AAMI Annual Conference Focuses on Changes
In Healthcare Technology
Colored by in-depth presentations and lively discussions about some of the most pressing issues in healthcare technology, the AAMI 2012 Conference & Expo drew roughly 1,700 attendees and exhibitors to Charlotte, NC.
A major theme running through the three-day conference was change: Don’t expect things to be the same for the healthcare technology management (HTM) profession.
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| Attendees await the Expo opening. |
New technologies, responsibilities, and regulations mean the HTM field is going through an evolution, speakers and attendees said.
“I heard from keynote speakers who essentially said healthcare technology is moving outside of the hospital,” said Richard Ivnik, director of biomedical engineering at St. Louis U.S. Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Louis, MO. “Data acquisition and getting the data into the electronic medical record is where we need to position ourselves.”
Physician and inventor Daniel Kraft emphasized this point when he detailed some of these emerging technologies in his keynote speech on June 2.
“The devices themselves are getting more powerful, smaller, and portable. I can use my phone’s camera to look at skin, and I can do a referral through the mobile phone,” he said. “You are in a very fast field. Think about where things are moving.”
It isn’t just the technology that is changing, speakers say; it is also how healthcare is administered.
Robert Jesse, MD, principal deputy under secretary for health with the U.S. Veterans Health Administration, spoke during his general session on Monday about the need to implement systems engineering into healthcare.
“Many of the problems in healthcare today are tied to the myth of the art of medicine,” he said.
Jesse said that systems engineering principles used by other industries to improve efficiency and quality haven’t been applied to healthcare.
“We spend all our time saying medicine is different and those rules don’t apply to us,” he said. “For the art of medicine to flourish, the science of systems has to operate flawlessly.”
The conference overlapped with AAMI Standards Week in which experts from the worlds of industry, academia, government, and healthcare delivery met to discuss the development of standards on medical device software, infusion pumps, defibrillators, small bore connectors, and more.
Amid all the talk of new technology and equipment, multiple speakers and attendees emphasized the need to always keep the patient in mind.
“Our purpose in life isn’t to fix stuff,” said Glenn Scales, the new chair of the Editorial Board for BI&T (Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology), AAMI’s peer-reviewed journal. “Our purpose in life is to help make that patient better.”
The conference was more than a series of formal educational presentations. Attendees met and caught up with peers who face the same challenges at work. The convention center was abuzz with professionals learning and sharing with each other. And the Expo Hall was filled with scores of cutting-edge technologies on display, where medical device manufacturers answered questions and demonstrated their products.
This year’s conference featured a new and convenient way for attendees to enhance their experience. A new app let attendees set their own schedule, get maps of the convention center, and view what people said about the conference on Twitter.
“The app rocks,” proclaimed Dustin Telford, with Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, UT. “I’ve used the app more than I used the program this year. It kept me updated on any changes to the schedule.”
Avinash Konkani, who won a $2,500 scholarship from the AAMI Foundation’s Michael J. Miller Scholarship Program, attended the conference for the first time and came away inspired.
“I am very impressed by the way it is organized,” said Konkani, who is pursuing his PhD in systems engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. “All the sessions were on current topics of importance to the biomed and clinical engineering community.”
“I’m looking forward to coming again next year,” he said.
Posted: June 5, 2012