real-world implementation dataset and collaborated with the University of Phayao to evaluate the prototype in Thai care. These affiliations follow publisher metadata rather than automated name matching.
Limitations to consider
This was a retrospective single-system, single-hospital study without manual or before-after comparison. The ±5% threshold is an operational criterion, not a patient outcome. Spills, worker exposure, downstream errors, cost, downtime and waiting time were not measured, and syringe/cycle associations may be confounded by drug and volume.