AAMI Foundation Awards 2020 Research Grants

For immediate release
Contact: Brian Stallard, bstallard@aami.org, (703) 647-2771

The AAMI Foundation has named the 2020 recipients of the Mary K. Logan Research Award Program. Two grants, worth a total of more than $119,000, will support research initiatives that focus on improving patient safety and eliminating morbidity and mortality associated with the use of healthcare technology.

“The AAMI Foundation is pleased to support these important research initiatives this year, and anxious to share the results of the researchers’ work with the entire healthcare community,” said Steve Campbell, executive director of the AAMI Foundation. “Competition for this year’s research funding was strong, but these two grant submissions stood out because of the depth and importance of the topics and the impressive proposals put forth by the researchers.”

The awards program, which was named in honor of AAMI’s former president and CEO, was established in 2016 with a gift from the association’s Board of Directors. This year, it supports research from the School of Engineering and Applied Science at George Washington University and the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering at Purdue University.

Developing Utilization-Driven Management of Connected Medical Equipment

The AAMI Foundation awarded $69,565 to a research team at George Washington University, led by Ekundayo Shittu, associate professor of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering. The group will explore the potential impact of utilization-based Alternative Equipment Maintenance (AEM) programs.

“In recent years, AEM programs have gained traction in the healthcare technology management (HTM) field, but their full potential remains untapped as available data has been limited to maintenance records and risk assessments,” Shittu said. “Fortunately, this is rapidly changing with the rise of connected medical devices that wirelessly report their status and utilization. HTM professionals will be able to schedule planned maintenance (PM) based on equipment usage, or by using more advanced techniques that take into account when, where, and how equipment is used.”

With the funding received by the AAMI Foundation, Shittu and his team are developing a software tool that will enable others in the HTM community to evaluate the effect their AEM programs have on patient safety, equipment availability, and cost reduction. 

Shittu hopes that the research will revolutionize the field of HTM. “This project aims to catalyze an industry-wide paradigm shift towards utilization-based AEM. By showing that such an approach is both effective and attainable in this new era of connected devices, this project will provide a foundation upon which other HTM innovators can build and will signal to stakeholders across the industry an opportunity for additional research and investment.”

An Informatics-Driven Dashboard for Infusion Safety Advancement 

Poching DeLaurentis’ research at Purdue University focuses on collecting data from smart infusion pumps and collaborates with clinicians who use them daily. She has noticed the drawbacks of not having a uniform system that analyzes detailed infusion data.

“We live in an age of digital data–we generate and can receive or collect lots of data from various sources. However, not everyone is equipped or has time to extract meaningful information out of the abundance of data,” she said. “I see opportunities in extracting data from smart infusion pumps and using advanced analytics and algorithms as tools to present meaningful information so clinicians can prioritize their actions in maintaining and improving patient safety practices.”

DeLaurentis and her team aim to design and implement an infusion safety dashboard on the community-supported Regenstrief National Center for Medical Device Informatics (REMEDI) web portal (CatalyzeCare.org). It will be powered by computational algorithms that evaluate infusion data from smart infusion pumps. They were awarded $50,000 by the AAMI Foundation to aid in this project.

DeLaurentis expects that the research will influence future smart pump management as well as device design and requirement. “The safe infusion dashboard will provide a set of concise, easy-to-understand metrics of selected infusion safety measures as outlined by ISMP (Institute For Safe Medication Practices), and therefore serve as a guide for clinicians to reach those specific best practices,” she said.

Established in 1967, the AAMI Foundation (www.AAMIFoundation.org) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to supporting current and emerging healthcare technology management and sterilization professions leaders through scholarships, awards, and research grants. Throughout its history, the Foundation has worked closely with AAMI, a diverse community of more than 9,000 professionals united by its mission to ensure the safe and effective development, management, and use of health technology.

AAMI (www.aami.org) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1967. It is a diverse community of more than 10,000 healthcare technology professionals united by one important mission—supporting the healthcare community in the development, management, and use of safe and effective health technology. AAMI is the primary source of consensus standards, both national and international, for the medical device industry, as well as practical information, support, and guidance for health technology and sterilization professionals.