UNIT DOSING
Johnson & Johnson Chief Medical Officer Highlights Unit Dose Packaging’s Role in Preventing Accidental Ingestion KEREN SOOKNE, DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL CONTENT TOP THREE TAKEAWAYS 1. About four busloads of kids come into emergency departments each day in the U.S. because of accidental unsupervised ingestions.
2. Dr. Ed Kuffner discusses how packaging innovations, including unit dose packages, can reduce these risks.
3. A recent QuickFire Challenge winner, Packlock, offers a new take on blisters with a twostep mechanism to access the dose.
H
ealthcare Packaging talked with Dr. Ed Kuffner, Chief Medical Officer at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health, where he leads a global team of medical and safety professionals. Throughout his career, Ed has been passionate about patient safety and has worked with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders to tackle complex public health issues, such as preventing medication errors, accidental unsupervised ingestions, misuse, abuse, and overdose. [Editor’s note: Answers have been edited for brevity.] Healthcare Packaging (HCP): How did your experience lead to your involvement in the unit dose packaging community? Dr. Ed Kuffner (EK): I’m an emergency physician and a medical toxicologist. I’ve worked in different emergency departments over my career and at a poison center. Both in the ER and at the poison center, I’ve unfortunately cared for many children whose illnesses and injuries may have been prevented. I’ve treated young kids who’ve gotten sick after getting into medicines when they were not kept appropriately out of their reach or kids
who suffered medication errors when given an incorrect dose by a caregiver. When you’re in that setting and a kid needs to be admitted to the hospital, or even the ICU, it’s heartbreaking for all parties involved. It’s hard for me as a clinician, it’s hard for the staff, and it’s
18 | Healthcare Packaging • May/June 2022
F1_JnJ_0322.indd 18
6/1/22 3:12 PM
