Empowering the Biomedical/CE Professional
• Electrophysiology is the fastest growing of all the cardiovascular disciplines. • Electrophysiologists are cardiologists who have additional education and training in the diagnosis and treatment of abnormal heart rhythms. Close collaboration between electrophysiologists and other doctors who treat patients with heart disease is important. • Based on the Heart Rhythm Society Workforce Survey, 999 electrophysiologists (experts in heart rhythm disorders) were identified for the 1995 U.S. population of 263,434,000, a ratio of 1:263,690. • Of these 999, 795 are certified as having added special competency in electrophysiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Many have also passed the...
Finding the time
Wyatt’s advancement within the profession attests to her commitment to promoting biomed within her Texas community. Another example is the reaction of her peers. Roger Bowles, MS, EdD, CBET and department chair of the Bio- medical Equipment Technology Department at Texas State Technical College in Waco, Texas, attests to her commitment to the next generation of biomeds. “Carol has been an asset to our program here at TSTC,” Bowles says. “She is very active with our students, coming down to speak at BET Club meetings, training interns, and even making herself available via email and telephone to answer their questions....
Last month’s winner for the March TN Vault was Bob Cary of Savannah, GA. The winning answer was a Biotek Calibrator. Click on the picture to view the full size. Think Carefully. Only one answer will be accepted. Your entry will be automatically generated from your account information. Winner receives a $10 gift card!...
In this installment, we will look at image artifacts, a common service issue with diagnostic ultrasound. Image artifacts are described in many ways but are essentially the areas of the image with missing information (dropouts) and static (non-moving) and/or dynamic (moving) artifacts. When a service call comes in for image artifacts in general, the first item we want to address is the transducer. If the customer tries a different transducer with the same format (ideally linear or curvilinear) and the issue goes away, we have determined the probe is the issue and we are done. We also want to ask...
Q. BAXTER FLOW GARD 6201 IV PUMP I’ve never actually made repairs to this model of pump before. I am check- ing one out for a small non-profit clinic (free service). This particular pump is louder than the rest of his pumps. It makes a chattering/groaning sound when running, more so at some speeds around 100-200ml/hr. I opened the unit to look inside. I suspect that it is just the white fingers of the peristaltic pump mechanism. Do those things need some silicone type cream lube inserted be- tween the fingers to sort of dampen the sound? How have you...
Last month i wrote a very convincing argument for my belief that email is not a method of communication. So email is possibly the worst means for communication. Then what is the best method? Yep, it’s face-to-face. Face-to-face allows us to not only hear the words and voice inflections, which together total 45 percent of the message, but also to see the body language. Since body language carries 55 percent of the message, it should be considered very important, and that is my topic this month. Let us begin with two cautions. First, when observing body language, it is important...
Last year, lytro released the first consumer light field camera, which miniaturizes light field technology into the body of a single camera. Light field cameras capture all the rays of light in a scene, allowing the user to focus and refocus a picture after it’s taken. To allow this, the camera captures a fundamentally richer set of data than traditional cameras using proprietary light field science. The Lytro’s light field sensor collects the color, intensity and direction of every light ray flowing into the camera – 11 million light rays of data, to be exact – to capture a scene...
Benefiting Michigan Biomeds
It was early in 1977 that a focus group held a meeting at the Michigan Hospital Association in Lansing, Mich. As an outcome of the meeting, a steering committee was established to consider the best ways to bring together biomedical professionals in the area. The steering committee met two months later at one of the member’s homes and identified several objectives, including providing service to other groups, sharing technical data, the promotion of the profession and social contacts. The early inception of the Michigan Society for Clinical Engineering had been shaped, and the group’s by-laws were approved the following year....
A sharp approach to slicing your facility’s budget
In the biomed shop, savings opportunities are generally worth investigating – they strengthen the case for in-house services and help reduce the bottom line. Assigning the repair and maintenance of surgical instrument sets to in-house techs is one cost-cutting opportunity that may be worth considering. Some facilities boast six- figure annual savings as a result of bringing this traditionally outsourced service into the biomed shop. Just like the evidence- based approach to maintaining capital equipment, goals can be set for the scheduling of maintenance and sharpening based on usage patterns. “Essentially we are suggesting that the biomedical department (or surgical...
