Eight Honored for Roles in Advancing Medical Technology
They've made their contributions in different ways—from inspiring generations of young sterilization experts to examining how to reduce alarm fatigue.
This year, there are eight recipients of the 2013 AAMI and AAMI Foundation awards, which include two new honors: the Young Professional Award and the Spirit of AAMI Award. The winners will receive their awards at the AAMI 2013 Conference& Expo in Long Beach, CA.
Carl Bruch, PhD
A Sterilization Legend
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His career spanned more than five decades, and he is credited with single-handedly moving sterilization science forward at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He also influenced a generation in developing standards for patient health and safety. For his distinguished career and dedication to ensuring patient health, Carl Bruch is being awarded the 2013 AAMI Foundation's Laufman-Greatbatch Award.
In their recommendation letters backing Bruch, writers stressed how kind and patient Bruch was at the beginning of their careers. Bruch also encouraged them to attend and eventually lead sterilization standards meetings at AAMI. "I and many others followed his lead to encourage our associates to join and contribute to the expanding [sterilization] efforts of AAMI on the national and international scene," wrote Gregg Mosley, who was president of Biotest Laboratories.
Phil Cogdill, senior director of sterilization and microbiology quality assurance at Covidien, wrote that Bruch "has had a significant, singular, and global impact on the advancement of patient care" through his work on sterilization science.
A microbiologist by training, Bruch worked at the FDA from 1966 to 1982. Prior to that, he served as program scientist for Planetary Quarantine and Search for Life on Mars at NASA. After and St. Jude Medical. He ended his career by serving as a private consultant for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Bruch is enjoying retirement in Wisconsin with his wife.
Edward P. Myers, Jr., CTFL
Consistent, Hands-on Humanitarian Work
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For more than 30 years, Edward Myers has donated time and money to help those in need. He's done everything from coaching a free youth ice hockey camp to securing supplies and funding for medical equipment for hospitals in Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Romania, and many other places through Assist International and Surgeons of Hope.
His dedication has won him the respect of his colleagues, who have honored him with the AAMI Foundation/ACCE Robert L. Morris Humanitarian Award.
"Ed has taken vacation time to do these projects, which I know takes him away from family, yet he never hesitates when we ask him to participate, and he is not paid to do what he does," J. Tobey Clark, president of the Healthcare Technology Foundation, said in his nomination letter.
Myers has led 11 humanitarian trips to eight countries, and has
planned other such expeditions and obtained donated equipment.
Currently, he is a software quality engineer at Philips Healthcare.
Monitor Research Team, Children's National Medical Center
Helping Critically Ill Children
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Alarm fatigue has been the topic of many news reports. A team at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., led by Linda Talley, vice president of Nursing for Critical Care, Heart Institute, and Nursing Systems, has been working to combat this problem.
The team of nurses, biomedical engineers, doctors, and biostatisticians set out to determine conditions associated with cardiopulmonary monitor (CPM) alarms—particularly false positives. Over a seven-month period, Their findings are expected to help researchers in future studies.
"Linda and her team have certainly improved healthcare for the critically ill children at Children's National Medical Center and have set the standard for other hospitals attempting to address the challenge of alarm fatigue and the sentinel events resulting from it," said Marjorie Funk, PhD, of the Yale University School of Nursing, in her recommendation letter.
Pat Baird, MS, MBA
Patient Safety Superstar
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It seems as if everyone knows Pat Baird. He's a regular at AAMI events and "draws people to him because these people want to work with him, and be with him," as Patricia Trbovich, assistant professor at the University of Toronto, noted in her letter nominating Baird for the new Spirit of AAMI Award.
Baird's enthusiasm and passion for medical device safety is evident in whatever task he takes on—from making a presentation at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society meeting in Baltimore, to serving as a driving force behind the development of HTSI's new Coalition of Organizations for Reporting Adverse Events (CORE). Baird also is the co-chair of the AAMI Infusion Devices Standards Committee, chair of the Assurance Case Working Group, and serves on the BI&T (Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology) Editorial Board.
"He shows a creative genius for identifying medical device safety problems, defining an organizational structure to address the problems, and, perhaps the most impressive of all, gathering and motivating the right people around him to make a lasting impact on the problems," wrote Erin Sparnon, senior project engineer in the Health Devices Group at ECRI Institute.
Barrett Franklin, MS, CCE
The Future of the Profession
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Also new this year is AAMI's Young Professional Award, and the inaugural recipient is Barrett Franklin, a VISN 1 clinical engineering manager at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs New England Healthcare System.
Franklin's impressive resume includes membership on AAMI's Technology Management Council and the presidency of the New England Society of Clinical Engineering. He's also served as AAMI's representative at Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE).
"There are not many individuals of any age who have participated
in, let alone taken on leadership roles in, as many major
initiatives impacting the long-term success of the healthcare
technology management profession as Barrett has," wrote Henry
Sankiewicz, a private consultant who formerly supervised
Franklin at the VA New England Healthcare System.
Karen Waninger, MBA, CBET
Passionate Support of Biomedical Field
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When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released what it called a "clarification" memo on preventive maintenance scheduling in December 2011, the healthcare technology management community was shocked. The memo called on hospitals to adhere to preventive maintenance schedules as recommended by manufacturers, rarely permitting any alternate schedules. The announcement caused consternation, as the position required abiding by solely the manufacturer's recommendations for some devices. Seeking to show the CMS a broader story about preventive maintenance, Karen Waninger took the reins of an effort by The Joint Commission, AAMI, and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering. In light of more than 200 pages of supporting documentation submitted by AAMI last summer, CMS has said it is reconsidering that memo. Waninger's leadership in this area helped make her the winner of AAMI's HTM Leader of the Year Award.
Carol Davis-Smith, vice president of Clinical Technology at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan in Oakland, CA, praised Waninger. "Over the years, we've watched Karen demonstrate not just great HTM leadership, but great leadership in general."
Waninger is the director of clinical engineering at Community
Health Network in Indianapolis, IN. She also serves on the executive
committee of AAMI's Technology Management Council.
Richard Swim, CLES, A+, MCSE, CCNA, CSFP
From Tubes and Transistors to IT
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Richard Swim is an information technology (IT) whiz. However, when he started at the Baylor Health Care System in 1979, tubes and transistors were all the rage. He still works at Baylor, but he has continued to evolve.
Swim has been a key player in a number of projects at Baylor, including transitioning the EKG network to a wireless system and integrating wireless IV pumps to the hospital network. He also has authored a number of BI&T articles and served as the webmaster for the North Texas Biomedical Association. His ability to improve efficiency while saving Baylor money has earned him the respect of his peers, who nominated him for the AAMI & GE Healthcare's BMET of the Year Award.
"Richard Swim is an excellent example of a BMET who has changed with the times. Trained on tubes and transistors while in school, he has continued to expand his knowledge," said David Braeutigam in his nomination letter.
The San Diego Patient Safety Council
Putting Patient Safety First
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For almost a decade, the San Diego Patient Safety Council, which includes 20–30 pharmacists and nurses from large hospitals and health systems in San Diego County, has identified and worked to solve patient safety issues.
"They set aside any competitive issues and
volunteered to make San Diego and the rest of
the nation safer," wrote Nancy Pratt, senior vice
president and chief quality and safety officer at
St. Joseph Health. Their work has led to four patient safety
toolkits: Safe Administration of High-Risk IV Medications, PCA
Guidelines of Care, ICU Sedation Guidelines of Care, and High-Risk
IV Medications Dosing Limits Guidelines of Care. Although each
project can take 18–24 months, the participants are committed to
addressing more issues. Because of its members' efforts to put
safety first, the San Diego Patient Safety Council is the recipient
of the 2013 AAMI & Becton Dickinson's Patient Safety Award.
AAMI News: June 2013, Vol. 48, No. 6