For the general public, healthcare technology management (HTM) tends to be an obscure profession. For a happy few with family members in the same profession, HTM is a family affair that forges deep bonds.

The AAMI Foundation has named the 2020 recipients of the Mary K. Logan Research Award Program. Two grants, worth a total of more than $119,000, will support research initiatives that focus on improving patient safety and eliminating morbidity and mortality associated with the use of healthcare technology.

To enable industry to focus on responding to COVID-19 public health needs, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has pushed back compliance dates for its universal device identification (UDI) system for Class I and unclassified devices— other than implantable, life-supporting, or life-sustaining devices.

Philip Settimi, MSE, MD, is president and chief executive officer of PartsSource in Aurora, OH. Previously, Settimi was the chief marketing officer, senior vice president of global marketing and corporate development, and company officer at Hill-Rom and has held various commercial, strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and product leadership roles at Hospira and GE Healthcare.

How do you choose a service model for your medical equipment inventory? How do you manage medical equipment service when a service model is in place? Who does what—and how is performance measured?

The Medical Device Servicing Collaborative Community (MDSCC) is moving forward with plans to support the safe and effective servicing of medical devices. The interdisciplinary group—initially envisioned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—first convened an exploratory meeting in April 2019.The group comprises various stakeholders that have an interest in device servicing, such as in-house HTM departments, independent service organizations, device manufacturers, and regulatory/accrediting bodies.

Actions by both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are on track to establish telemedicine as a permanent fixture of the U.S. healthcare system during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

As COVID-19 swept across the world, uncertainty about the spring semester, the school year, graduations, and internships spread even faster among healthcare technology management (HTM) educators and students. Rescuing education programs has become a new kind of gauntlet for them. In a field where keeping pace with ever-changing, life-saving technologies is the norm, AAMI members and educators have been up to the task.

A Malaysian standard addressing the maintenance and management of medical devices was recently approved to be utilized as the basis for development into an international standard. The creators of the standard, which has been a requirement in Malaysia since 2008, are interested in evolving their local standard into an international one for the benefit of the international medical device community.

Professor Sérgio Santos Mühlen, president of the Regional Council of Biomedical Engineering for Latin America (CORAL), passed away suddenly on June 27, 2020. He is survived by his wife Renata Guimarães, son Luis Sérgio Mühlen, and grandsons Thomas and Benjamin.

How well do doctors, nurses, sterile processors, and other users of healthcare technology and equipment really know about the devices they use every day? How much clinical, regulatory, and reputational risk do industry and hospitals face because of misinformation and knowledge gaps that are prevalent among users?

AAMI and the Archimedes Center for Medical Device Security in Ann Arbor, MI, have announced a new collaboration to advance the practice of cybersecurity. The two organizations will work together to connect their networks of medical device and health technology professionals across the country.

Matt Dummert is the healthcare technology management director for Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin; an adjunct online instructor for Indiana University–Purdue University Indiana and Marquette University; creator of the ParadigmHTM podcast; and a member of the Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology (BI&T) Editorial Board.

In these unprecedented times, searching for a job can be more overwhelming and stressful than ever. The AAMI Career Center is a valuable resource to help health technology professionals navigate your next career move or find the ideal candidate for your organization. Whether you graduated this year in a virtual ceremony, are adapting your skills in this constantly changing environment, or are hiring to cover a surging need in your hospital, we are here to support you throughout your search.

STEVE YELTON, PE, recently began his term as chair of the AAMI Board of Directors. He is also professor emeritus of healthcare technology management (HTM) at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College in Ohio.

SAMANTHA JACQUES, PHD, FACHE Vice president, clinical engineering at McLaren Health Care in.

A long-awaited technical information report (TIR) that provides state-of-the-art guidance on applying a fundamental risk management standard has just been published.