DIANA, a machine used at the Upstate Cancer Center.(photo by Richard Whelsky)
This is the device that helps the pharmacy team in the Upstate Cancer Center mix chemotherapy medications for individual patients. The product name “DIANA” is a tribute to the ICU Medical founder and CEO’s wife, Diana Kostyra Lopez, MD, whose life was cut short in 2006 by breast cancer. ICU Medical is based in San Clemente, California. Upstate senior pharmacist Andrew Burgdorf, PharmD, explains that 25 to 30 percent of chemotherapy agents given at Upstate are mixed with DIANA’s assistance.
This article appears in the summer 2019 issue of Cancer Care magazine.