By AAMI
The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) Foundation has awarded three deserving individuals from the health technology community with a 2023 award. Winners were recognized by thousands of their peers and received a monetary prize and plaque commemorating their achievements in June during the 2023 AAMI eXchange.
The 2023 AAMI Foundation Award winners are:
- The AAMI Foundation & ACCE’s Robert L. Morris Humanitarian Award: Shauna Mullally, Manager, Health Technology Planning, Infrastructure Planning Division, Department of Health and Social Services, Government of the Northwest Territories
- The AAMI Foundation’s Laufman-Greatbatch Award: Dr. Ajit P. Yoganathan, Emeritus Regents’ Professor and the Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Chair in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University
- The AAMI Foundation & TRIMEDX John D. Hughes Iconoclast Award: Stephen L. Grimes, AAMIF, FACCE, FHIMSS, FAIMBE, Principal Consultant with Strategic Health Care Technology Associates, LLC.
Mullally Recognized with Robert L. Morris Humanitarian Award
This award – honoring the late humanitarian Bob Morris – recognizes individuals or organizations whose humanitarian efforts have applied healthcare technology to improving global human conditions.
Since late 2016, Shauna Mullally has been in the Canadian sub-arctic overseeing medical equipment planning and procurement for the Northwest Territories’ 34 communities’ health facilities and health and long-term care services. Having also worked with communities in Gambia, Zambia, Denmark, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and London, Mullally has showcased how healthcare technology management practices can enrich low-resource health care systems around the world.
Among her proudest achievements is the development of a birthing house for and with the women of the village of Penyem, Gambia. Over 200 babies have been born at the facility since then, and it is now a full health center for the village with a visiting nurse and doctor.
“I was drawn to engineering because I loved math and science, and once I got there I was drawn to biomedical and clinical engineering because I wanted to work in an area that was people focused,” Mullally told AAMI.
“There was no turning back once I saw first-hand what a lack of safe, available health technologies means to patients and caregivers in low-resource settings. There is a tremendous amount of good our profession can do in the world, particularly in places with very few resources,” she said. “It is meaningful for me to join the past recipients of this award, many of whom have been mentors to me. I believe in the work of AAMI and the ACCE in this area and feel very humbled to be recognized.”
Yoganathan Honored with Laufman-Greatbatch Award
Named after two pioneers in the field – Harold Laufman and Wilson Greatbatch – this prestigious recognition honors an individual who has made a unique and significant contribution to the advancement of healthcare technology and systems, service, patient care, or patient safety.
A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Dr. Ajit P. Yoganathan’s career is defined by the application of basic engineering science to develop meaningful health outcomes. Since 1975, all prosthetic heart valves implanted in the U.S. – more than two dozen valve designs – have been studied and evaluated in Yoganathan’s lab. Utilizing experimental and computational biomechanical techniques to study native and artificial heart valves, heart function, and congenital heart diseases, Yoganathan’s work has been called “foundational” for the development and evaluation of numerous cardiovascular devices.
Yoganathan also regularly works with medical device regulatory organizations. Since 1979, he has worked with the U.S. FDA and in the early 2000s Yoganathan served as Chair of the International Standards Organization committee for implantable cardiovascular devices, influencing the development of industry-defining standards.
“My interest in artificial heart valves was sparked in 1975, by an off-chance encounter with a cardiologist named Earl C. Harrison, MD, during my Ph.D. work at the California Institute of Technology. It launched an exciting and fulfilling 45-plus year journey. I have been working on U.S. and International Cardiac Valve Substitutes Standards (ISO 5840) since 1984,” he said. “I am truly honored by this award, since it recognizes my passion for impacting human lives and in ensuring safe cardiac devices for patients in need. This is my research philosophy: from bench to bedside, and more recently bench to bassinet – in dealing with heart valve devices for pediatric patients.”
Grimes Recognized with John D. Hughes Iconoclast Award
The AAMI Foundation and TRIMEDX John D. Hughes Iconoclast Award recognizes an individual who pushes the boundaries of the healthcare technology management (HTM) profession and demonstrates individual excellence, achievement, and leadership.
Steve Grimes is a recognized authority and frequent national and international speaker on topics ranging from future challenges facing the health technology support industry to healthcare technology convergence, medical device security, risk management, maintenance management, and quality management issues. A friend and colleague of the late John D. Hughes, Grimes developed an appreciation for challenging the status quo to enable meaningful growth for an organization or professional field.
“To be successful, I believe our community must focus on necessary changes in the role and education of HTM professionals,” he told AAMI. “There’s a need to change the nature of HTM services delivered if we ever hope to match the evolution of technology we’re seeing take place before us.”
“I am fortunate that I have had the opportunity to work with, and advise leaders of relevant professional organizations on the roles their organizations should play to effectively address the needs of their constituents,” Grimes added. “This includes work I’ve had the opportunity to do on new standards, education guidelines, professional roles, and the general promotion of a systems approach toward healthcare technology management. Hopefully, some of what I’ve done has helped stimulate new and progressive thinking on how we can successfully face our challenges. In the end, I’m satisfied if I’ve helped in some small way to make the world a little better.”
