Jana Lass used to avoid the compounding area at Tartu University Hospital — as a clinical pharmacist, her frustration was watching patients receive paper sachets, a format that is anything but patient friendly. The first time she really spent time in the compounding unit was after the CurifyLabs printer was installed. Three years later, it has changed what the hospital can make — and who wants to make it.
Manual compounding meant many hands weighing powders — work that young pharmacists increasingly don’t want to do, just as experienced staff retire. Jana sees the printer as part of the answer to the personnel gap.
“This new technology attracts more people — even the guys, and young pharmacists. It’s an opportunity to hire more young people into the hospital pharmacy.” — Jana Lass
“It’s the only printing system, at least in Europe, that is user-friendly enough that hospital pharmacists can really use it in their everyday work — not only for scientific research or projects.” — Jana Lass
Some of what Tartu produces today simply couldn’t be made by hand — manual methods wouldn’t be precise enough. Where the pharmacy once made only two types of extemporaneous oral preparations, it can now produce oral solid formulations for the first time. Jana’s current favourite feature is batch printing of different doses in a single run: “That really makes production so much easier — it’s a completely new feature, and I’m really enjoying it.” With new blisters and inks arriving steadily, she calls it a continuous learning process — in the best sense.