Intravenous catheters infuse drugs into the body and can send back information about the effects of the infusion so that the drug therapeutic index can be increased by controlling infusion parameters. Alexandre Tsoukalis, Micrel Medical Devices, describes an alternative way to trial phases of a drug where its dose prescription depends on the feedback reading, not on age and weight.
Today's practice is to infuse drugs unattended, based on an early clinical study that specified a 'blind' prescription rule. There is no real time reported feedback on therapy results or side effects, so it is necessary for doctors to change the protocol or drug as early as possible. It is obvious that if the side effects can be observed/measured by a return route while a drug is infused: