By AAMI
AAMI to Offer CBET Review Course
For the first time, AAMI is offering a review course to help biomedical equipment technicians (BMETs) prepare for the CBET certification exam. The four-week online CBET Study Course covers all six areas of the CBET exam, providing participants with a world-class instructor.
“The feedback we’ve received is that a common obstacle for those considering certification has been a lack of preparation materials for the certification exam,” said MJ McLaughlin, program manager for certification at AAMI. “We heard you. With this course, AAMI intends to offer the best resources in the country to help prepare eligible candidates for the CBET exam.”
The online course meets twice each week in the evenings, but all sessions are recorded.
For more information and to register, visit www.aami.org/ACI.
AAMI Standard Is a Fresh Start for Medical Device Interoperability
AAMI has published a new standard, AAMI CDV 2700-1:2019, that marks the start of a grander vision for the field of medical device interoperability – an interoperable clinical environment (ICE).
The idea behind the standard is to encourage the design of “plug-and-play” ICE platforms that work seamlessly once they’re connected. This plug-and-play capability would allow clinicians to combine data from different medical devices made by different manufacturers to yield new patient information in ways that are not possible with stand-alone medical devices and equipment.
“When you plug in your monitor, mouse or a USB port into your computer, you don’t have to do all kinds of stuff to get them to work. The computer recognizes these devices and automatically integrates them into the functionality of the system,” said Sandy Weininger, co-chair for the AAMI Medical Device Interoperability Working Group. “The AAMI Medical Device Interoperability Working Group is looking five to 10 years down the road, and we welcome input from a broad diversity of stakeholders to make the standards as robust as possible.”
AAMI Revitalizes Mentorship Program
After a nearly two-year hiatus, AAMI has revived its mentorship program, which pairs AAMI members who are early-career and seasoned healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals for a year-long mentoring relationship.
AAMI started the program in 2015 as a resource and networking opportunity for members, especially those early on in their career. The goals of the program are to:
- Help protégés develop the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed and grow in the healthcare technology field.
- Provide a venue for them to discuss issues or concerns that are unique to healthcare technology professionals.
- Encourage long-term career planning.
The AAMI mentor/protégé relationship is a year-long agreement with a commitment to meet at least once per month via email, phone, video chats or in person. AAMI provides monthly prompts to help guide discussions in the mentorship meetings, checks in after each meeting for feedback on progress being made toward goals, and conducts semi-annual surveys on the success of the program and any additional resources could provide.
For more information about AAMI’s Mentorship Program and access mentor or protégé applications, visit www.aami.org/Mentorship.
AAMI Foundation Awards Mary K. Logan Research Grant to Cincinnati Hospital
The AAMI Foundation Board has awarded the $40,000 Mark K. Logan Research Grant to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio to fund a project entitled “Dissemination of the Best Evidence for Effective Pediatric Monitoring Study Results.” The goal of the study is to disseminate and distribute recently developed indications for continuous pediatric monitoring to ensure the appropriate monitoring of patients.
The team, under the leadership of Amanda Schondelmeyer, division of hospital medicine, established cardiac-respiratory monitoring protocols for patients through testing private adoption within Cincinnati Children’s sites, qualitative and survey methods used to understand barriers, and test usability of guidelines to validate acceptability of providers to use guidelines.
The project will create a toolkit as a result of the stakeholder experience and expand to other Children’s Hospitals.
Resource Promotes HTM Careers with “HTM in a Box”
AAMI is developing a portable and standardized presentation kit called “HTM in a Box” to promote the healthcare technology management field and encourage students and adults to pursue careers in HTM.
The “HTM in a Box” package is available at no cost on the AAMI website (www.aami.org) and contains age-appropriate PowerPoint presentations on HTM professions, information for educators and parents on the academic requirements for jobs (ranging from biomedical equipment technicians to HTM leader), as well as ideas for hands-on demonstrations for students and lists of schools and programs that offer preparation and training for careers in HTM.
“With HTM in a Box, everything is at your fingertips,” said Danielle McGeary, vice president of HTM at AAMI. “AAMI can’t go to every high school, middle school, or college in the country – with ‘HTM in a Box,’ we will be giving HTM professionals the tools to do that.”