TechNation - September 2019 by MD Publishing

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ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL / HTM PROFESSIONAL

SEPTEMBER 2019

Optimizing Your

CMMS

Much More than PM Schedules

14 Company Showcase EQ2

24 Company Showcase

Phoenix Data Systems, Inc.

29 News and Notes Address Service Requested MD Publishing 18 Eastbrook Bend Peachtree City, GA 30269

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Vol. 10

Industry Updates

51 Roundtable

Infusion Therapy

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CONTENTS

FEATURED

HE ROUNDTABLE: INFUSION THERAPY T This month’s Roundtable article is focused on infusion therapy and IV pumps. TechNation invited professionals to share their insights and advice regarding these important health care devices. Next month’s Roundtable article: CMMS

OPTIMIZING YOUR CMMS: MUCH MORE THAN PM SCHEDULES Hospitals are dependent on efficiency more than ever. It takes the full capabilities of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to keep managers fully appraised of a litany of ever-changing functions. These systems are taking on more robust capabilities and utilizing the newest trends in technology to harness available information and coax it into useful, actionable data.

Next month’s Feature article: Leaders in Training

TechNation (Vol. 10, Issue #9) September 2019 is published monthly by MD Publishing, 18 Eastbrook Bend, Peachtree City, GA 30269-1530. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to TechNation at 18 Eastbrook Bend, Peachtree City, GA 30269-1530. TechNation magazine is dedicated to providing medical equipment service professionals with comprehensive, reliable, information concerning medical equipment, parts, service and supplies. It is published monthly by MD Publishing, Inc. Subscriptions are available free of charge to qualified individuals within the United States. Publisher reserves the right to determine qualification for a free subscriptions. Every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy of content; however, the information, opinions, and statements expressed in the articles and advertisements herein are those of the writer and/or advertiser, and not necessarily those of the publisher. ©2019

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

SEPTEMBER 2019

TECHNATION

CONTENTS

INSIDE

Departments

PUBLISHER

John M. Krieg

VICE PRESIDENT

Kristin Leavoy

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Jayme McKelvey Megan Cabot

ART DEPARTMENT Jonathan Riley Karlee Gower Amanda Purser EDITOR

John Wallace

EDITORIAL

Roger Bowles Jenifer Brown K. Richard Douglas Jim Fedele Joe Fishel Inhel Rekik Manny Roman Cindy Stephens Steven J. Yelton

DIGITAL SERVICES

Cindy Galindo Kennedy Krieg Erin Register

CIRCULATION

Lisa Lisle Melissa Brand

WEBINARS

Linda Hasluem

ACCOUNTING

Diane Costea

EDITORIAL BOARD

Manny Roman, Business Operation Manager, AMSP Salim Kai, MSPSL, CBET, Clinical Safety Engineer University of Michigan Health System Jim Fedele, Sr. Program Director, Clinical Engineering, BioTronics, UPMC Susquehanna Izabella Gieras, MS, MBA, CCE, Director of Clinical Technology, Huntington Memorial Hospital Inhel Rekik, Clinical Engineering Manager, Medstar Georgetown University Hospital

P.12 SPOTLIGHT p.12 Professional of the Month: Jessyka Helton, CBET p.14 Company Showcase: EQ2 p.18 Department of the Month: The Deborah Heart and Lung Center Biomedical Equipment Engineering Department p.20 Association of the Month: The California Medical Instrumentation Association p.24 Company Showcase: Phoenix Data Systems, Inc. P.29 INDUSTRY UPDATES p.29 News and Notes: Updates from the HTM Industry p.36 Ribbon Cutting: General Medical Equipment p.38 AAMI Update p.40 ECRI Institute Update P.42 p.42 p.45 p.46 p.49

THE BENCH Biomed 101 Shop Talk Webinar Wednesday Tools of the Trade

P.64 EXPERT ADVICE p.64 Career Center p.66 20/20 Imaging Insights p.68 Cybersecurity p.70 Edge Biomed: Asset Management p.73 The Other Side p.75 Roman Review P.76 BREAKROOM p.76 Did You Know? p.78 The Vault p.80 MedWrench Bulletin Board p.86 Flashback p.82 Service Index p.85 Alphabetical Index

MD Publishing / TechNation Magazine 18 Eastbrook Bend, Peachtree City, GA 30269 800.906.3373 â&#x20AC;¢ Fax: 770.632.9090 Email: info@mdpublishing.com www.mdpublishing.com

TECHNATION

SEPTEMBER 2019

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SPOTLIGHT

PROFESSIONAL OF THE MONTH Jessyka Helton, CBET: Ambition is Key BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

ilitary biomed training has produced a large number of highly skilled HTM professionals within the military and civilian ranks. They can be found in hospitals and on military bases across the country.

One of those military-trained biomeds is Jessyka Helton, CBET, Unit Director 1 of Clinical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center (UCMC). Helton is employed by Crothall Healthcare (an entity of Compass One). She knew from an early age that she wanted to join the military and work in the medical field. “Right out of high school, I decided to join the U.S. Army. I knew I wanted to pursue a career in the medical field, but I had no idea there were jobs available in the HTM profession. After reviewing the available field, I decided to enlist as a 68A-Biomedical Equipment Technician. At this point, I had no previous electrical background,” Helton says. “The U.S. Army sends all BMETs through a formal training program which takes about a year to complete. At the time of my training, the schoolhouse was located at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. It has since relocated to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas,” Helton adds. She says that the course is full of hands-on training that streamlines the

TECHNATION

SEPTEMBER 2019

learning process. “The program is broken down into 12 blocks of instruction, and each block focuses on a different type of equipment. Each block is broken down into a lecture and a lab. The extensive hands-on and thorough instruction had a strong focus on the knowledge needed to perform the daily task of a BMET. I completed my training and received my certificate in October 2010,” she says. Helton says that after the Army, her first civilian job was working in Seattle, Washington with Aramark Healthcare Technologies in 2012. “Within a year of working there, I was promoted from BMET I to BMET

II. In 2014, I relocated to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, where I am still currently employed. In the five years I have been here, I have gone from BMET II to Imaging Service Engineer I and II. Recently, I was promoted to Unit Director of Clinical Engineering for my facility. I have worked for both Aramark Healthcare Technologies and Compass One Healthcare at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center,” Helton says. She has been CBET certified since 2013. She has some areas of specialty within HTM and imaging. “For biomed I have specialized in women’s health, neonatal intensive care and maternal/fetal care. For diagnostic imaging, I have specialized in ultrasound, general radiology, R&F rooms, C-arms, portable X-ray units, digital radiography, dental X-ray and cath labs,” Helton says. ENJOYING THE JOURNEY Women still represent a minority in the HTM field and asked about challenges, Helton acknowledges this reality. “In this industry, I have encountered difficulty in being a female minority. I have felt the need to prove myself, as there has commonly been a misconception that I wouldn’t be able to perform at the same level as my male counterparts. In doing so, I have excelled at an extreme rate. I have been noticed by all facilities I have worked in

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SPOTLIGHT Opposite Page: Jessyka Helton, CBET, works on general equipment and a variety of imaging devices. Left: Jessyka Helton keeps a photo o her family on her desk. She says they are her “WHY.”

FAVORITE BOOK

“Girl, Wash Your Face” by Rachel Hollis

FAVORITE MOVIE

All of the Harry Potter movies!

FAVORITE FOOD

Pan seared sea scallops.

HIDDEN TALENT

Culinary arts. I love to cook fancy dishes!

FAVORITE PART OF BEING A BIOMED

“I have a tie for the two favorite things of being a biomed; first is the feeling you get when you pull all of your resources and knowledge together to resolve a highly complex issue. Second, would be seeing the equipment in use and knowing I play a huge role in excellent patient care.”

WHAT’S ON MY BENCH

• My MegaPro multi-tip screwdrivers (favorite tools) • My capped water (I am big on staying hydrated and healthy) • Pictures of my family, they are my WHY • A list of all my most used contacts in the industry. One of the things I’ve learned is you don’t have to know it all, just keep in touch with people who do. Networking is a huge key to success in any industry. • Plenty of notepads and my favorite BIC pens. I take a ton of notes, documenting every thought or important piece of information throughout my day. You will never catch me without pen and paper or at least a digital note to keep track of everything.

for my customer service and technical skills. I prove daily that gender plays no role in how far you can go in the HTM industry,” she says. Special projects also test the skills of HTM professionals and Helton has been involved in several. “I have been part of several special projects recently. I’ve been involved in the installation of several servers and PACs archives including GE ViewPoint, AS software, ECHOPACS, McKesson, Merge and Medstreaming. I have facilitated projects to upgrade and integrate new imaging systems such as the GE Revolution CTs and GE Logiq E10 and Vivid E95 ultrasounds. I have

worked to train staff, to perform functional checks of new devices, and help with transitions of new software and systems at my facility,” Helton says. Away from the workplace, Helton keeps busy with family. “I have three children, so my free time is mostly used soaking up as much quality time with them as I can. We like planning long weekend adventures and spending time with our extended family. My hobbies include volunteering with my local church, playing piano, and any/everything outdoors,” she says. She adds that she has a “very large extended family.” Helton enjoys her work and still

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

marvels at the advances and opportunities in the HTM profession. “I’ve been in the industry for almost a decade now and I’ve loved the journey so far. Working in health care technology has successfully coupled my technical abilities and passion for service to others. I came from humble beginnings and I have used my ambition to fuel my personal development, which has been the biggest contributor to my success. I never lose the wonder of this evolving job; our industry is rapidly advancing and the sky truly is the limit,” Helton says. Her early Army training set the trajectory for a rewarding HTM career.

SEPTEMBER 2019

TECHNATION

SPOTLIGHT

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

COMPANY SHOWCASE EQ2

BY JOE EICHBERGER, EQ2 CEO

Q2’s HEMS® CMMS has been used exclusively by healthcare clients for over 25 years. We do not market to, nor do we intend to offer our CMMS product to other markets. We believe the healthcare market needs are sufficiently unique that any CMMS offering sold in multiple markets will be a compromised product. HEMS is designed to help manage compliance with accrediting agencies, to help with an Alternative Equipment Management (AEM) Program, to provide an integrated tool for keeping track of manufacturers’ notices and recalls, for helping assure that hospital processes are defined and adhered to, for improving productivity and for benchmarking a hospital’s own performance over time. All of these tools help to improve patient outcomes while helping to run a cost-effective, efficient operation. Our reporting and dashboard tools provide HTM management with the metrics they need to not only document and show their efficacy, but to help them continuously improve their operations. Finally, our system is easy to use – based on the feedback we have received from our customers.

There are only a few CMMS products that are solely healthcare market focused. And not all of these offer both

HEMS Remote

TECHNATION

SEPTEMBER 2019

a client server and cloud-based solution. Some newcomers like to champion their “no legacy” roots, but what they fail to note is they also have no scar tissue, and know little about the hospital environment. We are not the largest player in the hospital market, just the best. We are growing nicely and always put our client’s needs first. About five years ago, HEMS became available on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Our setup people are experts in working with the client’s IT staff to set up Active Directory in any of its flavors, and for managing mobile users. THE UNIQUE ARCHITECTURE OF HEMS The architecture behind EQ2’s HEMS CMMS is designed with the focused purpose of meeting our hospital clients’ needs. Our family of products provides flexibility for our clients. One service area such as HTM can get started and others such as Facilities, Support Services, EVS, IT, Supply Chain, etc. can be added later if desired. Technicians are able to more efficiently and more easily complete work using our mobile app: HEMS Remote. This app downloads all current work orders while connected and then when the technician goes to a location or part of a hospital that lacks connectivity, he/ she still accesses all of those same work

orders in their entirety and updates just as when connected. Once connected again, those updates are synced to the HEMS CMMS. A wizard-like interface and use of the device’s camera for photo attachments and scanning barcodes truly makes for a complete approach to addressing work orders. We have established connective services with many healthcare affiliated vendors such as ServiceNow, ECRI, OneSOURCE, PartsSource, Glassbeam and RTLS providers. HEMS interfaces directly with a number of medical testers including Fluke, Datrend and Rigel. We have effected other interfaces with various software providers as needed by our individual hospital clients and will continue to release new interfaces as our users may need. For example, ZingBox enables network scans for threats and devices to be flagged; the data retrieved will then populate IT fields. Since HEMS has its own platform, we are able to modify the architecture to meet the needs of hospitals as they arise in the future. This assures HEMS will continue to be a robust 21st century solution. POWERFUL DATA TOOLS We have certain reports and dashboards that are specifically designed for helping the HTM team stay in compliance and for documentation required by

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SPOTLIGHT

Performance and Benchmarking Manager

Automated AEM Dashboard

regulators and for the Environment of Care (EOC) committee meeting. Specifically, our AEM dashboard is lauded by customers for its powerful ability to guide management of the program device by device. Another product - the HEMS Performance and Benchmarking Analyzer (PBA) - unleashes the power of data in new ways to take the HTM department to the next level. First, our Implementation Team will analyze the current data in a hospital’s existing CMMS to identify potential issues and work with the hospital to standardize and clean it, if necessary. Using best practices means that the data will be consistent and feed dashboards and reports that are accurate and meaningful which leads to good decision making. As KPIs and trends in our dashboards and reports emerge, opportunities for benchmarking and continuous improvement abound. The

department’s strengths and everimproving performance can also be showcased to upper management. THE FUTURE EQ2 is the pioneer in “Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise Patient Care Device” (IHE PCD) and is the only CMMS vendor to successfully test the integrations with vendors like GE, Philips, Baxter, Smiths Medical, etc. at the IHE Connectathon. Now, EQ2 is in a position to utilize volumes of data from these smart and connected devices while creating an AI system that will analyze this data to help provide better equipment replacement planning. It will have real device utilization pattern reports and error reports. HEMS will also be able to provide suggestions on which model is safe, reliable and has the lowest total cost of ownership. Another example of AI (and machine learning) is our new interface with Glassbeam. Potential issues with devices

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

are identified before a failure or other concern occurs. Other ways that CMMS can learn from the constant flow of data coming in for predictive maintenance is by analyzing new kinds of data that testers and devices will be providing in the future. CHOOSING A CMMS Our clients include small specialty clinics, large hospitals as well as multi-hospital institutions. This, combined with over 25 years of best practice design and development, assures our customers achieve quality improvement and a quantifiable return on the investment they made in selecting and using the HEMS software. With HEMS you have the opportunity to choose a proven hospital product on the leading edge of technology, developed and supported by experienced professionals. For more information, visit eq2llc.com.

SEPTEMBER 2019

TECHNATION

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SEPTEMBER 2019

TECHNATION

SPOTLIGHT

DEPARTMENT OF THE MONTH Deborah Heart and Lung Center Biomedical Equipment Engineering Department BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

ew Jersey is known for its shoreline and Atlantic City. The town of Browns Mills, near the center of New Jersey, hosts a population of nearly 11,000. The town is known for its lakes, including Mirror Lake, Little Pine Lake and Big Pine Lake, and its many recreational opportunities. It is a part of the larger Pemberton Township.

An early 20th century tuberculosis (TB) epidemic necessitated expertise in its treatment. A sanatorium and pulmonary center was founded in 1922 for this purpose. It treated and cured thousands of TB patients. This was some of the

TECHNATION

SEPTEMBER 2019

earliest healing accomplished at the Deborah Heart and Lung Center. The center is located in Browns Mills. After its success treating TB, the center moved on to other chest diseases. It continues that focus today. “Deborah Heart and Lung Center is an 89-bed specialty nonprofit hospital. Our focus is cardiac, vascular and lung disease. A full-service ambulatory care clinic, five operating rooms, four cardiac catherization labs, three electrophysiology labs, radiology, nuclear medicine, CT, cardiopulmonary rehab, sleep center are some of the departments that biomedical equipment engineering services,” says Randy

Cremer, CBET, director of the biomedical equipment engineering (BMEE) department at Deborah. The nine-member in-house team of biomeds includes Cremer, Assistant Director Garry Chamberlain, BMET III Rick Bello, BMET III Michael Hamid, BMET III Kamlesh “DJ” Patel, BMET III Ken Shearer, BMET I Mark Williams and Secretary Ana Diaz. The group reports directly to the hospital’s COO. Each team member has at least one area of specialty. Cremer specializes in technology acquisition, in addition to management. Chamberlain specializes in imaging systems and PACS. Bello specializes in ultrasound and critical

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SPOTLIGHT Left: Members of the Deborah Heart and Lung Center Biomedical Equipment Engineering Department include from left: BMET III Ken Shearer, BMET I Mark Williams, Secretary Ana Diaz, Assistant Director Garry Chamberlain, BMET III Kamlesh “DJ” Patel and Director Randy Cremer. Right: BMET III Kamlesh “DJ” Patel works on a ventilator. care. Critical care is also an area of specialty for Hamid. Patel specializes in critical care and ultrasound. Shearer specializes in critical care and patient monitoring. Williams joins Shearer as a patient monitoring specialist and also works on general devices. “Our responsibility ranges from inspecting infusion pumps to servicing fluoroscopic systems. Our focus is patient safety and to provide service that is helpful,” Cremer says. There are varying degrees of integration between information systems (IS) departments and biomed. The teams at Deborah have a good working relationship. “BMEE and IS are separate departments that have a different chain of command, but we work closely on a regular basis and with special projects. We are currently collaborating with cybersecurity and medical device integration,” Cremer says. The biomed team also has a say in the procurement process. “Service contracts are managed in collaboration with our purchasing department. BMEE participates in the process by identifying the need for service and weighing the cost and benefit of a contract to doing the service ourselves. By participating in the capital purchase process, BMET training is often included with the initial purchase if it makes sense to bring that service in-house,” Cremer says. BRINGING DEVICES ONLINE AND PROBLEM SOLVING The HTM team put its skills to the task of networking and storage and shared its cross-culture expertise to help colleagues complete a project. “BMEE participated in the centerwide EMR transition. Our role was the interoperability of patient monitoring

and PACS. This project involved the entire center but we worked closely with IS, imaging services and patient care services. Since we speak a bit of both languages we often acted as the liaison between the clinical and technical players,” Cremer says. Their expertise was enhanced via their resident imaging expert. “Garry Chamberlain, imaging systems specialist, was instrumental in identifying how best to interface imaging modalities. Having knowledge of imaging services workflow, PACS and the available technologies, he was able to guide IS during the development of ADT and worklist rules,” Cremer adds. Cremer says that he focused on the patient monitoring end. “Having standardized on one vendor for patient monitoring meant we only needed one HL7 server and one interface to the EMR for all of our patient monitoring needs,” he says. The in-house abilities of the team helped cut costs and they found a benefit in standardization. “This helped to keep the expense of this portion of the project down. Kamlesh Patel, was able to interface other devices through the bedside monitors. For example, we can connect a ventilator to a bedside monitor to capture the respiratory data without having to purchase another EMR interface and a server for the ventilators,” Cremer says. “Historically, standardizing medical

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

devices was done to leverage the cost to purchase equipment, keep maintenance expenses down and make it easier on the end user. What we discovered, during this process, was that it helped to keep the cost of interfacing down as well,” Cremer adds. The team is also good at donning their detective hats to solve problems. “BMEE maintains our TEE probe inventory. This includes monitoring repairs. Kamlesh “DJ” Patel noted that we had a higher than normal failure rate. This prompted us to do what we do best; identify our resources and find a solution. We enlisted the help of the echocardiogram, anesthesia and processing departments to do a ‘tracer.’ This allowed us to identify how probes are handled, who handles them and if there is any improvement to be made in this process,” Cremer says. He says that they found that the trays being used to transport the probes were not an ideal size. “We purchased a different style tray to better protect the probe. We brought in a vendor to re-educate all of us on proper TEE probe handling. Our failure rate due to damage immediately dropped to zero,” Cremer says. The BMEE team has proven their value and made the best of their various specialties. In the end, the people of central New Jersey receive better care.

SEPTEMBER 2019

TECHNATION

SPOTLIGHT

The California Medical Instrumentation Association is one of the largest state HTM organizations.

ASSOCIATION OF THE MONTH The California Medical Instrumentation Association BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

alifornia is a large state with 840 miles of Pacific coastline that stretches from its border with Mexico to Oregon. The eastern side of the state borders Nevada and Arizona.

The state is known for its farm crops, Silicon Valley tech firms, beaches and wine country. The state is so big that it would take 10 hours of non-stop driving to travel the Pacific Coast highway from the Oregon border to San Diego. With such great distances within the state, it would stand to reason that a statewide biomed association would need to be equally expansive to accommodate the scattered population of biomeds. The California Medical Instrumentation Association (CMIA) has been able to achieve just that over its long history. “CMIA was founded in 1972 by those working in the field when they became more conscious of a need for improved communication and contact

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SEPTEMBER 2019

with peers. CMIA became a nonprofit organization with the state of California in 1992,” says Jennie “Jenn” Nichols, 2019 CMIA State Chair. Nichols says that CMIA was founded by a group of biomedical electronics technicians and engineers who gathered together to discuss issues arising at their facilities. “This led to more meetings and roundtable discussions where problems and remedies where passed around and there was a sharing of knowledge. The first unofficial meeting was held at Santa Ana Community Hospital in October 1972. Meetings at St. Jude’s Hospital, Hewlett Packard, and the City of Hope followed,” she says. The following year, a large group of biomeds got together, elected officers and started the CMIA. “The bylaws were drafted and became the constitution that all members of CMIA now follow. The group met once a year from 1974 to 1981 at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California. There were

workshops for members while their families visited local points of interest. CMIA incorporated in 1992 with the state of California and filed for nonprofit status. CMIA became the first biomedical association in the U.S. and many states started forming their own associations using the CMIA constitution and by-laws as the model. CMIA has grown to nine chapters with over 1,000 members from the HTM community,” Nichols says. The early founders and organizers included Pat Tarzian, Dennis Heath, George Edwards, Courtney Martin, Dick Habegger and Dick McGraft. They formed the nucleus of CMIA, according to Nichols. The organization’s chapters hold meetings every other month. There are more than 54 meetings annually across the nine chapters. FINDING THE NEXT GENERATION OF BIOMEDS The association offers many benefits to its members, with training and education as high priorities. They also

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SPOTLIGHT

like to pay it forward and support charitable work. “Education is our main focus and we support our mission of education through chapter meetings and a state conference. There are often other mini conferences hosted by the chapters to promote education. Chapters also host weekend training events hosted by OEMs, field service engineers or other vendors,” Nichols says. “Our other passion is giving back. Many of the CMIA members are involved in giving back through mission trips, donation of used medical equipment, mentorship and community involvement. Our members are giving of their time and talent. We are incorporating outreach events into our chapters and the state conference,” Nichols adds. She says that at the 2020 Conference, CMIA will be hosting junior high, high school and junior college students to participate in an interactive session with members, including a panel discussion, roundtable and exhibit hall access to learn more about HTM. CMIA also supports scholarships to help the next generation of HTM professionals. “The Frank Yip Memorial Scholarship fund is dedicated to the memory of Franklin Yip. The fund is established to encourage others to follow in Frank’s footsteps by pursuing a course in biomedical studies, with the goal of practicing biomedical/clinical engineering. Up to five scholarships are awarded yearly and presented at the annual conference. We also offer a scholarship program for up to 10 individuals per year to pursue their CBET certification. The scholarship covers the CABMET study course,” Nichols says. Nichols says that the 2018

Conference in Ontario, California was a well-executed conference with 20 educational sessions, a maxed-out exhibitor hall, engaging keynote and awards banquet. “CMIA is planning a three-day conference for January 2020 in San Diego. Highlights include over 35 speakers/panels, 75 exhibitors, golf tournament, an outreach event for junior high, high school and junior college to introduce them to the HTM field and networking event of local craft breweries,” she says. The effort to help guide the next generation of biomed also means establishing a relationship with local training programs, technical and community colleges. “CMIA has partnered with Los Angeles Vocational College, American River College, Southern California Institute of Technology and Mira Costa College to provide talent for the future of the HTM industry,” Nichols says. There is also a need to replace the many retiring baby boomer HTM professionals and biomed associations, like CMIA, play an important role here. “CMIA is adapting to new ways to reach our members. We started with a complete redesign of our website (CMIA.org) and will be implementing our social media strategy in 2019 to appeal to a wider audience. At the chapter meetings, we are encouraging students to attend and network with biomeds and hiring managers. Our new website supports job postings along with providing tools on how to get involved in the industry,” Nichols says. She says that the group is specifically creating material around launching a career in HTM and gearing up for their mentor program to pair new biomeds with senior biomeds. They are also implementing the aforementioned

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

outreach event to bring interest in the HTM profession to more young people. “The outreach event will include a panel discussion on how to start a career in HTM, best practices to get a job, how to succeed, and how to make a difference in HTM. With our renewed focus on education, we are here to help the next generation join the ranks of HTM,” Nichols says. While California is a big state, its statewide HTM organization has not been daunted and has forged ahead to bring benefits to biomeds from every corner of the state. Its long history, innovation and efforts to recruit the next generation of biomeds make CMIA an invaluable resource to the community.

CMIA member Jovito “Jojo” Gonzales(center) was named the 2019 AAMI and GE Healthcare BMET of the year

SEPTEMBER 2019

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COMPANY SHOWCASE Phoenix Data Systems, Inc.

hoenix Data Systems, Inc. was formed in the early days of specialized software based on the urgent need for hospitals to have a modern maintenance work order system. In 1984, after two years of design and development, the first AIMS system was delivered to eight Michigan hospitals. Today, AIMS is used in 3,000 facilities in 18 countries. Phoenix recently launched its fifth platform to carry AIMS users well into the late 2020s and beyond.

“Our most exciting product is our fifth generation CMMS, called AIMS 3,” President and CEO Ben Mannisto says. “This is not just a facelift of our current product, AIMS.NET, but rather a culmination of 35 years of experience in the industry listening to our customers’ needs and requirements, and putting all of that into a rewrite using the latest technologies.” “With built-in metrics and machinelearning algorithms, we can instantly alert users when they are drifting from acceptable performance levels, costs, task results, compliance, or other trackable metrics. AIMS 3 will provide improved workflows and more information at your fingertips, so technicians can spend less time using the software and more time out on the floor taking care of medical equipment and maintaining facilities,” he adds.

TECHNATION

SEPTEMBER 2019

“AIMS 3 will be browser agnostic with built in dashboards, and can be installed locally or hosted by Phoenix at one of our offsite data centers (cloud), in either the U.S. or Canada.” Other highlights of AIMS 3 include the ability to run the application on any computer, tablet or smartphone, customizable screen layouts, a customizable user interface, and system-wide audit trails. “The product will still feel familiar to our existing customers so there will be little to no training needed to make the transition to AIMS 3. With a full

Ben Mannisto President and CEO, Phoenix Data Systems

“ Our most exciting product is our fifth generation CMMS, called AIMS 3. This is not just a facelift of our current product, AIMS.NET, but rather a culmination of 35 years of experience in the industry listening to our customers’ needs and requirements, and putting all of that into a rewrite using the latest technologies.” – BEN MANNISTO API to every field, we are able to interface with other products used in hospitals such as ServiceNow or Remedy, for hospital-wide work order systems; PeopleSoft, Lawson, or

McKesson for purchasing systems; AeroScout, Versus, AgileTrac, Intelligent Insights, and others for RTLS; and ANSUR, BC Group, Datrend, or Meditech for equipment testing devices.

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SPOTLIGHT

There are more than 45 interfaces already completed or planned for the next 2 years,” Mannisto says. “Phoenix is consistently solving hospital engineering departments’ needs and adapting to changes. The next major achievement will be dynamic analytics to help engineering departments become more labor efficient and effective, including reducing costs and smart troubleshooting, which will strengthen the newer technician’s ability to maintain and repair equipment.” The company’s foundational success is predominantly based on three things, according to Mannisto. He says those three things are staying on the front end of Healthcare Technology Management’s evolving needs; utilizing current hardware and software technology; and quality customer support. “Weekly surveys show that AIMS average satisfaction is 96%, whereas the North American service industry

“ Phoenix’ mission is simple: to serve our customer’s needs. Our foundation of success, our longevity and our growth are all based on this mission” – BEN MANNISTO standard is 86%. This is accomplished predominantly by listening to our customers and responding to their requests accordingly,” Mannisto says. Phoenix remains committed to the healthcare industry’s clinical and facilities engineering departments through its products – AIMS and Superior Analytics. This commitment is also reflected by its involvement within industry-specific organizations. “Our core competency is stated in the following thesis: Choose AIMS and you will never search for another CMMS,” says Mannisto. “Our senior management is involved in the healthcare industry and is a member of many national committees where trends and industry needs are identified in advance,” Mannisto explains.

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

Phoenix takes great pride in being able to listen and help customers with unique solutions when needed. No matter the issue, Mannisto says Phoenix and AIMS are there to support our customers. “Phoenix’ mission is simple: to serve our customer’s needs. Our foundation of success, our longevity and our growth are all based on this mission,” he adds. “Phoenix serves customer needs by staying current, if not ahead of, healthcare engineering department requirements, staying current with technology hardware and software, and listening to our customers. This has been predominantly achieved through 34 annual User Symposiums, which continue to provide an open exchange of ideas to support users’ needs” For more information, visit goaims.com.

SEPTEMBER 2019

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

NEWS & NOTES

Updates from the HTM Industry STAFF REPORTS

REPORT: INHALATION ANESTHESIA MARKET TO EXCEED $1 BILLION

GE HEALTHCARE OPENS COLLEGE OF HTM The GE Healthcare’s Institute has approximately 2.5 million devices under contract in its HTM group. The GE Healthcare’s HTM group manages approximately 45,000 unique makes and models of equipment. GE Healthcare’s College of HTM is designed so that HTM professionals who come to it for training are prepared to deliver a great HTM experience for customers. The College of HTM offers classroom and virtual training, and training in built environments staged as clinical settings – an operating room (OR) suite, a patient room in an intensive care unit (ICU), a nurses’ station and a biomed shop. Students will be trained on GE and non-GE equipment typically

used in these settings. The college is currently available to GE employees with plans to expand access, outside of GE, in 2020. GE Healthcare reports that 8,000 students are trained at the Healthcare Institute annually representing 125 countries. There are 600+ pieces of imaging, ultrasound and monitoring equipment on-site for training; 800 courses are offered to students. Also, there are more than 60 pieces of multi-vendor equipment at the Healthcare Institute and 110 multi-vendor courses are offered. Training across all imaging modalities, life care solutions products, networking and cybersecurity is offered. •

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

The inhalation anesthesia market maintenance segment accounted for more than 80% revenue share in 2018 and will show momentous growth by 2025, according to a press release. Advantages such as fast recovery offered by inhalation anesthesia as compared to injectables and safety of airway will accelerate the segmental growth. The sevoflurane segment crossed $950 million in 2018 and will witness tremendous growth during the forecast period. Benefits offered by sevoflurane, including intrinsic stability, low flammability, non-pungent odor, and nominal cardiovascular and respiratory side effects, will further foster inhalation anesthesia market demand. The ambulatory surgical centers segment was valued at around $500 million in 2018 and is projected to experience profitable growth for the inhalation anesthesia market. This is led by benefits associated with ambulatory surgical procedures, including minimally invasive surgeries at affordable costs, reduced hospital stays and quality treatment. The North America inhalation anesthesia market exceeded $440 million in 2018 and is estimated to dominate the industry share to 2025. Increasing health care spending, coupled with well-established health care infrastructure for effective patient health management and presence of major industry players, should foster regional industry demand. •

SEPTEMBER 2019

TECHNATION

INDUSTRY UPDATES

TKA VP DAVE FRANCOEUR TO SERVE SECOND TERM AS AAMI BOARD MEMBER Tech Knowledge Associates (TKA) Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales Dave Francoeur has been selected to serve another three-year term on the board of directors for the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI). A major focus of AAMI is to facilitate and promote collaboration among original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), in-house healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs) and independent service organizations (ISOs) to make healthcare technology management (HTM) the best it can be.

“When OEMs, HDOs and ISOs work together, this collaboration helps to ensure superior HTM that exceeds safety, quality and service requirements,” said Francoeur, who has held several leadership positions at AAMI. “When we communicate with and support one another, our hospitals, their clinicians, and ultimately their patients, benefit from meticulous and complete service, updates, testing and training.” AAMI also develops consensus standards and guidance documents for the HTM community, as well as the medical device industry. One example is EQ56, which is undergoing an update and provides a recommended practice for a medical equipment management program. Through his leadership on the AAMI

Board, Francoeur will help AAMI achieve its primary goals to: • Contain costs. • Stay on top of new technology and policy developments. • Add value in health care organizations. • Improve professional skills. • Enhance patient care. AAMI provides a forum for a variety of professionals, including clinical and biomedical engineers and technicians, physicians, nurses, educators, manufacturers, government regulators and others with an interest in healthcare technology. “I’m truly honored to serve,” said Francoeur. “The AAMI Board and leadership have great plans to take the HTM field to new heights and I’m proud to be part of the effort.” •

TJC ENTERS NEXT GENERATION OF QUALITY MEASUREMENT The Joint Commission is shepherding in the next generation of clinical quality by expanding the capabilities of its quality measure program to provide accredited hospitals with year-round, real-time access to quality measures. Over the last two years, The Joint Commission has transformed its electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) reporting process to increase value and reduce burden for thousands of their 4,500 accredited hospitals with a Direct Data Submission Platform (DDSP). The Joint Commission is now continuing that digital transformation by making the platform and quality measure results continuously available, allowing providers to measure and improve performance in near real-time without additional outside vendors. The DDSP is the first solution to make clinical quality language-based eCQMs available to providers in an execution environment where they can generate and use the results continuously. Clinical quality language

TECHNATION

SEPTEMBER 2019

(CQL) is the new industry standard for measures, used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for 2019 eCQM reporting, and endorsed by HL7 International. CQL brings together the underlying logic of quality measurement, clinical pathways, clinical decision support and more. It can eliminate manual translation of measures, requiring fewer resources and less time spent in measures implementation. The Joint Commission can now use a single environment to specify, develop, test and distribute CQL measures for use. With The Joint Commission’s DDSP, accredited hospitals now have additional tools to go beyond simply sending data one way, but using that information to improve quality performance and data accuracy in near real-time. “What we’ve accomplished in the last two years with the Direct Data Submission Platform has delivered ongoing value for our accredited

hospitals,” said Dr. David Baker, executive vice president for the division of health care quality evaluation at The Joint Commission. “We’re thrilled to build on that value with continuous quality insights that empower providers to make real-time performance improvements.” The Joint Commission has partnered with Apervita to provide the cloud platform that underpins this program by enabling providers to specify, develop, test and execute eCQMs, as well as create and distribute applications that use them, in the cloud at scale. Apervita’s mission is aligned with The Joint Commission to reduce cost and improve quality. “The Joint Commission’s success is paving the way for a new frontier in quality measurement,” said Apervita founder and CEO Paul Magelli. “The Joint Commission’s work is a great example of the industry benefiting from a cloud platform that removes cost and time while delivering value to providers, and ultimately, their patients.” •

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

PHOENIX DATA SYSTEMS, DRAWBASE SOFTWARE ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP Phoenix Data Systems Inc. has announced a partnership with Drawbase Software, a provider of integrated workplace management solutions (IWMS). Together the companies provide clients with a solution for health care facilities management. “The agreement between Phoenix and Drawbase provides best-in-class solutions in a best-of-breed environment to strengthen health care facility maintenance programs. Drawbase provides visual space, infrastructure and data center

management in a single converged environment, and Phoenix provides CMMS capabilities to over 3,000 hospitals around the world. The combined solution will equip facility departments with the most robust CAFM-CMMS integration in health care,” according to a press release. “Phoenix Data Systems’ AIMS product provides Drawbase with an out-of-the-box health care-focused solution for maintenance that has never before been seen in the industry,” said Evan Kontos, president of Drawbase Software. “Health care CMMS users

will be able to bring the systems up and become productive almost immediately. The days of system customization and implementation that took months, or even years, is over. And at a fraction of the price.” “Partnering with Drawbase will provide immense value to our AIMS users,” said Ben Mannisto, president & CEO of Phoenix Data Systems Inc. “For the first time, users will be able to visually manage their buildings and assets from inside AIMS. I know a lot of AIMS users will be excited to use this functionality.” •

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

MEDISEND COLLEGE SENDS EQUIPMENT TO LIBERIA NSA ISSUES CYBERSECURITY ADVISORY REGARDING MICROSOFT WINDOWS The National Security Agency is urging Microsoft Windows administrators and users to ensure they are using a patched and updated system in the face of growing threats. This includes a threat to medical devices. A recent article on the AAMI websites states “Clinical engineers will need to reach out to OEMs for patches, but developing patches will take time. In the meantime, hospitals should block relevant remote desktop protocol communications enforced by network access control and a firewall – taking care not to block critical communications that could change device functionality or jeopardize patient care.” Recent warnings by Microsoft stressed the importance of installing patches to address a protocol vulnerability in older versions of Windows. Microsoft has warned that this flaw is potentially “wormable,” meaning it could spread without user interaction across the Internet. We have seen devastating computer worms inflict damage on unpatched systems with wide-ranging impact, and are seeking to motivate increased protections against this flaw. CVE-2019-0708, dubbed “BlueKeep,” is a vulnerability in the Remote Desktop (RDP) protocol. It is present in Windows 7, Windows XP, Server 2003 and 2008, and although Microsoft has issued a patch, potentially millions of machines are still vulnerable. This is the type of vulnerability that malicious cyber actors frequently exploit through the use of software code that specifically targets the vulnerability. For example, the vulnerability could be exploited to conduct denial of service attacks. It is likely only a matter of time before remote exploitation code is widely available for this vulnerability. NSA is concerned that malicious cyber actors will use the vulnerability in ransomware and exploit kits containing other known exploits, increasing capabilities against other unpatched systems. NSA urges everyone to invest the time and resources to know your network and run supported operating systems with the latest patches. Please refer to our advisory for additional information. This is critical not just for NSA’s protection of National Security Systems but for all networks. • For more information, visit https://www.nsa.gov/What-We-Do/Cybersecurity/.

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SEPTEMBER 2019

Medisend College has recently shipped three 40-foot, ocean containers filled with life-saving medical equipment to the Zoe Geh Hospital located in rural Liberia, one of the poorest countries in Africa. The shipments are a result of a unique program that enables students in the biomedical engineering technology courses at Medisend College to have a hands-on, practical experience on equipment donated by hospitals and manufacturers. The donated medical equipment is refurbished by faculty and students and then made available to hospitals and clinics in countries that would not otherwise have access to modern medical equipment. Zoe Geh Foundation, headquartered in Dallas, funded shipping costs. It is estimated that more than 750,000 people live within 50 miles of the Zoe Geh Medical Center. The closest health care facility is approximately 100 miles away by mainly unpaved roads (4 hours by 4-wheel drive vehicle). Founded in 2004, the Zoe Geh Medical Center began as a dirt-floored clinic and has since grown to a much larger and more modern facility thanks to the efforts of Zoe Geh Foundation under the leadership of Susan and Dr. Woodrow Gandy. “The dedication of the physicians, surgeons, PAs, nurses and staff at Zoe Geh Medical Center is amazing. They are saving lives and improving the quality of life for patients from all over eastern Liberia and Ivory Coast who often walk long distances for treatment,” says Dr. Gandy, “The equipment that Medisend College has sent will be of great benefit to these dedicated health care workers and the patients they serve every day.” Zoe Geh Medical Center in Liberia is only one example of the humanitarian efforts on the part of Medisend College. The organization has trained professional technicians and sent medical equipment to places such as Angola, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, India and Indonesia. “Medisend College is a unique place for many reasons but, most of all, we value our commitment to improving lives. Every day, we strive to improve the lives of our students, many of whom are U.S. military veterans, and we are dedicated to seeing that the work we do is translated into action by helping those in need,” says Nick Hallack, president and CEO of Medisend College. •

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

Fall Savings on New AIV Fetal Transducers

SAGER ELECTRONICS ACQUIRES TECHNICAL POWER SYSTEMS Sager Electronics, a North American distributor of interconnect, power and electromechanical components and provider of value-add solutions, announced that it has completed the acquisition of Technical Power Systems (TPS), a specialist in the production of custom battery assemblies headquartered in Lisle, Illinois. According to a press release, the addition of Technical Power Systems enhances the product set and design solution capabilities of Sager Power Systems, a specialized group within Sager Electronics, which launched in 2015.

“In the four years since launching Sager Power Systems, Sager has strengthened its offering with thermal products, battery products, value-add capabilities for power supplies and now, with the addition of TPS, value-add capabilities for batteries,” remarked Sager Electronics President Frank Flynn. “With this complete set of products and broader array of engineering and value-add capabilities, Sager is well positioned to design and deliver system level solutions to our customers as well as traditional discrete product solutions, truly differentiating Sager in the distribution landscape.” •

OSI SYSTEMS RECEIVES $8 MILLION ORDER OSI Systems Inc. announced that its health care division, Spacelabs Healthcare, received an approximate $8 million order to provide its patient monitoring systems to upgrade the women’s health and pediatric care facilities of a U.S. hospital network.

“We are excited to receive this order and look forward to supporting this customer’s replacement of its existing patient monitoring infrastructure,” commented Deepak Chopra, OSI Systems’ Chairman and CEO. •

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TECHNATION

INDUSTRY UPDATES

AGILITI ACQUIRES ZETTA MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES Lake Zurich, Illinois-based Zetta Medical Technologies LLC, a provider of medical imaging equipment services and parts, has acquired Agiliti Inc., a provider of healthcare technology management and service solutions. “Zetta’s specialized capabilities and technical expertise are an ideal complement to our expanding platform of clinical engineering services,” said Tom Leonard, CEO of Agiliti. “This acquisition builds upon our outsourced and supplemental biomedical service models and enables us to further extend into full-service clinical engineering for high-end imaging devices. Our teams share a common approach based on the highest quality standards of medical device management, as evidenced by our mutual certifications to ISO 13485:2016. I look forward to

delivering our combined capabilities to customers.” Zetta specializes in multi-vendor clinical engineering services, parts, and pre-owned equipment for medical imaging modalities, including CT, MRI and PET/CT. The company is a national service provider for GE, Siemens, Toshiba and Philips equipment, operating through a network of OEM trained engineers to provide on-demand technical support, maintenance and remote monitoring services. “Over the past 12 years, we’ve built a strong reputation as a highly skilled and reliable partner,” said Mike Ghazal, founder and President of Zetta. “Agiliti shares our commitment to service, customer responsiveness and uncompromising quality, and provides

a platform that will enable us to serve more customers as part of a broader, value-based solution portfolio.” “Our Equipment Value Management solution provides a flexible roadmap to lower the cost and complexity of acquiring, owning and managing medical equipment. Within that framework, our clinical engineering services address the need among healthcare providers to more efficiently manage and maintain a growing and more complex range of equipment and technology. The addition of Zetta, and our previous acquisition of Radiographic Equipment Services (‘RES’) in 2016, reflect our commitment to invest in capabilities that help advance the clinical, financial and operational health of our customers,” Leonard added. •

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INDUSTRY UPDATES Physician’s Resource Network

PATH DEVELOPS AI GUIDELINES PATH, the Partnership for Artificial Intelligence, Telemedicine and Robotics in Healthcare, has developed a set of guidelines for developing and implementing artificial intelligence applications in health care. “The principles were created to help developers and health care professionals assure patients and the public that the emerging use of artificial intelligence in health care will always be dedicated to providing safe, equitable and highest quality services,” said Jonathan Linkous, co-founder and CEO of PATH. The principles include: • First Do No Harm: A guiding principle for both humans and health technology is that, whatever the intervention or procedure, the patient’s well-being is the primary consideration. • Human Values: Advanced technologies used to delivery health care should be designed and operated to be compatible with ideals of human dignity, rights, freedoms and cultural diversity. • Safety: AI systems used in health care should be safe and secure to patients and providers throughout their operational lifetime, verifiably so where applicable and feasible. • Design Transparency: The design and algorithms used in health technology should be open to inspection by regulators. • Failure Transparency: If an AI system causes harm, it should be possible to ascertain why. • Responsibility: Designers and builders of all advanced health care technologies are stakeholders in the moral implications of their use, misuse, and actions, with a responsibility and opportunity to shape those implications. • Value Alignment: Autonomous AI systems should be designed so that

their goals and behaviors can be assured to align with human values throughout their operation. • Personal Privacy: Safeguards should be built into the design and deployment of health care AI applications to protect patient privacy including their personal data. Patients have the right to access, manage and control the data they generate. • Liberty and Privacy: The application of AI to personal data must not unreasonably curtail people’s real or perceived liberty. • Shared Benefit: AI technologies should benefit and empower as many people as possible. • Human Control: Humans should choose how and whether to delegate decisions to AI systems, to accomplish human-chosen objectives. • Evolutionary: Given constant innovation and change affecting devices and software as well as advances in medical research, advanced technology should be designed, in ways that allow them to change in conformance with new discoveries. The principles were developed by members of PATH with additional guidance from other leaders in health care and have incorporated parts of existing statements such as the Asilomar AI Principles and the Hippocratic Oath. PATH is an alliance of stakeholders working together to improve care and build efficiencies using advanced technologies. PATH and its members are working to gain the support of decision makers and the public about the use of advanced technology in health care, moving the field beyond research and pilot projects, and laying out a pathway for the integration and use of advanced technologies in the worldwide ecosystem of medicine.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

RIBBON CUTTING General Medical Equipment BY ERIN REGISTER

fter working as a biomedical engineer at many hospitals, in-house or as a third-party provider, Brian Sung felt that there could be a tremendous improvement in quality, customer service and cost on repairs and parts. As the owner of a start-up business, Sung had to be both the salesman and technician that would visit hospitals and explain why General Medical Equipment (GME) is the best in service and share its mission, as well as vision, in health care.

“Life is like an endless jigsaw puzzle,” said Sung. “We will keep adding or removing pieces that we find are the best fit for the current situation. At the end of the day, we assimilate and adapt.” For Sung, finishing school and gaining workforce experience has pushed the start of General Medical Equipment. While working as a hands-on biomedical engineer, Sung found that most running technological advancement systems and processes are stagnant. “We envisioned a chance to transform the health care industry. In an industry such as biomedical engineering, repetition appears and that creates a lack of growth and learning. Continuous growth, learning and development are some of humanity’s greatest attributes. We thrive on evolution; we will never be perfect, but that does not mean we cannot strive to get close to it as much as possible,” he said.

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TechNation discovered more about General Medical Equipment and its mission in a recent interview. Q: WHAT IS THE MAIN FOCUS OF GENERAL MEDICAL EQUIPMENT (GME)? A: GME is a healthcare technology management company that encompasses every service of medical equipment, being a one-source provider to a hospital. We offer full support services while still maintaining the highest quality of service on equipment and limited delay in patient care. Our goal is not to replace your current staff, but to manage them more efficiently. These cost savings have allowed hospitals to readjust budgets and invest in new capital equipment, investment group opportunities and renovate current locations. GME is considered a spearhead of technology by partnering with Medzon who created new artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms. Q: WHAT SERVICES DOES GME OFFER? A: We are a full-service support provider for biomed, imaging and facility departments in hospitals and clinics. Our team has over 30 years of experience working with all types of modalities. Nationwide coverage is available for weekly, monthly or complete annual service contracts. We offer services for several categories, including biomedical, rental equipment, imaging, mobile imaging, installation, deinstallation, ultrasound probes,

Brian Sung, MSEE President, General Medical Equipment endoscopes, sterilizers, clinics, laboratory and facilities. Q: HOW DOES GME STAND OUT IN THE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT FIELD? A: As a healthcare technology management company, GME is not only a pioneer in service, but also in technology, that is driven by implanting artificial intelligence and machine learning in hospitals. We want to bring back customer service and quality, while advancing hospitals in technology. Q: DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIFIC GOALS THAT YOU WANT GME TO ACHIEVE IN THE NEAR FUTURE? A: GME aims to be in 600 hospitals in 5 years after partnering with Medzon. We are not only expanding in the United States, but overseas as well, into the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. For more information, visit gmequipment.com.

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AAMI UPDATE BY AAMI

AAMI VIDEO HONORS HEROIC HTM PROFESSIONALS FROM CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE One year ago this coming November, the healthcare technology management (HTM) team at Adventist Hospital Feather River in California faced a literal trial by fire the likes of which they had never seen or experienced. As the state’s most destructive and deadliest wildfire bore down on their facility, they had to find new strengths to come through the ordeal, saving both lives and valuable medical equipment. AAMI has created a must-watch, five-minute video of the team’s incredible experiences. The video was unveiled at the AAMI Exchange in June and is available for viewing at www. aami.org/wildfire. The quick reactions of the Feather River team are instructive for every HTM professional. While the Camp Fire blaze in Paradise, California, was unprecedented in terms of lives lost, acres burned, and property loss, wildfires could be an increasing threat to health care facilities. HTM professionals could become front-line responders to a dire emergency. In June, the U.S. Forest Service warned that 1 billion acres of land across the U.S. are at risk of catastrophic wildfires. “The number, severity and overall size of wildfires has increased across much of the U.S.,” Deb Schweizer of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service wrote in a blog post. “For many UDSA Forest Service employees, fire season is something they remember from the start of their careers, when they quickly learned there were five seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall and fire season. However, wildfire is year-round for much of the United States and the Forest Service is shifting to the concept of a fire year.” The Adventist Hospital Feather River HTM team hadn’t planned for a wildfire evacuation, but their response is

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SEPTEMBER 2019

inspirational. “There was no hesitation,” Rob Harry, who was site director of clinical engineering at the hospital, recalled in the video. “I didn’t think of anything except getting our job done and getting the patients out.” “I have a background in the military and for me it was kind of like that training just kind of kicked in, where this is just something that I had to do,” BMET III Marc Silver said in the video. “I had to make sure that every one of these patients got out.” “I may not have direct patient interaction, but what we did in the fire is to provide a service, not necessarily to directly save a patient’s life, but to assist all of the clinical staff in saving their life,” Network Systems Specialist Jared Wilson said in the video. “Patient care is everyone’s job. It’s everyone’s responsibility.” You can read the full, riveting account of the Feather River team’s experience in the July/August issue of BI&T (Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology), AAMI’s peer-reviewed journal. CALLING ALL ‘BRIGHT IDEAS’ AAMI is now accepting nominations for its “Bright Ideas” program, which recognizes HTM department that are implementing creative solutions to today’s challenges. AAMI’s Technology Management Council (TMC) is seeking specific examples of HTM initiatives that have enhanced patient safety, reduced costs and/or improved hospital processes. The TMC will choose six departments to be profiled in a feature article published in BI&T throughout 2020. For more information, please contact Danielle McGeary, AAMI’s vice president of HTM, at dmcgeary@aami.org.

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RISING STARS AAMI shined a light on seven standouts working in the health technology and sterilization fields with a cover story in a recent edition of BI&T. “HTM is a field that is growing and evolving, which resonates with me and my pursuit to always keep learning,” said Jaspreet Mankoo, one of the individuals profiled. Mankoo, MS, CCE, is supervisor of clinical engineering with the VA Boston Healthcare System. Mankoo shared this advice for how to advance in an HTM career. • Find a mentor. • Do the little things very well to earn bigger responsibilities. • Develop communication and time-management skills. • Get involved with AAMI and other professional groups. • Set professional and personal goals. • Be open to change and never stop learning. • Don’t be afraid to take on the challenging projects – and learn from

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ECRI UPDATE

Award-Winning Health Technology Management Initiatives

CRI Institute conducts its annual Health Devices Achievement Award competition to highlight healthcare organizations’ innovative efforts to improve patient safety, reduce costs, or otherwise facilitate better strategic management of health technology.

As detailed in the July issue of TechNation, a team from Penn Medicine (Philadelphia, PA) earned ECRI Institute’s 2019 Award for developing a computerized dashboard and clinician alert system to promote more rapid weaning from sedatives and mechanical ventilation. Representatives from ECRI Institute presented the Award during a June meeting of Penn Medicine’s executive leadership team (see photo). In addition to honoring the winner, ECRI Institute commended teams from six additional organizations for their contributions: • Banner Health (Chandler, AZ) • John Muir Health (Walnut Creek, CA) • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY) • Parkview Health (Fort Wayne, IN) • St. Luke’s Health System (Boise, ID) • U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), New England Healthcare System, Clinical Engineering Consolidated Program The projects conducted by these organizations are outlined below. To read more about each project – or to learn how you can be considered for next year’s Award – visit www.ecri.org/health-devices-award-winners. ECRI Institute will begin accepting submissions in November. AUTOMATING PERIOPERATIVE SUPPLY MANAGEMENT Faced with the challenge of improving how perioperative supplies were being managed, Parkview Health (Fort Wayne, IN) identified and implemented an automated inventory management system. The new radio-frequency identification (RFID)-enabled system provides a less labor-intensive method for informing the warehouse when a supply bin is empty and

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SEPTEMBER 2019

for informing clinicians about the status of the order. Simply moving an RFID tag from the empty supply bin to a pocket on a SMART panel signals to the warehouse the need for replenishment. The system has helped the organization right-size its inventory, create a more organized environment, and reduce the amount of clinician involvement required for perioperative supply management. Additionally, Parkview anticipates the system will yield significant savings – for example, by making it easier to identify expiring products and by providing analytics that will help during price negotiations. ESTABLISHING AN AEM PROGRAM Alternative equipment maintenance (AEM) programs allow healthcare facilities to adjust their device maintenance activities from what is recommended by the manufacturer, provided that certain conditions are met. The value of an AEM program is that it can help a clinical engineering department direct its time and resources toward activities that it has found will have the greatest impact on patient safety. Instituting an AEM program is not without challenges, however. Risk assessments must be performed, policies and procedures must be documented, and steps must be taken to verify that the program does not reduce the safety of medical equipment. Two of this year’s Award finalists took on that challenge. The Clinical Engineering Consolidated Program within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), New England Healthcare System, determined that establishing an AEM program would allow it to safeguard patient care and comply with relevant maintenance requirements in a way that wouldn’t stretch the department beyond its breaking point. Key to this effort was defining a clear methodology for identifying which equipment qualifies for AEM status. The team devised a method for assigning a criticality score to each device type, taking into account the probability of a device failure and the severity of such a failure. The score is then used to determine whether routine inspection and preventive maintenance (IPM) should be conducted (1) according to the manufacturer’s instructions, (2) according to a modified procedure or schedule, or (3) only when the equipment is sent for repair. At John Muir Health (Walnut Creek, CA), clinical engineering management approached this challenge by creating a database that “calculates” whether a given piece of equipment

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Representatives from ECRI Institute present the 2019 Health Devices Achievement Award to members of the Penn Medicine team. Pictured from left to right: Laurie Menyo (ECRI); Barry Fuchs, MD (Penn Medicine); Corey Chivers, PhD (Penn Medicine); and David T. Jamison (ECRI).

qualifies for AEM status. Using logic programmed into the system and user-entered data for the device in question – such as the number of IPM-preventable failures that the facility has experienced – the easy-to-use Microsoft Access database formalizes, simplifies, and documents AEM decisions. DEVELOPING AN IN-HOUSE MEDICAL PHYSICS PROGRAM For years, Banner Health (Chandler, AZ) had used a contracted medical physics service, as is common practice. This arrangement provided Banner with a professional level of service, but it limited the extent to which the program’s activities could be coordinated with the organization’s core health technology management (HTM) function. As a large health system, Banner determined it had the resources to bring the medical physics program in-house. Doing so has yielded several benefits: Operations for both the HTM and radiology departments have been streamlined, allowing for better use of resources and creating opportunities for savings. Clinicians now spend less time coordinating equipment support services – and more time caring for patients. And medical physics resources are being used more efficiently to improve clinical care operations and radiation safety. CREDENTIALING INDUSTRY REPS IN THE OR Industry representatives visiting St. Luke’s Health System (Boise, ID) are expected to check in when they arrive. Supply chain management suspected, however, that compliance with those policies was spotty. To confirm its suspicion, the team turned to the organization’s electronic health record (EHR), where vendor visits to the organization’s surgical services sites are routinely recorded. By comparing that data against the number of vendor visits recorded through the credentialing check-in process, the team was able to demonstrate that the issue needed attention.

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The team used a Six Sigma process to identify potential causes and assess solutions. One key observation was that the badges provided to visitors at check-in were not clearly visible. Thus, staff could not easily tell which visitors had used the check-in process correctly. One simple solution – supplying clear badge holders for visitors to wear to display their identification – required little effort to implement, but had a large impact, increasing the compliance rate by approximately 35%. TRANSITIONING TO A COMMERCIAL CMMS SYSTEM For decades, the biomedical engineering team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY) used a database developed in-house to manage its medical device inventory and service history. The database served the organization well, but two particular shortcomings necessitated a change: (1) The database did not support the entry of data in a standardized format. And (2) it did not support a centralized recall management process. The use of different terms to describe the same model of device, for example, made it difficult to identify whether the subject of a recall matched a piece of equipment in inventory. To address these shortcomings, the team made the leap from the homegrown database to a commercial computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). Recognizing that simply “throwing new technology” at the problem would not be effective, the organization invested the time and resources to select the right system and to implement tools and processes that would fix the underlying issues. Major steps in the transition included cleaning the existing data, instituting controls to maintain data integrity, and establishing a centralized recall management process using a commercial alert management system. – This article is adapted from ECRI Institute’s “The Health Devices Achievement Award: Recognizing Exceptional Health Technology Management” (Health Devices 2019 Jun 12). To learn more about Health Devices membership, visit www.ecri.org/solutions/evaluation-and-comparison, or contact ECRI Institute by telephone at (610) 825-6000, ext. 5891, or by e-mail at clientservices@ecri.org.

SEPTEMBER 2019

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BIOMED 101

Breaking Down the Walls: A Look at Team Organization BY KEVIN J. HUTCHERSON, CHTM, CBET

nurse from the intensive care unit calls frantically because they have a critical patient on life support and their central station is not receiving patient vitals from one of their rooms. Unfortunately, the biomedical technician that is trained to work on the patient monitoring system is out of the shop on vacation. The technician is on a cruise to the Cayman Islands, out of telephone contact. She has attended all of the manufacturer’s training and everyone knows that Tina is the “monitoring person.” She knows passwords that were only available to factory-trained personnel. Tina is very protective of the information. Knowledge is power is the motto she lives by. Without her, there was practically nothing we could do except contract the manufacturer to resolve the issues.

These silos existed throughout the entire shop. Tony specialized in the lab, Mark was the sterilizer guru, Christy handled all of dialysis, Perez did anesthesia and surgery, and Jessie works on infusion pumps, period. No one dared to cross the line because that is just the way it is and has always been. If you train someone to become very good at one thing, the subject matter expert, then you can rest assured that those items are being maintained correctly. Likewise, if Jessie was the only person who knows infusion pumps, her position was safe. However, when Christy is sick, Tony has a sick baby, or Tina takes a cruise we are left with holes in the program ultimately degrading the ability to

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address urgent needs, timeliness of repairs and the quality of customer service your program provides. This scenario is an extreme example of the vulnerability of this type of organizational process, but not too unlike how things were when I was hired as the shop supervisor. This was my first exposure to the civilian world, as until this point I had spent my entire career refining my biomed skills in the United States Air Force. I had been assigned to eight different duty stations in my career and while each assignment varied in size and scope, with the exception of a one man shop in Denver, they all shared the same basic fundamental theme. Without effective teamwork the biomed mission could not succeed. In the Department of Defense (DoD), the possibility of deployments, humanitarian missions, etc. made it extremely important that technicians were trained on a wide spectrum of modalities which also contributed to each person’s career development path. Everyone shared core biomed tasks that they were required to be fully competent in, so if SSgt Smith left for deployment, although he spent the majority of his time working on anesthesia units, SrA Johnson could step in and the shop wouldn’t miss a beat. Likewise, although SrA Johnson didn’t handle the anesthesia units on a regular basis, if he were to be deployed to a hospital he could step in and support them immediately because his home station ensured that he was familiar enough with the equipment to do so.

When I transitioned to the VA from DoD, I was able to take the team mentality from my prior departments and formulate a new way to ensure cross-training and coverage for the betterment of the department. The department had a team structure at some point in the past, so it seemed like it would be a logical transition. I started with a simple structure – the department had two different sides of the house consisting of imaging and general biomedical technicians. When we began this process, there were only two imaging technicians, each having their own areas within that world. One technician specialized in nuclear medicine and the other had the rest of diagnostic imaging, so consolidating their efforts was the easy part. The most difficult part of the process was assigning members to each team on the general biomed side of the house. During this initial trial, I felt it was extremely important to combine the right technicians together on each team who would complement each other’s strengths. It was also important to place technicians together whose skills and departments of responsibility naturally overlapped. The biomed who handled surgery had a couple sterilizers that they were responsible for. So it made sense to group him with the person who took care of the rest of the sterilizers in central sterile processing. These crossover skills are a reason why careful consideration is extremely important for a successful transition to a teamlet structure for biomedical engineering department coverage.

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This reorganization has provided extremely successful results. I have seen improved results that can be attributed to the fact that each team member embraced the new concept, or as one of my staff says, they’re “drinking the Kool-aid.”

Initially, we set up the department in three teams of three, two on the general biomed side and one on the imaging side. The overarching thought is that each teammate can cover for the others, which provides us with multiple backups for each equipment modality. For instance, for one week, two of the team members would be working on PMs while the other would respond to repair calls, rotating throughout the month to ensure each member was able to complete their own scheduled work. This teammate concept also provides built-in continuity. If someone is sick, on leave, or at training the team doesn’t miss a beat which improves our customer-facing service. After the initial structure for the teamlets was established, I allowed each team to manage their own processes. This has allowed change and structure, but provided buy-in from each individual who could provide input into the process for their particular areas of responsibility. Each team worked together to train each other in the areas where they had previously specialized. The next step in this process is to get additional technicians sent to manufacturer training to ensure that every technician is manufacturer certified where necessary. After assigning the teams, I looked at how the scheduled work was split up throughout the year. There were months that would have left Team 2

overwhelmed and Team 3 with very little to do, additionally there were PMs being accomplished in sections much more frequently than the manufacturer had recommended. In the next step, I did an in-depth look at each equipment category and extended over 500 equipment item PM inspections from semi-annual to annual based on manufacturer’s specifications. By doing this, I was able to reduce unnecessary workload, providing technicians more time to focus on completing quality planned maintenance inspections, in turn reducing unscheduled repair call volume and increasing availability for other professional services for our customers and organization. We also have a handful of sections that are able to be covered by any team. These PMs and repairs can be assigned to any team allowing me to balance the workload as needed. These sections mostly have items such as beds and scales, or other general equipment any biomed should be able to open a book and resolve the issue for. This reorganization has provided extremely successful results. I have seen improved results that can be attributed to the fact that each team member embraced the new concept, or as one of my staff says, they’re “drinking the Kool-aid.” Kevin J. Hutcherson, CHTM, CBET, is the Biomedical Engineering Supervisor at the Dayton VA Medical Center.

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SHOP TALK POWERED BY

SORVALL RC5C+ We just acquired a used RC5C+ and it displays Error 11 after spinning for a while, which indicates that a tachometer fault. Can someone advise on how to resolve this issue?

Q: A:

I would check for dust/debris on the photo tachometer and check for loose connections. If problem remains, replace the tachometer.

Error 11 in the service manual says, “TACHOMETER ERROR. The computer detected changes in RPM beyond the normal range, indicating that the tachometer input frequency is unstable. The condition clears and the light goes out if the problem is momentary. If the condition persists, check that the tachometer interrupter disc is centered and that no teeth are broken off or bent. Check for intermittent connections. Verify that there is no dust or debris on the photo coupled interrupter.”

RC-5C+ units may have either the brush or brushless motors in

them. First, you need to identify which motor is in the unit. If it has the brush motor, you will see the interrupter disc and the tachometer pickups (hall effects) that the others are referring to. These items are supposed to be protected under a dust cover. If the unit has the brushless motor, you may have a motor issue ... I would definitely check cabling first. TOSHIBA APLIO XV The system reads “re-boot to restore the functionality’’ US_ IMG_24

cables connected to the AC-DC assembly, remove 4 screws and pull the AC-DC power supply out. Remove the cable from the fan box, loosen 3 screws and remove the assembly. Now, you can remove the 3 screws on top of the PSA and 2 screws from the bottom, and then grab the handles on the top and bottom of the PSA and pull it out. After replacing the PSA, the SCW TX calibration needs to be performed. This requires entering commands using the service tools, to stop the ultrasound application, run the calibration utility, and then restart the application.

My manual for Aplio XG says for US_IMG_24 - The voltage monitor on RC PWB detects abnormality of the transmission voltage. It could be either the PSA or RC board. The analog power supply, or PSA, is a fairly common failure on these systems. To replace the PSA, remove the left cover by removing 2 screws at the bottom and pulling the bottom out and up. Then remove all the

SAKURA TISSUE-TEK VIP 5 Intermittent Error 83, says something about the light source. Has anybody had this a error and do you know what causes it? Error 83 states the thermal fuse for the gate valve is open. It most likely needs to be replaced.

Gate valve thermal fuse should be resettable. Depending on vintage of the unit.

SHOP TALK

is compiled from MedWrench.com. Go to MedWrench.com community threads to find out how you can join and be part of the discussion.

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SEPTEMBER 2019

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WEBINARS

HTM Sessions Deliver Insights STAFF REPORT

he Webinar Wednesday series, powered by TechNation, continues to deliver insights and advice to HTM professionals around the globe. Thus far in 2019, the Webinar Wednesday series boasts more than 4,000 attendees with an average of 359 registrations per webinar.

The July 17 webinar sponsored by Rigel Medical set a new record with 628 individuals registered for the webinar “Electrical Safety Testing to New Standards.” The presentation by Brittany Schmidke, national business development manager at Rigel Medical, also set a new record for the most attendees with 426 people viewing the live presentation. Schmidke discussed how to gain a better understanding of the testing standards and procedures including NFPA 99, 62353 and 60601. She also addressed the process and importance of performing PMs. Attendees were asked to use three words to describe the webinar and came up with a variety of positive adjectives. “Relevant, timely, interesting,” said J. Young, CBET. “Helpful, informational and descriptive,” Biomed R. Levchuk stated. “Concise, on-topic, enjoyable,” Biomed A. Eby said. Some HTM professionals needed more than three words to describe the webinar.

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“I’m new to health care; good info to fill in why we do what we do,” said R. Carter, support mechanic clinical engineering. “Very informative, great pace, the perfect amount of detail was included for each topic, not overwhelming or creating too much info to sort through while still giving enough to provide end-to-end coverage of the topic,” BMET II T. Kelly said. “Very informative and cleared up a few safety issues we were currently having,” said K. Reimer, president. “Electrical safety is a very familiar subject for our daily routine job. However, this webinar refreshed our knowledge and updated new standards,” T. Koh, BMET, said. “Electrical safety is a daily task for a biomed so it was a validation for what we do,” said R. Thebodo, BMET III. ANESTHESIA MACHINE TESTING The Webinar Wednesday presentation “Get into the Flow of Anesthesia Machine Testing” was eligible for 1 credit from the ACI. Presented by Fluke Biomedical Product Marketing Manager Andrew Clay and Fluke Biomedical Product Manager Michael Raiche, and sponsored by Fluke Biomedical, the webinar showed how proper function and maintenance can be the difference between life and death for a patient. They explained what attendees need to know about anesthesia delivery system

testing. Their 20+ years of experience in medical device design and testing guided attendees through the ins and outs to get them started. The webinar had 529 individuals sign up. In a post-webinar survey, attendees shared their answers to the question “What did you like most about today’s webinar?” “It was clear and concise, kept simple and easy to understand. I enjoyed the answering of questions at the end of the seminar. Good questions by the way,” said C. Vargos, BMET III. “Very detailed and wonderful background information,” said C. BaKuzonis, director of clinical engineering. “Just the amount of general knowledge shared. Anesthesia is not one of my strongest skill sets. Very informative,” shared P. Graham, biomedical technician. “Everything! I know very little about Anes Machines,” exclaimed C. Donmoyer, biomed manager. “Great anesthesia review. More than just the basics. Good coverage of the anesthesia system and associated equipment,” stated E. Hudy, BMET III. “This was a knowledgeable presentation that also included real environment information and patient care information,” said D. Banister, field service engineer. “The webinar was very informative. Though I have all the necessary modern test equipment for my anesthesia

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“ This was a knowledgeable presentation that also included real environment information and patient care information.” D. BANISTER, FIELD SERVICE ENGINEER machines, I enjoyed the fact that the presentation reinforces knowledge regarding how the machines work, electrical safety testing, using proper test equipment, following manufacturer’s procedures with proper documentation. Most importantly, assuring patient safety as being the first priority. Thank you once again for providing an outstanding webinar,” said B. Hayes, CBET III. “Presenters did a good job of providing an understandable overview of anesthesia vents, and highlighting some of the more likely issues that will arise with them,” said B. Brownell, biomedical technician. “Great pace, keeps you interested and still gives you time to digest the information. Good visuals, not over complicated just clean and to the point. Happy to see a good chunk of time for questions at the end. This is where people really learn, it also makes it tailored to each individual but everyone benefits from it. Good stuff, will be looking for more opportunities,” said T. Kelly, biomedical technician. SIMULATIONS HELP DEVELOP PRODUCTS The Webinar Wednesday session “Predicting the Future: RTI Detector Development with Monte Carlo Simulations” was sponsored by RTI. Attendees were eligible to receive 1 credit from the ACI.

The webinar was presented by RTI Physicist Petty Cartemo, Ph.D. RTI uses Monte Carlo simulations as a tool in the development of products and mathematical models for the measurement of key values such as HVL, kV and dose. Cartemo briefly discussed the physics and technical details needed for the theoretical description of radiation properties. She also described how the RTI research and development group utilizes data simulation tools. An example of a current product was also presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of Monte Carlo simulations. About 100 attendees were on hand for the live presentation. Several more HTM professionals have viewed a recording of the webinar online. Attendees shared why they attended the webinar and if it was worth their time in a post-webinar survey. “Our department is starting to move into first response for X-ray, I want to be there. Definitely worth my time,” said V. Jacobson, biomedical technician. “Keeping myself updated on industry trends. As always very informative webinar,” said R. Mesropyan, CBET. “I always gain knowledge from Webinar Wednesday,” said D. Pilkilton, BMET II. “Interested in the topic. I don’t specialize in X-ray, but I would like to

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see if it is a direction I would like to pursue,” said J. Bareis, BMET II. “Interested in nuclear physics research and development applied to radiation detection devices. Yes, it was worth my time. Great job on the presentation,” said R. Carl, cardiovascular and nuclear medical services manager. “It was definitely worth it. It was a great refresher on the physiology of the X-ray detector,” said F. McVean, business process manager. “I am always fascinated by the science behind the equipment. Math and physics play a big role in the development of biomedical equipment. Simulations in research and development help us define and fine tune materials that are used in production. It also helps before testing and verification begins,” said H. Martin, clinical engineer. “I attended to learn more about an area with which I am not familiar. It was worth my time,” said M. Swanson, biomed. For more information about Webinar Wednesday, visit WebinarWednesday.Live.

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ROUNDTABLE

ROUNDTABLE Infusion Therapy

his month’s Roundtable article is focused on infusion therapy and IV pumps. TechNation invited several professionals to share their insights and advice regarding these important health care devices. Those participating are Select Biomedical CEO Tom Fischer, RepairMED Technical Director Red Libao and USOC Medical Biomedical Technician Hana Navarro.

have been reduced in size and weight which is advantageous to the hospital in terms of maintenance and use.

Q: WHAT ARE THE LATEST ADVANCES IN IV PUMPS IN THE PAST YEAR? FISCHER: From our perspective, the biggest advances have been in areas of integration and M2M connectivity. The Internet of Things is finally seeing great strides in the medical device industry – especially in the infusion pump world. Connectivity and security will again be hot topics for biomeds in 2019.

Tom Fischer Select Biomedical

LIBAO: There are really no significant advances in IV pumps in the past year. Over the years, IV pumps have been equipped with drug libraries and wireless connectivity wherein new drugs introduced by the pharmacy can be uploaded into the device with ease. Pumps

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NAVARRO: One of the more recent advancements that I have come across this year was the introduction of user-friendly/self-administration pumps. With the latest advancements in connectivity and patient customization, it’s no surprise that a trend for infusion pumps is at-home usage. The latest examples of infusion pumps in the category of self-administration are beginning to resemble devices much like that of a typical cellphone and usually include user friendly interfaces. Q: WHAT FACTORS SHOULD HTM CONSIDER TO DETERMINE COST OF OWNERSHIP? FISCHER: Total cost of ownership should, and in most cases does, include training, parts, software, connectivity, reporting,

SEPTEMBER 2019

TECHNATION

ROUNDTABLE

Q: WHAT CYBERSECURITY MEASURES SHOULD BE TAKEN WHEN IT COMES TO IV PUMPS?

etc. However, we are also seeing a shift to include opportunity costs becoming part of HTM decision making. As resources continue to be stretched, low-revenue producing fleets/equipment are being scrutinized as to how best to incorporate a longer view of cost of ownership. LIBAO: There are no associated repair costs during the manufacturer’s warranty. However, when the warranty expires, replacement parts should be available from the OEM. Biomed techs should be able to replace these parts in-house, upon completion of training. NAVARRO: When determining cost of ownership, its important for HTM to consider many different factors and not just the price tag of the unit. It’s important to consider things like cost of operation, maintenance, software, hardware for the EHR, and training for more complicated options. Sometimes we see hospitals that enjoy using pumps that are not smart pumps because they find them easier to use and they don’t rely on software. This can drive the cost of that unit up because of demand for units that aren’t software driven. However, it can still be cost effective because of not having to worry about things like license costs plus base/server costs, client-side cost, training and hardware for EMR. Q: WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF BUYING NEW VERSUS BUYING REFURBISHED UNITS? FISCHER: In almost all cases where a facility is looking to change OEMs, we recommend going directly with the new OEM to make sure installation, security and training come from the OEM. The pros and cons are of buying to supplant existing equipment, depend greatly from where you are buying the equipment. In all cases of buying refurbished equipment, a facility needs to make sure the product has a longer warranty than

TECHNATION

SEPTEMBER 2019

FISCHER: We have seen a large increase in our interaction with IT departments working with biomeds to insure connectivity and security. In most cases, we are acting as interpreters for IT to make sure pumps are secured correctly. Our biggest recommendation is deeper training for HTM professionals.

Red Libao RepairMED

OEM, the dealer understands machineto-machine connectivity and the quality of the equipment meets or exceeds OEM specs (no non-OEM parts). If these rules are followed, buying refurb will be all pros! LIBAO: Budget allocation is the deciding factor in buying brand new or refurbished units. With the current market, there are several third-party repair companies that can provide support on refurbished units. Not only less expensive, but these are also certified to meet or exceed the manufacturer’s specifications. NAVARRO: It all depends on what the user is looking for. In the case of wanting units that are not smart pumps, you will always have to go with buying refurbished units because OEMs simply do not make these units anymore. However, if the client is looking for top-of-line, latest advancement technology it might be beneficial to buy through an OEM and brand new so that they can ensure they get the whole package (consumables, training, proper installation). Luckily, third-party vendors are also a viable option nowadays when facilities cannot afford to buy from an OEM.

LIBAO: There are several measures to ensure cybersecurity on devices. These, however, are dependent on the features of the devices , which the OEM configures into the pump. Common cybersecurity measures are implemented by the IT department of the facility, which typically includes secure Wi-Fi network, cybersecurity policies communicated to the organization, firewall protection, etc. NAVARRO: With the introduction of EMR and patient-customized profiles into infusion pump technology it is important to protect the data that is being used with these units. With patients’ lives at risk with dosing errors, it should be a priority to think about securing the data that is being used with smart pumps. This field will need to further advance security of this data when the trend moves to cloud-based data storage. Q: CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE IMPORTANCE OF HOLDING AN IN-SERVICE OR CLINICIAN TRAINING ON HOW TO PROPERLY USE THE DEVICES? FISCHER: From our perspective, training is a mandatory step in making sure the set up is complete on all pump purchases. We also provide training on best ways to clean pumps – incorrect handling/cleaning of pumps causes more damage to fleets than any other cause.

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ROUNDTABLE

LIBAO: Training on the proper use of devices provides various benefits to the organization which includes extending the life of the device, reduced PM time and maintenance costs. It also prevents improper use, ensuring patient safety.

to make a dozen calls to make something right it will cost you 3 to 4 times the original cost of the repair or the pump sale!

NAVARRO: Since infusion therapy has become more and more advanced technology-wise, there has been a rise in the need for clinician training on how to use these advanced machines. It is important for clinicians to be properly trained on these devices because patients’ lives are on the line, but also because it Hana Navarro can get very costly to have units repaired USOC Medical due to user error. For this reason, some clinics choose to stick with olderCHANGES units PROOF APPROVED NEEDED that aren’t as complicated to use. sales, rentals and service. If we can offer any advice – while price will always be CLIENT SIGN–OFF: Q: WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK TECHNATION an important factor – we highly READERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THAT THE FOLLOWING recommend also valuing experience in PLEASE CONFIRM ARE CORRECT PURCHASING AND SERVICING IV PUMPS? the field and connectivity, warranty/ LOGO PHONE NUMBERquality,WEBSITE ADDRESS customer service and, finally, FISCHER: We understand there are a host how easy are they to do business with. of alternatives when it comes to pump Again, resources are tight. If you have

LIBAO: When purchasing IV pumps, the overall costs of ownership, including repair and maintenance, should be taken into account as well as the cost of disposables or accessories. When servicing these devices, users should strictly follow the manufacturer’s recommended preventive maintenance. NAVARRO: When it comes to purchasing and servicing infusion pumps, its important to look at factors such as price, turnaround times, customer service and reliability. There are many options when it comes to finding third parties that sell and service infusion pumps. Therefore, it is important to research the company and find that they SPELLING GRAMMAR have good rapport in the field and are up to date on their certifications.

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Optimizing Your

CMMS

Much More than PM Schedules

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

uch has been made of big data and the usefulness of big data sets to make decisions and formulate strategies. This can be seen in market research and in the retail industry, where information can tailor the sellerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach to customers and allow retailers to make product suggestions. With application in research, government, industry and science, big data can harness useful data collections for refinement and application in process improvements. For retailers and marketing researchers, data can be extracted from call logs, web visits or social media to gain insights into buying behavior and customer motivation. Capturing and manipulating data sets can be useful for accomplishing tasks that may have been impossible without this capability. Efficiency and information are the two bookends that support a computerized maintenance management systemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (CMMS) usefulness. Hospitals are dependent on efficiency more than ever. It takes the full capabilities of a computerized maintenance management system to keep managers fully appraised of a litany of ever-changing

functions. These systems are taking on more robust capabilities and utilizing the newest trends in technology to harness available information and coax it into useful, actionable data. HTM departments employ this information for inspections and preventative maintenance, measuring project time commitments, FDA alerts, parts procurement, cost of service figures, productivity tracking and other uses. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In my career, I have used many iterations of CMMS programs, from DOS-based systems to Palm Pilot-based and Windowsbased and even web-based. They all were designed to do the basic functions of an HTM department efficiently. They all had their pros and cons. Being a data nerd, I was always wanting tools to get the information

out of the CMMS. In my mind, what is the sense of capturing all that work order history and not doing anything with it?” says Jim Fedele, CBET, senior program director of clinical engineering, BioTronics at UPMC in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. “However, what I found with many of the CMMS systems I have used, is in their effort to be flexible and adaptable to different workflows, their data was not clean and easily mined for analysis. What I have learned is there needs to be a balance between flexibility and constraint to keep the important data,” Fedele says. Fedele says another issue he has encountered is that many times a new CMMS was built or improved from an old CMMS. It was often done to ensure records would transfer over and also to save money from building a system from scratch. “However today, with AI and the other technologies that are available, I see real potential for a great CMMS product. One of the difficult aspects of most CMMS is the actual data input by technicians. Technicians are busy and get in a hurry and make mistakes when entering data. Given the amount of entries they make in a day it is hard to catch them all and correct them. AI and voice input could ensure entries are made correctly and consistently. Also, AI could be used to do predictive analysis on when equipment might break,” Fedele says. “In the past five years or so, the traditional CMMS has evolved. There are new companies that have entered the market — sort of a new kid on the block — who are technology disruptors. They have been able to increase their market share very rapidly. These companies are focused on data analytics and how to make best use of data to drive operation,” says Salim Kai, MSPSL, CBET, ABET PEV, senior director of information services and biomedical engineering at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. CMMS DEVELOPERS EXPLAIN NEW FEATURES Manufacturers are listening to customers and creating CMMS or EAM systems that are evolving with technology and the

TECHNATION

SEPTEMBER 2019

feedback from the field. Mobile capabilities allow for point of service input. EAM can track equipment throughout its lifecycle. Tracking service history, recalls or meeting compliance standards are all tasks that these software products can help manage. In light of everchanging requirements, technological capabilities and customer

reportable, so The Joint Commission and DNV scrutiny is met with hard data,” Person says. EQ2 LLC, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, says that its Hospital Equipment Management System (HEMS) has added features. “In the last year, we have added additional integrations and automated

“ In the past five years or so, the traditional CMMS has evolved. There are new companies that have entered the market — sort of a new kid on the block — who are technology disruptors . These companies are focused on data analytics and how to make best use of data to drive operation.” SALIM KAI feedback, companies that offer CMMS or EAM systems update their product offerings continuously. “A few of our most recent product enhancements are our direct integration with PartsSource, our ‘Rounds’ functionality, and our AEM module. The PartsSource integration enables our clinical engineering customers to order parts from their mobile devices at the point of service, eliminating delays, paper notes, inefficiencies and, ultimately, errors,” says Ben Person, vice president of product marketing at Nuvolo, which is headquartered in Paramus, New Jersey. Person says that the product Rounds allows clinical engineering teams to consolidate routine tasks like health and safety inspections into a single work order with multiple tasks, each with the same, basic checklist. “So now, inspecting 100 patient rooms is administratively much less of a burden. Finally, yet importantly, our AEM module enables our customers to leverage historical data for a given asset model to modify the OEM PM schedule, and then track metrics like uptime and MTBF to gauge the model’s performance on the new PM schedule and compare it to the original OEM schedule. Crucially, every aspect of the AEM process is electronically documented and quickly

workflows. We have enhanced the workflow for dispatch management and the auto assignment process can be configured based on hospital, campus, building, floor, room along with type of problem and can be routed automatically to a technician or a team based on shift hours and vacation/leave, on call, etcetera,” says Vishal Malhotra, chief technology officer at EQ2. He says that the call can also be configured to auto escalate based on priority to multiple levels. With this new functionality, an advanced workflow schedule can be created to support an automated workflow with accountability and an automated escalation process. “We also have added advanced workflow for multilevel PO approval processes and two-way integration with Lawson and Peoplesoft,” Malhotra says. “Our new web-based custom report writer is also very intuitive and powerful to quickly create any type of custom report on the fly and these reports can be scheduled to deliver automatically to recipients,” Malhotra adds. “Integration with oneSource and Glassbeam are also some of the new additions to the product. HEMS Enterprise interfaces with oneSource for electronic manual gathering, provided the organization subscribes to the oneSource

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service. Also, our CMMS doesn’t just drop the user at the oneSource website, but we take you directly to the service manual, if it is in the library. Otherwise, a more detailed search can be performed or a request to add the manual to the library can be submitted,” says Rich Sable, CBET, product manager at EQ2. He says that their mobile app, HEMS Remote, is new also. It works in a non-connected environment which empowers mobile engineers. “Besides the offline mode of operation, this product provides more work order information on the home page to keep the technician informed of the work progress and it maintains most of the functionality of our other mobility product, Web Enterprise. Finally, this product employs a wizard-like interface using the device’s camera or linked scanner to facilitate the work order or equipment add processes,” Sable says. Ben Mannisto, president and CEO at Phoenix Data Systems in Southfield, Michigan, says that his company has a new product in development. “With AIMS.NET, our existing product, we are focusing on the seamless integration of numerous third-party applications. However, our primary focus is on the development of our new product, AIMS 3. AIMS 3 will include the features and functions users love about AIMS. NET, as well as hundreds of new features – optimizing 35 years of listening to those who use CMMS software every day,” Mannisto says. He says that AIMS 3 users can look forward to complete screen redesigns, including split screen utilization, and “sticky-displays” that will always show pertinent information for PMs and CMs, such as equipment name, tag number, etc., regardless of the screen they are currently on. “Users will also have customizable, user-specific home screens that show assigned work orders, charts and other useful tools to improve daily workflow,” Mannisto adds. Hannelore Fineman, vice president of sales and special projects with Fluke explains that their eMaint CMMS

product has several newer features. “Integration between Fluke Connect and eMaint, allowing for Fluke sensor data about the condition of the asset (temperature, vibration, power quality, etcetera) to flow into eMaint in real time, automatically, and display the data directly on an asset record, display on a dashboard KPI, and to automatically trigger corrective work orders when the collected readings fall outside of appropriate levels for that asset,” Fineman says. She says that this feature enables eMaint to help the customer identify failures on critical assets before they occur, and delivers on the promise of the benefits of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and connected reliability. Another feature is interactive plans. “This feature enables eMaint users to upload a map, floor plan or diagram, to associate ‘pins’ on the map with the assets that are being maintained, and then to see detailed information related to that asset, including its state (up or down), based on the color of the pin,” Fineman says. “This feature also works in concert with the condition-based data collected by Fluke sensors so that you can ‘see’ on the map a ‘red pin’ that denotes an alarm condition has been recorded on that asset,” she adds. She says that the mobile version of eMaint can be used offline. She also says that there is an ability for recording location data via the “Log Location” option. “When this feature is used, the user clicks ‘Log Location’ button, which captures the user’s GPS location, date/ time stamp, work order and asset at the time the ‘Log Location’ is activated,” Fineman adds. WHAT DO CUSTOMER’S PRIZE MOST? The developers of CMMS and EAM software solicit feedback from customers and know which features HTM departments find most useful. “With stringent regulatory requirements, many of our customers prize the regulatory compliance report which can be used for regulators, the

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

EOC (Environment of Care) committee meeting or for managing a preventive maintenance program. Similarly, our customers rave about the AEM (Alternative Equipment Management) dashboard which helps with both implementing and managing an AEM program. These two products provide powerful tools for the HTM leaders to manage their preventive maintenance program,” Sable says. “The top five features in the AIMS system that we hear positive feedback about the most are: Valid Entry Safeguards, Global Changes, Export Data, Audit Trail and Morning News,” Mannisto says. “Valid Entry Safeguards provide system-wide data consistency via user-defined drop-down lists, such as equipment types, and manufacturer/ models. Global Changes allow users to update entire groups of information at once including PM schedules, location, risk and more. Easily export data to Excel, csv, and xml. Audit Trail is a user-defined tool that tracks related information that has been added, changed or deleted. Morning News allows users to schedule and automatically generate reports at recurring intervals. Reports are then delivered automatically to designated printers or emails,” Mannisto says. Person says that enabling a mobile-first user experience for the clinical engineering department has been a major strength for the Nuvolo application, and there’s no question that customers have benefited greatly from the day-to-day productivity efficiencies Nuvolo’s solution has enabled. “But even more important are the insights our customers derive from robust reporting and analytics that our users can generate easily without our intervention,” Person says. He says that using readily available and consumable data to make intelligent decisions can yield significant results; for example, making sure the appropriately skilled engineer is assigned to the right task, generating reports for the latest The Joint Commission or DNV survey, or making a repair versus replace decision.

SEPTEMBER 2019

TECHNATION

Article Contributors Jim Fedele, CBET, senior program director of clinical engineering, BioTronics at UPMC in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

“Without question, the ability for our customers to easily extract actionable information from our system without the need for Nuvolo’s help is the element of our solution they prize the most,” Person adds. “The features most prized by our customers are related to ‘Visual Management,’” Fineman says. “Included under this umbrella of visual management are features like our interactive plans, our real-time dashboards and analytics that customers display on large screens on the plant floor, and predictive maintenance, where data from sensors feeds into eMaint in real time and the data from the sensors informs the technicians on the health of the assets,” she says. THE FUTURE OF COMPUTERIZED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS With customer feedback and greater technological advances, the developers of CMMS software are able to bring even more enhancements to their products. The future will offer even more capabilities. “What is on the horizon is the concept of ‘connected reliability’ and its related technologies: IoT, data analytics, predictive maintenance and data aggregation. What is great is that these ‘horizon’ items are all a focus for Fluke Digital Systems and inform the features we are building into our solutions for customers,” Fineman says. “On the heels of our Series B funding, and in light of our continued market penetration and subsequent revenue

TECHNATION

SEPTEMBER 2019

Ben Person, vice president of product marketing at Nuvolo in Paramus, New Jersey.

growth, our investment in product innovation is accelerating generally, and in our clinical engineering offering in particular,” Person says. He says that one enhancement is its cybersecurity solution as the number and sophistication of threats to connected health care devices escalate. “Adding RTLS integration and combining that with our interactive floor mapping is also on our short-term roadmap, as are improvements to our capital planning and forecasting capability, and additional ERP integrations to connect clinical engineering teams with critical parts tracking and ordering capability,” Person says. Mannisto says artificial intelligence will be used for various elements in the health care industry. One critical problem that will benefit from AI is the rate of technician retirement versus the entrance of new technicians. “As of today, the industry is experiencing a disparity. More technicians are retiring than those who are just starting out, and the problem will continue to get worse. The development of AI ‘smart-troubleshooting’ will lessen the impact of a smaller technician workforce while strengthening the new technicians’ abilities,” he says. “We will also see a rise in the usage of big data for HTM departments. Given the extensive data in a CMMS, there is and will continue to be a need for this data to be converted into useable information to manage labor productivity and effective parts purchasing – just to name a few,”

Vishal Malhotra, chief technology officer at EQ2 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Mannisto adds. EQ2’s Sable expects more interfacing with HTM specific information systems. “For example, MDS2 (Medical Device Security) and Zingbox improve security with all of the data they process and threats they identify, enabling devices to be flagged for potential issues. The CMMS can also use the data to populate IT fields,” he says. “Our interface with Glassbeam is an example of machine learning and AI working within a product that then interfaces with our CMMS system so that device issues are identified before they become a problem. Similarly, the CMMS will ‘learn’ from information provided in many other ways also. Automated testers and medical devices will be providing more information that the CMMS can use for predictive maintenance,” Sable says. THE VIEW FROM THE FIELD How do the newest features and future enhancements stack up in comparison to the wish lists and feedback of HTM leadership? Developers are listening and management has no shortage of ideas. “As a previous supply chain analyst, a large focus of mine is on analytics and deriving actionable insight from a CMMS. With this in mind, there are two primary areas of focus with all CMMS: transparency and ease of use,” says Dustin Smith, MBA, director of central support, clinical engineering, Kem C. Gardner Supply Chain Center at Intermountain Healthcare in Midvale, Utah. He says that what is meant by

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Rich Sable, CBET, product manager at EQ2 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Ben Mannisto, president and CEO at Phoenix Data Systems in Southfield, Michigan.

transparency is it is relatively easy to create your own reports to appropriately determine workload, report on compliance, and system generated reports once explicit criteria is met. Ease of use is essential to running a clean shop and being able to obtain actionable insights.

Dustin Smith, MBA, director of central support, clinical engineering, Kem C. Gardner Supply Chain Center at Intermountain Healthcare in Midvale, Utah.

medical device network attributes, and interface with other applications to automate some of the processes. Parts and accounting punch-outs to interface with companies such as PartsSource to automate parts ordering. This offers time savings for a technician to hunt for parts,

“ As we move into the future it’ll be exciting to see CMMS providers continue to expand their reach and venture into the areas of remote monitoring, EMR-related utilization and new frontiers relating to cybersecurity.” DUSTIN SMITH “We are predominately seeing ease of use improvement through the development of mobile ‘apps’ that are feeding the appropriate data into a CMMS,” Smith says. “We are also seeing the development of more and more integrations between parts suppliers or manufacturers and CMMS providers. An excellent example of this is the integrations that PartsSource is making with a variety of CMMS providers to make parts procurement a simpler process that takes significantly less time and discourages engineers to price shop which can take up a lot of their time. As we move into the future it’ll be exciting to see CMMS providers continue to expand their reach and venture into the areas of remote monitoring, EMR-related utilization and new frontiers relating to cybersecurity,” Smith adds. Kai has his own list of features he finds most useful. “Cybersecurity module to catalog the

on average saving about half an hour,” he says. In the area of dashboards and analytics, he says; “You are able to display important data in real time as a dashboard. For example, work order completion, PM completion, productivity by tech. Dashboard for network connected medical devices that can show changing states of risk.” “The ease of drilling down on data elements to get to the information and answer basic questions. No need to change screens or export data. You are able to visualize the data and make decisions right then and there without much clicking on the mouse. Ability to track and measure safety events involving equipment and report out to other committees and departments,” Kai adds. “There are a lot of new features that we are looking forward to, such as better ways of tracking clinical alerts, such as FDA recalls, IT security notifications and

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

Anthony “Tony” McCabe, MBOE, MBA, BS, LSSBB, associate director in the clinical engineering department at the Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University.

the likes, as well as keeping track of time put into projects. I think this is something that is a very useful tool to tell the story about how much time our staff actually put against specific projects, on top of their daily PM/repair routines,” says Anthony “Tony” McCabe, MBOE, MBA, BS, LSSBB, associate director in the clinical engineering department at the Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University. McCabe says that the mobile platforms look amazing. “Workload levelling through real-time reporting/dashboards is huge, so it’s easy to see who may need help day-to-day. Integrations with ERPs, medical device security monitoring tools, and ECRI or FDA is extremely useful to help manage inventory, ordering parts, and to be able to tackle an ever-changing landscape with being able to report how we are doing to senior leadership,” McCabe adds. “For me, the features I would like the most would be voice input, use of AI to predict failures, to anticipate part needs, to anticipate what the technician might need as they are working on equipment and finally real analytic products that help us understand all the things about my equipment and the resources it is taking to service it,” Fedele says. There are exciting developments ahead for CMMS and the end result can only mean more efficiency, awareness and capabilities. The providers are listening and refining their products. HTM continues to provide a wealth of ideas and feedback.

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Healthcare Technology Recruitment & Placement Services Nationwide “Quality People, Quality Service” Specializing in Military and Professionally Trained BMETs and Imaging Service Technicians • Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) Careers • Radiology / Imaging Technicians & Managers • Biomedical Equipment Technicians (BMETs) • Equipment Field Service Technicians Contact: Tim Hopkins or Cindy Stephens

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SEPTEMBER 2019

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Invest in Professional Development BY CINDY STEPHENS

oday’s increasingly complex medical equipment illustrates how the Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) career field has advanced. It also puts biomedical equipment technicians in high demand. Many health care systems are scrambling to keep up with new technology that can be complicated and challenging.

Due to the constant change in healthcare technology, today’s HTM professionals must understand the equipment’s application as well as its interaction with patients. The diversity of equipment often calls for specialization that requires additional training requirements and responsibilities. Most health care employers know the importance of hiring or sustaining workers who are broadening their knowledge. It is surprising that many employees and candidates are bewildered when they are laid off, not promoted or not hired because they lack relevant or current technical and managerial skills. Employers are looking for employees who are eager and enthusiastic about learning. Employees with strong technical skills and equally strong communication skills will rise above the pack, especially when they demonstrate that they are constant learners.

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SEPTEMBER 2019

It is critical to remain relevant and keep abreast of health care’s changing technology and that requires continous learning and relearning. It is especially important for seasoned workers to be competitive and ensure they stay up to date on technological advances. Complacency can lead to being overlooked when it comes to career advancement opportunities. Individuals can invest in professional development through continuing education and certifications. Specialty training along with experience will build an individual’s competencies and reputation. Do not hesitate to take the initiative and learn on your own time and at your own expense, if necessary. Although improving skills doesn’t always mean investing in higher education, it is an option, and perhaps necessary depending on individual career goals. There are many possibilities when it comes to advancing knowledge and skills. If an employer does not offer additional training, look to professional organizations, community colleges and online technical training sessions to obtain education and certification. Advancing education, obtaining advanced degrees and achieving relevant certifications are all valuable investments. Keep abreast of technology by reading trade journals, magazines and manufacturer literature. Participate in webinars on new equipment or read

Cindy Stephens Stephens International Recruiting, Inc.

about new technology on manufacturers’ web pages and other websites. Take a weekend or evening training class at a local community college or technical school. Enroll in workshops and attend conferences to expand your knowledge. Learning a new skill or enhancing current knowledge is an investment that will keep individuals at the cutting edge of the HTM career field. If uncertain of what training is needed or how to get to the next step in your career, find a mentor who can provide guidance. HTM educational and technical training requirements have expanded. Many health care systems are requiring a minimum of an associate or bachelor’s degree in biomedical

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EXPERT ADVICE technology, military-trained BMET program or appropriate training at an accredited technical college. Many BMETs pursue professional certification, satisfying certain education requirements and passing an examination to become a Certified Healthcare Technology Manager (CHTM), Certified Biomedical Equipment Technician (CBET), a Certified Radiology Equipment Specialists (CRES), or a Certified Laboratory Equipment Specialists (CLES). In many cases, carrying one or more of these certifications is highly encouraged, respected within the technical community and may provide salary increases or bonus potential. As the field continues to work closer with IT departments, the demand for networking knowledge and additional certifications will continue to rise. These include Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Net+, Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP), Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), or Cisco Certified Specializing in Philips, Picker/Marconi, Specializing in Siemens, Philips, Picker/Marconi, MRI & CT Systems Siemens, MRI & CT Systems Entry Networking Technician (CCENT). Companies will always be looking for individuals to bridge the gap between the departments. This trend is not new, but will continue to 512.477.1500 512.477.1500 PROOF APPROVED CHANGES NEEDED rise as the ever-changing technology wheel keeps turning. info@keimedparts.com info@keimedparts.com Professional development is a long-term, continuing CLIENT SIGN–OFF: www.keimedparts.com www.keimedparts.com process and shaping your career path is up to you. Remain relevant in the HTM career field by investing in professional ARE CORRECT PLEASE CONFIRM THAT THE FOLLOWING development. Keep up to date on the latest industry trends and KEI MEDPARTS KEI MEDPARTS LOGO PHONE NUMBER WEBSITE ADDRESS MRI & CT Equipment SPELLING MRI & CT Equipment GRAMMAR technologies in today’s competitive, high-tech market! You Knowledge, IntegrityExperience, Integrity can be a tremendous success if you are willing to work at it. Knowledge, Experience,

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