AAMI Statement Against Racism and Intolerance

The death of George Floyd in the custody of a Minneapolis police officer was repugnant and serves as a visible call to action for our nation. Millions of Americans have protested the grotesqueness of this incident, as well as those that resulted in the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and too many others.  The raising of so many voices in protest of racially motivated abuse and violence are an exhortation for all Americans to do something, and we must.

AAMI supports the eradication of racism and intolerance in our culture and we stand with those across the globe peacefully protesting for positive change. This moment demands that we move beyond raising awareness and offering statements of support in order to create meaningful and lasting transformation.  Large and small organizations nationwide – both civil and governmental - have a responsibility to act so that increased awareness becomes real change.  To this end, AAMI is beginning with the following steps:

• As a standards developing organization, AAMI will collaborate as requested with other standards organizations if a broad stakeholder base determines that national voluntary consensus standards may be beneficial to law enforcement.

   

• AAMI will deploy internal programs to help our employees understand their biases and how those biases impact their actions and decisions.We will also promote active civic participation by encouraging all employees to vote and giving them the paid time off to do so. And we will seek out input from our Board and other stakeholders on additional improvements we can make.

• Finally, AAMI leadership will share information with our employees on actions they can take as individual citizens to potentially spur positive change such as encouraging others to vote, making conscious choices about shopping at minority-owned businesses and educating themselves about systemic racism.

AAMI strongly values our employees and the diversity we have in our organization, our members, and our governance.  We remain committed to equal opportunity as a way of doing business regardless of race, ethnicity, creed, age, sexual orientation, disability, or gender identity. We hope our actions will be a catalyst for change, improve the lives of Black Americans and strengthen our country. We encourage all individuals and organizations to commit to positive action that will create real change, now. 

AAMI (www.aami.org) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1967. It is a diverse community of more than 10,000 healthcare technology professionals united by one important mission—supporting the healthcare community in the development, management, and use of safe and effective health technology. AAMI is the primary source of consensus standards, both national and international, for the medical device industry, as well as practical information, support, and guidance for health technology and sterilization professionals.