Kurin, a leader in innovative blood culture collection technology, is celebrating a longstanding partnership with Crouse Hospital. This collaboration marks a new era in clinical advancements, aiming to significantly reduce blood culture contamination (BCC) rates and improve patient care.

Beginning in 2012, Crouse Hospital’s initiative to combat contamination saw department-wide education, restricted blood culture draws, and rigorous compliance monitoring. These efforts yielded a modest reduction in contamination rates.

In January 2017, seeking further improvement, the emergency department re-evaluated its blood culture protocol and adopted the Kurin blood culture collection set. Michael Allain, MS, RN, ACNS-BC, CCRN, Crouse Hospital Clinical Nurse Specialist Emergency Services, noted, “We have trialed waste tubes, education, and multiple diversion devices on the market to aid in the further reduction of BCCs. Kurin was the safest and most efficient product, causing no change in blood culture collection practice. With Kurin’s advanced technology, we observed significant reductions in contamination rates, from 1.6% to .8%. This enhances diagnostic accuracy and, after accounting for product acquisition costs, achieves cost savings of over $185,000 annually for the hospital.”

Michael and his team published their outcomes in 2018 utilizing Kurin in the Journal of Critical Nurse Specialists. Following the initial implementation in the emergency department, utilization of Kurin was expanded throughout the institution.

This partnership exemplifies how integrating cutting-edge technology with evidence-based practices can result in outstanding outcomes, even for hospitals meeting standard benchmarks. Crouse’s adoption of the Kurin device and ongoing education and compliance underscores a commitment to excellence in healthcare delivery.

Kurin’s Chief Commercial Officer, Christine Arme, expressed excitement over the collaboration, stating, “This partnership with Crouse Hospital is a testament to the power of innovation in improving patient outcomes and operational efficiency. We are proud to contribute to such meaningful advances in healthcare.”

The synergy between Kurin’s technology and Crouse Hospital’s dedication to excellence sets a new standard for managing contaminated blood cultures, potentially transforming practices nationwide.

About Kurin: 

Kurin^® is a privately held, certified minority-owned business dedicated to engineering better healthcare through innovative, cost-effective, clinician-approved technologies. Building on the successful invention, clinical adoption, and corporate acquisition of CUROS^™ disinfecting port protectors, Kurin is focusing its depth of experience in medical device engineering, marketing, sales, and service to tackle the persistent and costly fallout of false positive blood cultures. With agile development capabilities and intense customer focus, the Kurin Blood Collection Systems have quickly gained caregiver acceptance, have been proven to sideline skin contaminants during blood culture collection, and have become the market-leading solution for blood culture collection best practice.

About Crouse Hospital:

Today’s Crouse Health reflects a rich history of innovation, visionary leadership and strong community support. As the only independent, locally governed hospital in Syracuse, Crouse has been serving the community and region since 1887. Crouse is licensed for 506 acute-care adult beds and 57 bassinets, and serves more than 23,000 inpatients, 62,000 emergency services visits and more than 600,000 outpatients a year from a 16-county area in Central and Northern New York.

Crouse is a top 10 area employer, with 3,500 employees and a medical staff of more than 900 physicians. Crouse is Central New York’s largest provider of maternity care services, delivering 3,800 babies annually, and is the designated regional referral center for high-risk neonatal intensive care (NICU) services for 1,000 premature and critically ill newborns from across the region annually.

This partnership heralds a brighter future for healthcare providers and patients, driven by shared values of innovation and precision.

Kurin, Inc., the inventor and manufacturer of the Kurin^® blood culture collection sets, announced that Chief Judge Connolly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware entered Final Judgment that Kurin does not infringe Magnolia Medical, Inc.’s patent. The district court proceedings in the patent infringement lawsuit brought by Magnolia in 2019 are now closed.

“We are pleased that the Court has ruled in our favor,” said Bob Rogers, CEO of Kurin, Inc. “This case took five years and during that time Magnolia has loudly proclaimed that they would put Kurin out of business, creating confusion in the marketplace. We took the high road with our customers and, although it took years, we stayed true to our values and prevailed in the end.”

“Previously, on Dec. 1, 2023, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a final rejection of the key patent claims that were the cornerstone of this litigation. This is a complete victory for our team, confirming both that the Kurin Lock does not infringe any Magnolia patent and that the asserted patent is invalid. We are pleased to have this distraction behind us and can now continue on our mission of partnering with clinicians to improve clinical and financial outcomes regarding blood culture contaminations.”

Kurin’s revolutionary approach to the contaminated blood culture problem is an elegantly simple, intuitive design that requires no additional user steps. Kurin passively sidelines potential contaminants during blood culture collection. Kurin is a simply better and more sustainable approach over conventional mechanical diversion. Contaminated blood cultures are a significant problem, as roughly one-third of the positive results are wrong, exposing these patients to unnecessary antibiotics, extending hospital stays and impacting larger community health issues, such as antimicrobial resistance and life-threatening C. diff. infections. Kurin Lock and Kurin Jet give clinicians the tools they need to address these problems.

About Kurin, Inc.

Kurin Inc., a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), is focused on the design, development, manufacture, marketing, and sale of products that help healthcare providers reduce contaminated blood cultures. San Diego-based Kurin has received FDA 510(k) market clearance. For more information, visit the website at www.kurin.com.

Kurin, Inc., the inventor and manufacturer of the Kurin^® blood culture collection sets, announced that Chief Judge Connolly of the U.S. District Court in Delaware issued an opinion in the patent litigation brought by Magnolia Medical, Inc. finding that “Kurin is entitled to a judgment of noninfringement of claims 1 and 24 of the #483 patent as a matter of law.”

“It is rewarding to receive the Court’s determination that Kurin does not infringe the ‘483 patent and I appreciate the efforts of our team over the last few years,” said Bob Rogers, CEO of Kurin, Inc. “From the beginning of this case, we felt confident that we would prevail and that the lawsuit was a desperate move by a competitor who could not compete in the marketplace.”

“Previously, on Dec. 1, 2023, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a final rejection of these same two patent claims. This opinion by the Court confirms that even if these patent claims were valid, Kurin does not infringe them. With Magnolia’s case now largely behind us, we can continue to focus on helping hospitals improve clinical outcomes and address the financial challenges posed by blood culture contamination.”

Kurin’s revolutionary approach to the contaminated blood culture problem is an elegantly simple, intuitive design that requires no additional user steps. Kurin passively sidelines potential contaminants during blood culture collection. Kurin is a simply better and more sustainable approach over conventional mechanical diversion. Contaminated blood cultures are a significant problem, as roughly one-third of the positive results are wrong, exposing these patients to unnecessary antibiotics, extending hospital stays and impacting larger community health issues, such as antimicrobial resistance and life-threatening C. diff. infections. Kurin Lock and Kurin Jet give clinicians the tools they need to address these problems.

About Kurin, Inc.

Kurin Inc., a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), is focused on the design, development, manufacture, marketing, and sale of products that help healthcare providers reduce contaminated blood cultures. San Diego-based Kurin has received FDA 510(k) market clearance. For more information, visit the website at www.kurin.com.

Kurin, Inc. announced that it filed a lawsuit against ICU Medical, Inc. and Vascular Integrity, LLC for making false and misleading clinical performance claims regarding the Vascular Integrity Bypass Syringe. The lawsuit was filed on March 15, 2024, in the US District Court, Central District of California. The syringe is manufactured by Vascular Integrity and ICU Medical is the distributor of this product.

“Kurin is the market leader in the blood culture contamination device market and our success is no doubt observed by others wondering how they might take advantage of the interest we have generated,” said Bob Rogers, Inventor and CEO of Kurin. “In this case, misleading claims that the Bypass Syringe reduces blood culture contamination, CLABSIs, and hemolysis are not supported in the regulatory documents. These statements are not only misleading, hospitals believing these claims could actually cause patient harm.”

“We filed this suit because Defendants ignored our friendly notice of these unsupported claims. Given their inattention to this matter, litigation was our only avenue to address these misleading statements.”

Kurin’s revolutionary approach to the contaminated blood culture problem is an elegantly simple, intuitive design that requires no additional user steps. Kurin passively sidelines potential contaminants during blood culture collection. Kurin is a simply better and more sustainable approach over conventional mechanical diversion. Contaminated blood cultures are a significant problem, as roughly one-third of the positive results are wrong, exposing these patients to unnecessary antibiotics, extending hospital stays and impacting larger community health issues, such as antimicrobial resistance and life-threatening C. diff. infections. Kurin Lock and Kurin Jet give clinicians the tools they need to address these problems.

About Kurin, Inc.

Kurin Inc., a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), is focused on the design, development, manufacture, marketing, and sale of products that help healthcare providers reduce contaminated blood cultures. San Diego-based Kurin has received FDA 510(k) market clearance. For more information, visit the website at www.kurin.com.

Kurin, Inc., the inventor and manufacturer of the Kurin® blood culture collection sets, announced today that the US Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Final Rejection in its reexamination of claims 1 and 24 of U.S. Patent No. 10,039,483 (the ‘483 patent). Claims 1 and 24 of the ‘483 patent were asserted by Magnolia Medical against Kurin’s Lock product in a patent infringement case in Delaware Federal Court. The USPTO Examiner has rejected Magnolia’s arguments regarding patentability, and the pertinent claims of that patent now stand as rejected.

“We are pleased that the Examiner has rejected the asserted claims of the ‘483 patent,” said Bob Rogers, Inventor and CEO of Kurin, Inc. “Magnolia has tried to use this patent and subsequent litigation to create confusion in the marketplace and this action by the USPTO provides greater clarity to Kurin and other interested parties. As we have said from the onset, although this legal process is long, we are confident in our position, and will do whatever is necessary to continue to provide the market-leading Kurin family of products to our customers.”

Kurin’s revolutionary approach to the contaminated blood culture problem is an elegantly simple, intuitive design that requires no additional user steps. Kurin passively sidelines potential contaminants during blood culture collection. Kurin is a simply better and more sustainable approach over conventional mechanical diversion. Contaminated blood cultures are a significant problem, as roughly one-third of the positive results are wrong, exposing these patients to unnecessary antibiotics, extending hospital stays and impacting larger community health issues, such as antimicrobial resistance and life-threatening C. diff. infections. Kurin Lock and Kurin Jet give clinicians the tools they need to address these problems.

About Kurin, Inc.

Kurin Inc., a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), is focused on the design, development, manufacture, marketing, and sale of products that help healthcare providers reduce contaminated blood cultures. San Diego-based Kurin has received FDA 510(k) market clearance. For more information, visit the website at www.kurin.com.