With an article in a special supplement distributed in USA Today, AAMI offered its perspective on issues to consider as more healthcare technology moves outside the hospital, emphasizing the need for standardization, simplicity and designing with empathy.
This supplement was part of Mediaplanet USA’s Future of Healthcare campaign, which brought together industry leaders to highlight the biggest innovations and issues the health care system will face in the coming years.
“As healthcare technology moves outside hospitals and traditional care environments, there are a number of tough questions that need to be answered,” said AAMI President and CEO Robert Jensen. “AAMI is committed to helping find solutions through our standards, education programs, and publications – and we do so with diverse stakeholders, each of whom brings a valuable perspective to these discussions. Being featured in a national publication that is distributed as widely as USA Today gives us the opportunity to get in front of new eyes and encourage even more people to consider how we can best realize the full benefits of connected health.”
In the article “Keeping Patients in Mind as Healthcare Technology Breaks Free of Hospitals,” Sean Loughlin, AAMI’s vice president of communications, highlighted the five “clarion themes” from a summit the association hosted in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration on the topic of home health care:
• Deepen stakeholders’ understanding of the use environments and their remarkable variability.
• Coordinate multiple and recurring transitions in care to improve patient safety.
• Adopt a systems approach to redesign the full spectrum of health care in nonclinical settings.
• Standardize and simplify.
• Design with empathy.
More details about the vision for “anywhere, everywhere health care” that emerged from this event can be found in the official summit report, which is available at www.aami.org/summits.
AAMI, IAMERS Agree to Share Information, Best Practices
AAMI is partnering with the International Association of Medical Equipment Remarketers and Servicers (IAMERS) to work with the association’s members to adopt new or improve their existing quality management systems.
AAMI President and CEO Robert Jensen said the agreement with IAMERS underscored AAMI’s commitment to forge partnerships that advance safety in healthcare technology and promote the sharing of valuable information and best practices that ultimately benefit the patients.
“We can learn from one another and support professionals in the field with this agreement,” Jensen said. “In the end, innovation and safety are advanced when organizations collaborate on solutions to the shared challenges we face in healthcare technology.”
AAMI has developed a number of education programs related to quality management systems that it will now offer to IAMERS members on a discounted basis under the terms of this agreement.
According to IAMERS, all of its members are expected to employ quality management in their organizational structure, policies, procedures, processes and resources. In May 2017, IAMERS members unanimously approved recommendations related to complaint management, identification and traceability, competence, awareness and training, inspection of equipment, and data management.
“IAMERS members are striving to achieve the best solutions for their clients, and of course, continuing to address patient safety,” said IAMERS President Diana Upton. “We know engaging with AAMI will greatly help us with these efforts. We are delighted to enter into this understanding with AAMI. We hope we too will bring important insights about our member businesses.”
AAMI and IAMERS will also provide opportunities for representatives from the other organization to participate in specific committees and conferences to reinforce information sharing and open discourse relevant to both groups’ missions.
‘AAMI News,’ ‘Horizons’ Honored for Publication Excellence
Two of AAMI’s flagship publications have been recognized with an APEX Award for Publication Excellence. This annual awards program, which drew nearly 1,400 entries in 2017, honors excellence in publishing by professional communicators
AAMI News earned an Award of Excellence in the category of “1–2 person-produced newsletter,” while the association’s peer-reviewed journal supplement, Horizons, won an Award of Excellence for “one-of-a-kind publications (health and medical)” for the spring 2016 issue focusing on the sterilization and reprocessing of medical devices.
Sean Loughlin, AAMI vice president of communications, said the honors speak to dedication of staff editors as well as the volunteer authors who contribute to AAMI’s publications.
“We’re fortunate to have editors who care deeply about the quality of our editorial content,” he said. “And our publications would be far thinner without the volunteers who submit articles, papers, and ideas about the trends, challenges, and solutions in healthcare technology. Working with them, our editors are able to give readers the news and information they want and need to be able to succeed in their field and support safe, high-quality patient care.”