image: Karen Giuliano, nursing co-director of the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation, does research in the center's IV lab.
Credit: Lauren LeCours/UMass Amherst
A nurse-engineer team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has been honored with an ANA Innovation Award for inventing a new intravenous (IV) pole designed to improve the safety and ease of administering IV medications at the hospital bedside.
The American Nurses Association Foundation and the American Nurses Enterprise announced the 2025 award winners on Tuesday, March. 11. The team – Karen Giuliano, nursing co-director of the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation; Jeannine Blake, assistant professor of nursing; and Juan Jiménez, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and a Manning/IALS Innovation Fellow – won honorable mention in the 2025 Team Innovation Award category.
Preventable medication errors harm approximately 500,000 hospitalized patients in the U.S. each year. Many of these errors occur with the use of IV smart pumps, which require a very specific system setup to ensure the right amount of medication is delivered as ordered. When the setup is not followed, the IV smart pump can deliver too much or too little of the medication prescribed, even as the pump signals it is delivering the correct amount.
By combining the engineering and fluid dynamics expertise of Jiménez with the clinical knowledge of critical-care nurses Giuliano and Blake, this interdisciplinary team set out to develop an IV pole that simplifies and accelerates the setup and delivery of IV medications in hospitals when using an IV pump, ultimately reducing the occurrence of dangerous yet largely preventable medication errors. The idea stemmed from real-world clinical observations, which revealed that standard IV poles often made it more challenging and time-consuming for frontline nurses to achieve optimal IV infusion setups.
A patent is under review for this novel IV pole, which features an adjustable crossbar for hanging infusions. This innovative crossbar automatically maintains the required height differential between the IV pump and the medication container. Established by IV smart pump manufacturers, this differential helps ensure optimal fluid flow accuracy. The pole improves IV medication delivery efficiency while minimizing the need for manual adjustments.
“The work of Drs. Giuliano, Blake and Jiménez, along with the Elaine Marieb Center, represents the future of healthcare innovation,” said Frank Sup, engineering co-director of the Elaine Marieb Center.
Giuliano, Jiménez and Blake received a 2022 Manning/IALS Innovation Award to support work on their new IV pole project. “By bringing together expertise from both nursing and engineering, we are breaking barriers and reimagining how technology can support nurses and improve patient care,” Giuliano said.
According to Jiménez, “This project is a perfect example of why engineering and nursing must work together to solve real-world healthcare challenges. Nurses bring firsthand clinical experience and deep knowledge of patient care, while engineers contribute technical expertise to design practical, effective solutions.”
The ANA Foundation’s Team Innovation Award celebrates interdisciplinary collaboration and ingenuity in addressing critical healthcare challenges. The winning teams exemplify these values by integrating engineering principles into nursing practice to develop cutting-edge healthcare solutions that enhance clinical outcomes and streamline nursing workflows. Their efforts have contributed to novel medical devices and improved patient safety protocols, according to the ANA Foundation.
The invention of the new IV pole is part of the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation’s active program of research on the safety and usability of IV smart pumps. Their research has focused on reducing infusion errors, optimizing alarm management and enhancing usability to better support clinicians in high-pressure environments, such as the intensive care unit (ICU), where patients are typically receiving multiple IV drips at the same time.
About the University of Massachusetts Amherst
The flagship of the commonwealth, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a nationally ranked public land-grant research university that seeks to expand educational access, fuel innovation and creativity, and share and use its knowledge for the common good. Founded in 1863, UMass Amherst sits on nearly 1,450-acres in scenic Western Massachusetts and boasts state-of-the-art facilities for teaching, research, scholarship, and creative activity. The institution advances a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community where everyone feels connected and valued—and thrives, and offers a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees across 10 schools and colleges, and 100 undergraduate majors.