Standards Developer and Committees Honored for Pioneering Work
Small-bore connectors have been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent years, including a California law requiring a phaseout of universal connectors, and, more recently, a memo from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that asked that state surveyors ensure facilities are taking action to prevent tubing misconnections. For its efforts to eliminate misconnection errors, the AAMI Small-bore Connectors Committee has been honored for its work. Other standards experts being recognized with awards are the HITI Ad Hoc Group on Health Information Technology and Interoperability and the Washer Disinfectors Working Group.
An individual honor is going to Richard Ward, PhD, from the University of Louisville in Kentucky for his work on a suite of dialysis fluid international standards.
Small-Bore Connectors Committee
Perseverance in the Face of Challenges
Hospitals and other healthcare facilities are going to start seeing newly designed small-bore connectors next year, the end result of a tireless work to eliminate this significant patient safety hazard—misconnections. This work was done by the Small-bore Connectors Committee, which is receiving a special AAMI Extraordinary Achievement Award for its efforts to enhance patient safety.
Committee members demonstrated commitment through the countless hours they spent reviewing dimensional analyses designed by computer-aided design experts to reduce or eliminate misconnections. The committee is working on a suite of standards to help manufacturers create connectors for specific applications, such as enteral and intravenous tubes.
"It is rewarding to come together with engineers from competing
companies to work together for the improvement of the whole
world. It has been challenging, fun, and stressful, but the thing I
will remember the most is working with such great people," said
Weston Harding, senior staff engineer at BD Medical.
AAMI HITI Ad Hoc Group on Health Information
Technology and Interoperability
Reaching for Interoperability
The AAMI HITI Ad Hoc Group made significant contributions in the area of medical device interoperability and published the AAMI white paper, Medical Device Interoperability. The white paper advised AAMI on how it can make contributions to the field of medical device interoperability.
As a result, a new working group on patient-controlled analgesia pump use cases has been formed to develop work on the new AAMI standard, Integrated Clinical System: Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA). For its efforts, the group has been awarded the AAMI Technical Committee Award.
"It is an honor to be recognized by AAMI for the work of this team effort," said John Murray, software compliance expert with the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. "This work only represents the first step. I expect there will be a lot more work necessary to reach the final interoperable state."
Washer Disinfectors Working Group
Laying the Groundwork
The A0 concept of thermal disinfection is widely accepted in Europe, but not in the United States. For its work to foster greater understanding of the principles of moist heat disinfection—as well as its potential limitations—the Washer Disinfectors Working Group has been honored with the AAMI Technical Committee Award.
The amendment to ANSI/AAMI ST 15883-1:2009/A2:2012, Washer-disinfectors—Part 1: General requirements, terms and definitions and tests, Amendment 2, was designed to further discussions and potentially drive the acceptance of the A0 concept for thermal disinfection and reprocessing of surgical instruments and other devices in the U.S.
Richard Ward, PhD
Harmonizing Fluid Dialysis Standards
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For his work on developing a coordinated suite of dialysis fluid standards, Richard Ward has been awarded the AAMI Standards Developer Award. The suite has been adopted as American National Standards. Ward currently is leading a revision of the standards covering concentrates, quality of dialysis fluid, quality of water, guidance for preparation and quality management of fluids, and water treatment equipment to harmonize language in the suite.
A humble Ward credited his colleagues for helping get the work done. "It's an honor to have been singled out for this award. However, it's really an award that belongs to all of the people who have contributed to the work of the AAMI RDD Committee and ISO TC 150/SC 2/WG 5 over the years. Whatever has been achieved was the result of a team effort."
Ward is retiring this year after 10 years of service to AAMI and
international standards development.
AAMI News: June 2013, Vol. 48, No. 6