AAMI’s Best of BI&T Awards Recognize Journal Authors
May 13, 2020
A new way of looking at the healthcare technology management and clinical engineering professions, a deep dive into medical device recall data, and the value of making small changes that can have a big impact on quality—these are the three articles published in AAMI’s peer-reviewed journal, BI&T (Biomedical Instrumentation and Technology), that shaped the health technology world in 2019.
“Selected by the BI&T Editorial Board, this year’s winning submissions tackled many of the most pressing issues in health technology—namely, the need to ensure that medical devices are safe and effective, the role that healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals should play in managing those devices, and ways to do so effectively using shrewd planning and management practices,” said Editor in Chief Gavin Stern. “Thank you to all of our authors, contributors, editors, and peer reviewers for their role in growing health technology knowledge base.”
Interested in contributing an article to BI&T? Visit www.aami.org/BIT for more information.
Best Article
“CE/HTM Professional Roles in Healthcare Delivery: Time for a Trajectory Reset?,” published in the May/June 2019 issue of BI&T is this year’s Best Article.
In this feature, Stephen Grimes, principal consultant at Strategic Healthcare Technologies, LLC, in the greater Boston area, discussed how changes in healthcare technology and its associated support needs require a corresponding change in clinical engineering (CE) and healthcare technology management (HTM) services—including the knowledge, skills, and abilities that CE/HTM professionals need to be successful.
Best Research Paper
An international group of researchers took the prize for Best Research Paper this year with their assessment of U.S. medical device recalls during 2012–2015. They identified 423 recalls resulting from user interface software errors, which accounted for nearly one-half of recalls caused by software errors during the period of their study.
The article, “User Interface Software Errors in Medical Devices: Study of U.S. Recall Data,” was published in the May/June 2019 issue of BI&T by Yi Zhang, former visiting scientist with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Silver Spring, MD; Paolo Masci, postdoctoral researcher with the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology, and Science in Porto, and the University of Miho in Braga, Portugal; Paul Jones, retired senior systems/software engineer at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health in Silver Spring, MD; and Harold Thimbleby, professor of computer science and digital heath fellow at Swansea University in Swansea, Wales, UK.
Best Column or Commentary
A team from Renovo Solutions in Irvine, CA, including Bhaskar Iduri, vice president of HTM and quality assurance, Rao Bankuru, clinical engineer, and Rachel Yarnevic, vice president of West Operations, won Best Commentary for “Applying QMS Principles to a Medical Equipment Management Program,” published in the Sept./Oct. 2019 issue of BI&T.
The article outlined how HTM departments can develop a quality management system (QMS) by making minor changes to existing medical equipment management program practices, and explained that the implementation of a QMS provides a “sound basis for a coherent, effective, and cost-efficient approach to ensuring optimal levels of safety and effectiveness related to healthcare technology.”
Bright Ideas
In each issue of BI&T, AAMI highlights how one healthcare facility or system implemented a novel approach to tackling a specific healthcare technology–related problem. The “bright ideas” featured in this section are selected by AAMI’s Technology Management Council (TMC). The TMC then chooses one program to receive its annual Bright Ideas Award.
This year’s award was presented to GE Healthcare’s Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) Program, headquartered in Chicago, IL, and led by Senior Director Donna Marie Dyer. Dyer’s team incorporated Six Sigma techniques, including Lean management and 5S, to optimize organization within their HTM programs across the U.S. and Canada. To nominate an innovative department, program, or initiative for recognition in 2021, visit www.aami.org/BrightIdeas.
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.