About the Infusion Systems Safety Initiative
At the conclusion of the October 2010 Infusion Device Summit, Pat Baird (co-chair, AAMI Infusion Device Standards Committee) and Mary Logan (AAMI President) proposed the creation of a council dedicated to making infusion devices safer and to serve as "...the body that coordinates the action plans that result from the Summit." roles and responsibilities of this council include the development of working groups and/or cooperative arrangements with other organizations to implement action plans, to serve as a central discussion forum for all stakeholders, and to maintain an ongoing line of communication among all Summit participants.
Thus the Healthcare Technology Safety Institute was launched in mid 2010 as part of the AAMI Foundation, a 501c3 charitable arm of AAMI, allowing the agility and freedom to tackle openly the sensitive issues of medical technology safety. Its first priority was to do just that for infusion systems with the goal of zero incidents.
An Infusion Systems Steering Committee comprised of dedicated individuals from hospitals, academia, industry, and pharmacy, was established to lead the effort for reaching the HTSI goal of "zero incidents." This Sterling Committee created working groups to address priority issues and to take action on the.
The Infusions Systems Steering Committee developed a Mission and Vision statement and Charter to help us all imagine the future of safe and effective infusion systems.
A National Study of Intravenous Medication Errors: Understanding How to Improve Intravenous Safety with Smart Pumps; Brigham and Women's Hospital; Project Investigator: David W. Bates
In May, 2012, The Healthcare Technology Safety Insitutte was awarded a $328,660 grant by the CareFusion Foundation to fund a three-year national study on key issues surrounding the administration of intravenous (IV) medication using smart pumps. Read more.