Point of Care Fingerstick PT/INR and aPTT Systems

Mr. Hill was the Senior Scientist hired by Biotrak in June 1985 to be the Coag expert for the first fingerstick PT/INR system successfully marketed. After moving from Miami, Florida (Dade Reagents) to Biotrak, Mr. Hill shared a home with Dennis Mungall, the Pharm PhD and first employee of Biotrak for 6 weeks. Dr. Mungall has gone on to help doctors and patients in the area of anticoagulation management for decades and is a respected expert in the field. www.clinpharmadvice.com

IMG_0075Mr. Hill was the first scientist to figure out how to stabilize freshly drawn venous blood without anticoagulant into aliquots for development of fingerstick PT/INR Biotrak system

  • Knowledge of red cells from Dade Hemotology Fresh Cell Calibrator Project helped to invent new way to handle blood
  • Using contolled temperature allowed blood to be manipulated over 2-6 hours without anticoagulation
  • This was key to developing the first fingerstick capillary non anticoagulated PT/INR test on the market
  • In 1989 Mr. Hill was brought to Boehinger Mannheim to help with the new PT/INR project as head of Chemistry, INR Calibration and Controls.
  • In 1993 the Coaguchek system was introduced to the market.
  • Mr. Hill visited Dr. van den Bessellaar in Leiden to fully understand world INR standards.
  • By mid 1990’s the CoaguChek system was changing the way oral anticoagulant patients were managed.
  • Mr. Hill had visited Dr. van den Bessellaar by this time and manually tilted tubes to be certified as an expert INR tilt tuber

From 1985-2000 Mr. Hill worked towards making near patient care PT/INR testing safe and effective for patients and doctors using the CoaguChek Boehringer Mannheim system.
From 2000-2003 Mr. Hill worked as an in house consultant for Roche in Mannheim.
Most notible work includes the RT Patent- for figuring out how to perform PT and aPTT at RT (18-32C). “System and Method for Measuring Coagulation Time Without Thermostatic Control.” WO 2004068138A1 includes text and graphs. EP 1588161 B1 Pub date Oct 24 2007 and filing date Jan 24 2004

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From 2003-2007 Mr Hill worked for Inverness Medical Innovations. Based in Bedford, England, Mr. Hill was involved in many technical aspects of the fingerstick project. SmartChek employed many new technologies but failed to launch as a true competitor to the CoaguChek System from Roche. From 2003 the share price of IMI was about $15/share and in 2007 it was about $37/share when Mr. Hill decided to leave the company. Today the new company name is Alere and the share price is $37. Although the company prospered during these 4 years, there was no realization of another fingerstick PT?INR system to introduce to the market for the benefit of doctors and patients.

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