AAMI Journal Explores Wireless Challenges in Healthcare

How can healthcare delivery organizations best use wireless technology to deliver safer, more efficient patient care? That question is the focus of a series of five articles appearing in the latest issue of AAMI’s peer-reviewed journal, BI&T (Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology).

Each article is written by experts in the field and investigates a different aspect of wireless challenges in healthcare technology. The first article, written by H. Stephen Berger, president of TEM Consulting in Georgetown, TX, and H. Mark Gibson, director of business development at Comsearch in Ashburn, VA, covers how facilities can manage their radio frequency spectrum, particularly as the wireless environment becomes increasingly crowded.

Phil Raymond, wireless architect for Philips Healthcare, next looks into how facilities can achieve a robust, reliable network. One piece of advice he offers: “A first step is to understand how your nurses and doctors are using their devices as part of their clinical workflows and daily operation. Do they rely on wireless network access to deliver safe and effective patient care?”

In a separate article, Todd Cooper, founding principal of 80001 Experts, LLC, and Ken Fuchs, principal architect for enterprise systems at Mindray North America, tackle technology risk assessment in healthcare facilities. Cooper and Fuchs advise facilities to assess a number of issues, including, “What can go wrong? What are the possible unintended consequences that could result? Are they significant enough that risk controls need to be designed and implemented to ensure an acceptable level of safety?”

Steven D. Baker, senior principal engineer at Welch Allyn, teams up with Jonathan Knudsen, principal security engineer at Codenomicon, and D. Mike Ahmadi, global director of business development and medical domain security expert for Codenomicon, to offer practical tips on how to ensure the safety and security of medical devices and hospitals. These tips include using the strongest authentication and encryption available, and not purchasing new medical equipment that could compromise the network.

Finally, Richard Swim, team leader of Clinical Technology at Baylor Health Care System in Dallas, details how healthcare technology management professionals can help manage the wireless spectrum so devices don't interfere with one another.

AAMI has taken the lead in how wireless issues will have an impact on patient care. The new AAMI Wireless Task Force, a group of about two dozen representatives from hospitals, wireless organizations, the medical device industry, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has begun work on providing guidance to healthcare delivery organizations. The authors of the cover stories are members of this task force.

In addition to the wireless overview cover stories, the May/June 2013 issue of BI&T offers articles on networking for career advancement and using Agile methods with medical device development.

BI&T has a readership of nearly 13,000 and is a benefit of AAMI membership. The award-winning bimonthly journal is dedicated to the developers, managers, and users of medical devices and technology. For more information about BI&T and to see highlights from this issue, please go to: www.aami.org/publications/BIT.

AAMI, the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, is a nonprofit organization founded in 1967. It is a diverse community of nearly 7,000 healthcare technology professionals united by one important mission—supporting the healthcare community in the development, management, and use of safe and effective medical technology.