By John Wallace, Editor
The spring 2020 MD Expo slated for Irvine, California has been replaced with three smaller, regional HTM Mixers in Colorado, Wisconsin and California.
“We understand that participants may be hesitant or unable to travel so by providing local, regional conferences, we will be able to provide the education and networking that they need,” MD Publishing explained in an email earlier this year. “If hospitals can’t come to us, we will go to them.”
The HTM Mixers are designed as slightly modified, smaller, shorter-duration, less-crowded and safer-environment events that still provide valuable continuing education, networking and vendor engagement opportunities.
“We took this opportunity to redesign how this program will look because MD Publishing wants to be a leader in restoring conferences to the HTM community,” MD Publishing President and Founder John Krieg said.
The first HTM Mixer is scheduled for Denver, Colorado on August 19 and 20. It is being held with the support of CABMET. The educational lineup is impressive with nine stellar offerings.
The classes start at 9 a.m. on Thursday, August 20 with the following:
• Using Standardized CMMS Data to Make Smarter HTM Decisions – Part I presented by Carol Davis-Smith from Carol Davis-Smith & Associates LLC and Matt Baretich, president of Baretich Engineering Inc. The session should be immediately applicable to supervisors, managers, directors and other management roles. Staff (individual contributors) may also find this session helpful in becoming stronger contributors to the HTM department’s success. Those individuals seeking to advance into management roles will find the workshop useful in developing perspective and skills that will support career growth.
• Foundational Electrosurgery Principles & Applications presented by Dale Munson, principal instructor with Biomed Support Services. If you are new to electrosurgical principles and applications – or perhaps a little rusty on key terminology and concepts – this overview will provide foundational information that applies to any “bovie” in use today. This is a good chance to get information about questions that will be asked on a CBET exam.
• Biomed Survival Guide for Imaging Modalities presented by Brian Wilson, CBET, CRES, Imaging Service Engineer 3 at Trimedx. The presentation will mix visual and live format on various imaging modalities. He will share his experiences as both a biomed and imaging service engineer to help explain the subject from both perspectives with a focus on safety and best practices. He will also answer questions on the subject matter.
At 10:30 a.m., a 15-minute break will allow attendees to make a pit stop and recharge for the second session set to run from 10:45 a.m. to noon. The sessions include:
• Using Standardized CMMS Data to Make Smarter HTM Decisions – Part II presented by Carol Davis-Smith and Matt Baretich.
• COVID-19 and Your Value Proposition: How the HTM professional can plan for the future of health care delivery presented by Christopher G. Nowak, CBET, CHP, CSCS, senior director, UHS of Delaware Inc. This session will provide attendees with a reflection of the first two quarters of 2020 and the impact on HTM. A discussion will include tools for HTM professionals that prepare for the future and provide an HTM program and employer with a value proposition for the remainder of 2020 and beyond.
• ECG 1-2-3 for BMET presented by David Scott, senior biomeidcal technician, UCHealth. This session is designed to provide an introduction to cardiac structure, electrophysiology, heart-related vital signs and ECG recording. It will give pointers for PMs and troubleshooting. It will cover test equipment usage and give meaning to the test equipment signal output.
Educational opportunities continue later in the day from 3-4:15 p.m. with an HTM Think Tank moderated by Dave Francoeur, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Tech Knowledge Associates. Attendees are invited to join for a lively and informational discussion where several issues affecting the HTM field in the foreseeable future will be addressed. Top on the agenda will be Right to Repair and updates to servicing and re-manufacturing with the Medical Device Servicing Collaborative Community’s response to FDA initiatives initiated by MITA. Along with examining the impact of the 24 HTM colleges closing, which is expected to result in a shortage of 4,000-6,000 technicians in the next five or so years.
Also starting at 3 p.m. is the session Avoiding Big Failures Without Big Expenses with 4 Easy Steps presented by Ted Lucidi from Innovatus Imaging. When it comes to imaging devices, little things go a long way. And not always in the right direction. A little slip of the hand could cause trauma to a TEE probe and, according to years of data from first-hand experience and researching common failures, trauma is one of the leading reasons for costly repair services. In this session, attendees will learn to identify the little changes to the daily routines of cross-functional teams that can have a big impact on lowering costs associated with downtime and repairs. They will learn to identify opportunities for improvement, establish goals, metrics, checkpoints and work with end-users to take routine processes to a new level.
Securing Medical Device Security and Post COVID-19 Impact presented by Ordr CSO Jeff Horne is also offered at 3 p.m. How many medical devices are connected to your network today? IP-enabled medical devices are revolutionizing patient care. However, these Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) are slow to adopt security practices and can be a challenge to secure. Many run obsolete operating systems, cannot be patched, are susceptible to active scanning but must be “always on” for patient care. These devices need to be inventoried and risk-assessed, and vulnerable or high-risk devices should be properly segmented. COVID-19 has also impacted medical device security as devices procured or deployed to address the surge of patients must now be brought back into compliance. Utilization analytics can also help with capital spend and planning post pandemic. In this session, attendees will learn about the life cycle framework for the management and security of medical devices – discovery, classification, risk-assessment and segmentation.
For more information, visit Colorado.HTMmixer.com.
