This website is an initiative of the World Society of Intravenous Anaesthesia.

We would like to remind registered members of the Open TCI Initiative that there are discussion pages associated with many of the topics that concern us. For example; we would like to have input on the pharmacokinetic models implemented by different companies for alfentanil and sufentanil. You are welcome to log in and contribute to the discussion.

Our goals are outlined below:

The first goal of the Open TCI Initiative is to bring together programmers and engineers from around the world to create an open source code base for target controlled infusion (TCI) technology to ensure that all Open TCI pumps perform identically for the benefit of clinical anesthesiologists and their patients. Here we speak of the code for the “pharmacokinetic mathematics” (e.g., the cube function) and not the code for the user interface, the graphical display, etc., which is proprietary software. The “pharmacokinetic mathematics” code is all based on the published articles/textbooks describing the equations for the one, two and three-compartment mammillary model with an effect compartment (characterized by the rate constant ke0).

We also host the code for STANPUMP from the Department of Anesthesia at Stanford, STELPUMP from the Department of Anaesthesia at the University of Stellenbosch, and IVA-SIM from the Department of Anesthesia at the University of Bonn. These projects were previously hosted by Professor Steven Shafer's PK/PD Software Server (Code Repository) at pkpd.icon.palo-alto.med.va.gov.

• Code

The second goal of the Open TCI Initiative is to bring together investigators from around the world to create a common database of RAW data for the purposes of both understanding the strengths and weaknesses of existing models, and potentially for creating unifying models that can become the basis for the next generation of TCI devices.

• Data

The third goal of the Open TCI Initiative is to provide a forum for investigators from around the world to discuss various issues (e.g., related to the various published pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic models used or potentially used in TCI pumps) for the purposes of developing a consensus opinion and to provide recommendations, which will be freely available to all companies interested in developing TCI (thereby avoiding different implementations of the same model by different companies).

• Discussion
• Recommendations

The ground rules of the Open TCI Initiative are:

• Anyone can contribute data.
• Anyone can download all data and analyses.
• If there are publications that come from the Open TCI initiative, those who have contributed to the effort will share authorship of the publications.
• All conclusions will be based on data.
• Any disagreements will be settled by data.
• Arguments from first principles will not be accepted unless there are no data on which to base conclusions.
• There will be 100% consensus among the participants supporting the final recommendations of the Open TCI Initiative.
• The results will be freely available to all companies interested in developing TCI, as well as all regulatory agencies looking to understand the basis of the recommendations from the Open TCI Initiative.

• This initiative was developed initially by Dr Charles Minto (Sydney, Australia) & Professor Thomas Schnider (St Gallen, Switzerland) based on many discussions over the past years. This http://opentci.org site was born on 6 Jan 2008. The objectives of the Open TCI Initiative were developed further in discussion with Professor Steven Shafer (Columbia, New York) on 17 Jan 2008, and others at the first meeting in Cape Town on 3 Mar 2008.

• This is an open group, all are welcome to join! You can see some¹⁾ of those who have registered with this website on the disclosures page.

• After a mail server based discussion in November 2008, the members of the Open TCI Initiative voted (near unanimous) for the World Society of Intravenous Anaesthesia to be the home society (see announcements_2008). This was formalized at the World Congress of TIVA-TCI in Berlin, April 2009.

• You do not need to be a member of the World Society of Intravenous Anaesthesia to be a registered member of the Open TCI Initiative (although we would ask you to consider becoming a member).

• The Open TCI Initiative was chaired by Prof Shafer until Dr Minto was elected to this position in April 2009 at the Second World Congress of TIVA-TCI in Berlin. (Some further history is available on the news page.)

• If you are aware of anyone who might be interested in target controlled infusion (TCI) technology, please let them know about this website. We are only an average of six 'steps' away from each person on Earth (Six_degrees_of_separation). So, we should have no difficulty contacting all those who might want to contribute!

If you are trying to contact Professor Thomas Schnider (St Gallen, Switzerland) or Dr Charles Minto (Sydney, Australia) to ask about why you are sometimes unable to select propofol or remifentanil TCI on a Fresensius Kabi TCI pump, please read our disclaimer first. All members of the Open TCI Initiative are encouraged to complete a disclosure page.