From the President ... Mary Logan
June 29, 2012
Finding Inspiration in Real People
I write today determined and inspired by two powerful stories.
The first: 14 of my 36 staff recently completed CPR and AED training, now fully prepared to use the new AED installed in our office (see photo below). Two of them shared personal stories that made their training all the more meaningful. The life of one staffer’s brother was saved by an AED. The other was resuscitated by her colleagues—in a heroic 52 minute life-saving effort—after she suffered “sudden cardiac death” at her then workplace. Healthcare technology saves lives and improves patient outcomes, and we all need to remember and tell these stories.
The second: I received a letter this week from a nurse who wrote with a broken heart. Her mom had recently died unexpectedly during a minor carpal tunnel procedure when her blood pressure monitor was connected into her IV (a small bore connector issue), which caused an air embolus that killed her. This tragic adverse incident motivated a heartbroken daughter to ask what she could do to help prevent the next tragic misconnection and to ask for help in mobilizing a massive education effort.
I could be writing to you about the outstanding AAMI 2012 Conference & Expo in Charlotte, which broke new records and reached new heights in the quality of the sessions. I should be writing to you about the upcoming AAMI-FDA Interoperability Summit on Oct. 2-3, 2012, because we want you to be there if the convergence of medical devices with IT is on your “sleepless nights” list. Oh, and my staff would want me to tell you about the wireless workshop we are hosting on Oct. 4-5 (an invitation-only, deep dive into wireless issues; let me know if you would like to be on the invitation list). And I'm tempted to report on progress with our other 2012 priorities.
Instead, I invite you to join me in being inspired and determined by these two powerful stories. Tens of thousands of individuals all over the world will have their lives saved this year by an AED, each with their own personal story. Like CPR and Heimlich, it's a fantastic tool in the rescue toolkit. I hope there is an AED nearby if I ever need one. I'm proud that AAMI has one in our office suite. It's an advancement in technology that makes the second "A" in AAMI stand a little taller.
The small bore connector tragedy draws out a different type of inspiration and determination, hopefully in all of us. The nurse who shared her story asks each one of us to remind, re-remind, and do whatever it takes in all of our organizations to make sure that we don't hear another story like it. Members of our small bore connector standards committee told me that this story re-energized them to keep up the intense pace of their work on new design standards to make misconnections impossible.
We don't all have the ability to design a new lifesaving device like the AED, and we aren't all trained to administer CPR. All of us, though, can share the tragedy of all of the families who have lost loved ones from a small bore misconnection. New design standards are on their way, but many steps in the development process remain (the testing phase begins soon), and then the implementation process will be massive and complex. Join me and my staff and committee colleagues in being inspired to tell the story to everyone you know: Beware and extra aware of small bore misconnections. Thank you.
Kindest Regards,
Mary Logan, JD, CAE
AAMI President
mlogan@aami.org
+1-703-253-8265