The TechNation Webinar Wednesday series continued in July and August with insightful presentations.
In July, “Priorities for Today’s CE Leaders: Key Considerations for Defining Your Supply Chain Strategy” was presented by Allina Health IS and Clinical Engineering Services Director Nadia Ayoubzadeh and Clinical Engineering Services Manager Mara Pare along with Erin Tournoux from webinar sponsor PartsSource.
Ayoubzadeh and Pare shared with attendees the process of identifying current pitfalls and opportunities, goals, strategy, RFP, and ultimately finding the right supply chain partner or partners. They provided an in-depth presentation that answered many frequently asked questions.
Tournoux added to the webinar with an informative presentation. She reviewed critical data and analytics necessary to certify an optimized procurement process along with vendor evaluation metrics that can be implemented in any clinical engineering department.
The webinar did a great job of outlining four key areas. It discussed project planning and approach, managing change within an organization, Allina’s RFP approach, as well as monitoring and project reporting.
Following the webinar, the presenters fielded questions from attendees sharing additional knowledge and insight.
The August 10 webinar, sponsored by Fluke Biomedical, stressed safety.
The presentation “AEDs: What You Need to Know – FDA Updates, Best Practices, and More” provided expert knowledge on Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) from the team at webinar sponsor Fluke Biomedical. The webinar proved popular among HTM professionals setting a new all-time attendance record.
Presenter Ashton Solecki, Fluke Biomedical Product Marketing Manager, said the FDA has increased its scrutiny of AEDs due to an increased high failure rate. She shared her insights into one of the most highly regulated medical devices in the industry.
The webinar also stressed the importance of testing AEDs, reviewed global testing standards, and highlighted upcoming FDA changes impacting AEDs. Solecki discussed best practices for testing AEDs to ensure their safety and proper performance.
The webinar concluded with an informative Q&A session.
The presentation was a hit before it even started with a record 1,035 people registered to attend. A new record for the number of attendees was set with 576 people joining the live webinar.
Another Fluke-sponsored webinar focused on t electrical safety of medical devices. The key concern is leakage current, which even at a very low voltage can cause harm or be fatal. With health care patients often simultaneously connected to several medical devices, testing for leakage becomes crucial.
During his presentation, Jerry Zion increased attendees’ knowledge of electrical safety testing, including unique situations such as testing double-insulated IEC 60601-1 Class II and Class IP medical devices, differences in testing IEC62353 and IEC61010 medical devices, and requirements of testing medical devices used in clinical laboratories in universities, health care facilities and research institutes.
Attendees were taught the variations in performing tests on medical devices, including those connecting to a mains power. Participants were shown how to measure electrical leakage of medical devices inside electrically isolated power systems such as intensive care units. Also, Zion discussed why electrical safety analyzers need to be a specific size, and various types of electrical safety analyzers.
Imaging service professionals received a special treat in August with the free TechNation webinar “CT Best Practices and More” presented by Jerome Howard, a sales support engineer at Dunlee, a division of Philips. The Dunlee-sponsored webinar provided insights for the 162 people who watched the webinar live and is available online for on-demand viewing.
Howard discussed failure modes of X-ray and CT tubes to kick off his presentation focusing on the “and More” portion of the webinar first. He listed arcing, track damage, broken filament, bearings, port window damage and overheating as some common issues. He addressed each in detail and provided troubleshooting tips.
In the “CT Best Practices” portion of the webinar, Howard talked about OEM planned maintenance schedules and the success many have had doing more. He said there are benefits to performing additional PM procedures including improved tube life and system reliability.
In summary, Howard expressed the importance of understanding failure modes to help reduce downtime before taking questions from attendees during a Q&A session.
Howard said more information is available from the Dunlee Academy, including step-by-step guides for field service engineers. Also, he said an updated version of the Dunlee app will soon be available for download.
For information about the TechNation Webinar Wednesday series, including recordings of previous webinars and a schedule of upcoming sessions, visit www.1TechNation.com/Webinars.
TechNation Webinar Wednesday would like to thank our sponsors Dunlee, Fluke Biomedical and PartsSource.