Covidien yesterday announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Covidien Imaging Solutions’ contrast delivery system with radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, automatic identification technology that captures, stores and transmits data using transponders, or tags.

Striving to enhance patient safety, Covidien’s contrast delivery system seeks to reduce the risk of dispensing and mislabeling errors in radiology departments. The company is combining its unit-dose Ultraject prefilled contrast media syringes with its Optivantage DH power injectors to provide the only RFID-enabled contrast delivery solution available in North America.

Through RFID technology, Covidien is able to create an intelligent interface between the contrast media syringe and the power injector, enabling radiology technologists to better ensure that each patient receives the prescribed drug and drug dose during a procedure.

Covidien expects its contrast delivery system with RFID technology to be available in the summer of 2008.