Kurin, Inc. Announces Educational Website on the Importance of Improving Value of the Blood Culture Test

Kurin Inc., the inventor and manufacturer of 510(k)-cleared Kurin® blood culture collection sets, announced today that it has created an educational website, www.betterbloodcultures.com, to aid clinicians in making blood culture testing more effective. Blood culture tests remain the gold standard for detecting sepsis, a bloodstream infection that is associated with significant mortality and morbidity risk.

“It might surprise many people, but 1/3 or more of all positive blood culture test results may, in fact, be wrong,” said Matt Heindel, Co-Founder and Vice President, Business Development of Kurin. “We started this business to help patients, improve antibiotic stewardship, and enable hospitals to provide better care and save money in the process. By creating a resource-rich website, we are able to have a greater positive impact on patients and hospitals alike. It is our goal to collaborate with various groups and use this website to promote best practices that improve the status quo.”

The website has several components, including reference pages providing background on the challenges related to blood cultures, an extensive bibliography to help people research the topic, and a new video created by Kurin called Cry Wolf: Consequences of a False Positive Blood Culture.

“Cry Wolf captures the problems created when a false positive blood culture occurs,” said Mr. Heindel. “The clinicians in this film effectively communicate the financial damage done to hospitals because of these erroneous results, and the negative impact on the health of the patients who receive this misdiagnosis, as they may be subjected to unneeded antibiotic treatment and an extended hospital stay, putting them at risk for further adverse events.” Additional educational content is coming in the near future and will be regularly updated. The website can be found at www.betterbloodcultures.com.