TechNation Magazine December 2020

1technation.com

Vol. 11

ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL / HTM PROFESSIONAL

DECEMBER 2020

Christmas Wish List

HTM LOOKS FOR A BETTER YEAR AHEAD PAGE 50

12

Professional of the Month Maggie Olszynska

39

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CONTENTS

FEATURED

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HE ROUNDTABLE: T TEST EQUIPMENT Innovators from the HTM community share their insights regarding test equipment, including information they think biomeds should know about going into 2021.

Next month’s Roundtable article: Ultrasound

50

CHRISTMAS WISH LIST: HTM LOOKS FOR A BETTER YEAR AHEAD The number one item just about every HTM Professional has on their wish list is an edn to 2020.

TechNation looks at what else biomed what heading into 2021. ext month’s Feature article: N HTM Heroes

TechNation (Vol. 11, Issue #12) December 2020 is published monthly by MD Publishing, 1015 Tyrone Rd., Ste. 120, Tyrone, GA 30290.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to TechNation at 1015 Tyrone Rd., Ste. 120, Tyrone, GA 30290.

TechNation magazine is dedicated to providing medical equipment service professionals with comprehensive, reliable, information concerning medical equipment, parts, service and supplies. It is published monthly by MD Publishing, Inc. Subscriptions are available free of charge to qualified individuals within the United States. Publisher reserves the right to determine qualification for a free subscriptions. Every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy of content; however, the information, opinions, and statements expressed in the articles and advertisements herein are those of the writer and/or advertiser, and not necessarily those of the publisher. ©2020

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

DECEMBER 2020

TECHNATION

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INSIDE Departments

CONTENTS

PUBLISHER

John M. Krieg

VICE PRESIDENT

Kristin Leavoy

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Jayme McKelvey Megan Cabot

ART DEPARTMENT Jonathan Riley

Karlee Gower

Amanda Purser EDITORIAL

John Wallace Erin Register

CONTRIBUTORS

Roger Bowles Jenifer Brown K. Richard Douglas Jim Fedele Joe Fishel Manny Roman Cindy Stephens Steven J. Yelton

DIGITAL SERVICES

Cindy Galindo Kennedy Krieg

CIRCULATION

Lisa Lisle Jennifer Godwin

WEBINARS

webinar@mdpublishing.com

ACCOUNTING

Diane Costea

EDITORIAL BOARD

Manny Roman, CRES, Business Operations Manager, Association of Medical Service Providers Jim Fedele, CBET, Senior Director of Clinical Engineering, UPMC Carol Davis-Smith, CCE, FACCE, AAMIF, Owner/ President of Carol Davis-Smith & Associates, LLC David Francoeur, CBET, CHTM, Senior Vice President Marketing and Sales, Tech Know Associates - TKA Jennifer DeFrancesco, DHA, MS, CHTM, System Director, Clinical Engineering, Crothall Healthcare Rob Bundick, Director HTM & Biomedical Engineering, ProHealth Care

P.12 SPOTLIGHT p.12 Professional of the Month: Maggie Olszynska p.14 Biomed Adventures: HTM Pro with Competitive Kids p.18 Department of the Month: Natividad Biomedical Engineering Department P.21 INDUSTRY UPDATES p.21 News and Notes: Updates

from the HTM Industry p.29 Ribbon Cutting: HTMjobs.com p.30 AAMI Update p.32 ECRI Update p.34 Welcome to TechNation P.36 p.36 p.39 p.40 p.43

THE BENCH Biomed 101 Tools of the Trade Webinar Wednesday Shop Talk

P.56 EXPERT ADVICE p.56 Career Center p.58 How to Troubleshoot Common Ultrasound Network Connectivity Issues, sponsored by Avante p.60 Cybersecurity p.62 View on Value p.66 20/20 Imaging Insights, sponsored by Innovatus Imaging p.68 The Future p.71 The Other Side p.73 Roman Review P.76 BREAKROOM p.76 Did You Know? p.78 The Vault p.80 MedWrench: Where in the World is Ben C.? p.95 Flashback p.89 Service Index p.93 Alphabetical Index Like us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/TechNationMag

MD Publishing / TechNation Magazine 1015 Tyrone Rd., Ste. 120, Tyrone, GA 30290 800.906.3373 • Fax: 770.632.9090 Email: info@mdpublishing.com www.mdpublishing.com

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SPOTLIGHT

PROFESSIONAL OF THE MONTH Maggie Olszynska, Central Europe to Northern Texas

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

B

ialystok is a long way from Amarillo, Texas. Bialystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and was rebuilt and restored after the war.

It is a hub for manufacturing and the Biala River is a central element of the city. Much of the area is forested and winters there can be very cold.

The central European country is a world away from the Lone Star State. The winters aren’t as cold in the city of Amarillo, best known as the “Yellow Rose of Texas.” It is also known for the Cadillac Ranch and its Spanish Revival buildings.

One person who knows each of these places very well is Maggie Olszynska, a biomedical engineer in the biomed department at BSA Health System in Amarillo. Olszynska grew up in Bialystok, but her road to becoming a biomed sounds much like many of her American-born counterparts.

“I have always liked taking stuff apart and putting them back together.

Also, I was always interested in science (biology, chemistry and physics). When it was time to pick a college and decide what I wanted to do, I had a hard time picking between medicine and robotics,” Olszynska remembers.

She says that during a college expo at her high school, she learned about biomedical engineering; which was a perfect combination of medicine and robotics.

“Learning very detailed human

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FAVORITE BOOK:

"Beautiful Creatures" series

FAVORITE MOVIE:

“The Ugly Truth” and “Resident Evil”

FAVORITE FOOD:

Bacon cheeseburgers and beer

HIDDEN TALENT:

I speak four languages: Polish, English, Italian and Chinese.

FAVORITE PART OF BEING A BIOMED:

“Working on equipment, digging in to things and trying to figure out how to fix them. Working with others and helping my team and medical staff, making them happy even if it’s just fixing equipment or modifying it for their safety.”

WHAT’S ON MY BENCH? • • • • •

Coffee is a must Small Bosch drill Electric safety analyzer Wiha set Set of small precision screwdrivers

anatomy about how we move, how our body works and then learning how we can get the same results by creating artificial ‘replacement parts’ using different materials, mechanics, robotics is very interesting,” she says.

“I’m from Poland, so I went to college there and finished biomedical engineering with a master’s degree,” Olszynska says.

She says that the program was very detailed; from basic anatomy, mechanics, physics, materials to biomechanics,

CAD designing, building medical database, building prosthetics and orthotics and programming.

“I finished a bachelor’s degree with specialization in materials in medicine and a master’s degree with specialization in medical informatics,” she adds.

Olszynska started at BSA Health as a Tech I, and now in her third year with BSA, is a Tech II. She specializes in respiratory equipment and is also a pump team leader.

BSA is Amarillo’s fourth largest employer and offers an extensive hospital system providing clinical excellence to the Texas Panhandle and the tri-state area. The hospital system’s roots go all the back to 1901.

INFUSION PUMP INTEGRATION Despite being with her employer for only three years, Olszynska has already been involved in some important projects that go beyond day-to-day maintenance or repair.

She recalls two of those projects; both related and a couple of years apart.

“The first one was two years ago when we purchased 800 new infusion pumps and the second project, we recently finished, was to integrate those pumps with our Epic system,” she says.

“On the first project, my team and I were responsible of checking in pumps and putting them in our system.

Working with our IT and ICU medical on configuring pumps to connect to the network and MedNet, as well as testing that connectivity,” Olszynska says.

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

SPOTLIGHT

Maggie Olszynska is a pump team leader in the biomed department at the BSA Health System in Amarillo.

She says that her team worked with their ICU medical team that was on site to help with configuring all pumps and to coordinate the team to sticker barcodes to each specific serial number of each pump.

She explained that she also helps set up classrooms with pumps for education prior to the go-live and coordinated teams on swapping old infusion pumps with new ones. This involved checking out old infusion pumps; retiring them from the system and preparing them for shipping.

Olszynska says that during the integration project, she had to pull some pumps out of service and point them to a test server and later on to a training server. She also had to troubleshoot connectivity of some pumps that were not connecting to the network.

“After go-live, I had to troubleshoot and reconfigure some pumps so they

would talk to Epic. I also had to coordinate with [the] pharmacy on drug library updates and verify pumps were receiving and installing updates,” Olszynska says.

Another important project, that Olszynska performed with a colleague, was to help clinicians during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and keep them safe.

They were able to move the stands for their Hamilton ventilators’ monitors outside of the COVID-19 patient rooms.

“I did that with my coworker, Robbie Norman, to keep our nurses and respiratory techs safe and lower the usage on PPE,” she says.

For her efforts, she was recognized with the "Employee of the Month" award in her department after her very first month of employment at BSA. “It wasn’t easy for me to find a job,

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

because of my master’s, everyone thought I’m over-qualified and at the same time I didn’t have any experience in biomed, so I wasn’t good enough. My boss was the only person that gave me a chance and hired me. I’m very grateful for this job. I love working here,” Olszynska says.

When not engaged in biomed tasks and projects, Olszynska has some relaxing hobbies for her time away from work.

“I like crafting; crocheting, knitting, cross stitch, making jewelry and decoupage,” she says.

Bialystok, Poland and Amarillo, Texas are not disconnected for Olszynska. They are both home now. Her journey from Central Europe to the Texas panhandle has enriched her biomed team and brought a new perspective with it.

DECEMBER 2020

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SPOTLIGHT

BIOMED ADVENTURES HTM Pro with Competitive Kids

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

F

or parents, there is often an inclination to help their children find interests and hobbies or areas where they can excel. The possibilities run the gamut from mastering drones to archery, crafts and arts, gymnastics and team sports. There are lessons to be learned, skills to be mastered and goals to be achieved.

For those parents, who live in great climates for outdoor activities, such as Oahu, Hawaii, the potential exists for year-round activity.

Peter Ines, manager of Biomedical Engineering at the Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, has understood the importance of sports in his kid’s lives for several years as an involved dad.

Ines has not formally been in the role of coach or assistant coach, but he has been more involved as a sort of personal trainer.

“I look at the more technical aspects of their movements in whatever sport they are doing. Along with strength training, flexibility and conditioning,” he says.

The sheer variety of sports and the number of teams that his son and daughter have been involved with is mind blowing. The list includes baseball, bowling, tennis, soccer, volleyball and basketball.

His children have competed in island leagues and tournaments as well as mainland tournaments.

That involvement has included the Windward Volleyball League for his son and daughter. His daughter participated

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Peter ines is an active parent who enjoys taekwondo and serving as a DJ at some functions.

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

SPOTLIGHT

LEFT: Peter Ines took an interest in Taekwondo after enrolling his children. RIGHT: Peter Ines has entertained his peers with freestyle dance moves at employee engagement activities. in five seasons with the Lanikai Athletic Club. Both children were participants for three seasons with the Trinity Christian School Junior Lions.

Each child spent 10 seasons in the Kailua Basketball League. His daughter spent three seasons with the Hawaii Kai Basketball League. His son spent five seasons in various basketball leagues.

In addition, each child spent two seasons with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Kailua tennis. That is only a partial list of their participation.

“My son loves to play basketball; he had to learn to play every position because as he got older, the other kids were growing bigger and taller. I put him on a training program that would develop his speed and quickness. He took it to heart and reinvented himself by dropping 25 pounds. It was nice to see the determination and commitment in him,” Ines says.

“My daughter loves to play volleyball; she plays the setter for her teams.

She sustained a shoulder injury which sidelined her for a whole season. This was a harsh experience for her because of the rehab and therapy she would need to go through. As a parent, I felt bad for her and hoping this won’t be a lifelong injury. This is just part of that roller coaster ride that goes along with sports,” Ines adds.

“They go through so many emotional ups and downs, and yet are able to overcome and move forward. This keeps me close with them because we have a bond through whichever sport they are playing. I also get to watch them grow into the person they are today, which

makes me proud to have been there for them,” he says.

LIVING THE TAEKWONDO LIFE An interesting by-product of their participation in sports was that Ines caught the bug and ended up achieving a lot in one discipline.

In addition to the team sports, the children were enrolled in the martial arts.

“There was a time when they took taekwondo lessons, which inspired me to also join. Being part of this group, we entered local tournaments to qualify for nationals. Even though they started before me, I surpassed them in belt ranking. I eventually ended with a red belt,” he says.

Ines says that this experience taught them discipline with their mind, body and spirit. He says that this is something they can use in any life situation.

“I am trying to prepare them for the world out there,” he says.

Taekwondo became a passion for Ines.

“At first, I thought taking taekwondo would keep me close to my children.

Then, I found out that the adults have separate training times. So, I didn’t train with my children. By advancing in my ranking, I was looked upon as one of the seniors in our dojo,” Ines says.

He explains that he would train three times per week, along with sparring on the weekend.

“I started to enjoy it, which caused me to practice on my own till it became a way of life. Since I was hooked on it, we would enter tournaments to test our skills in forms and sparring. Through-

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

out the years, I’ve won medals in gold, silver and bronze in the forms competition. I didn’t win any medals in the sparring competition,” Ines says.

He says that taekwondo also showed him his limits; especially when sparring with someone who is younger and faster.

“I am currently not taking any lessons, however it taught me things about myself and how I would like to be,” he says.

In addition to his involvement with his children’s sports activities, Ines has also displayed his skills as a DJ, rapper and dancer for his colleagues.

The dive into rap resulted from a work-related event.

“For work, I had to tell a story of my background though I thought it was boring so I had to kick it up a notch.

That’s where I got the idea to rap it to the tune from Vanilla Ice called “Ice, Ice Baby.” After this performance, everyone was talking about it and how they were going to top it when their time comes. I decided to hang it up,” he says.

He has also taken a stab at the role of DJ and has performed that function at hospital events, including employee engagement activities, summer and Christmas parties and other reception events.

In addition to filling the DJ role, Ines has entertained his colleagues with some freestyle dance moves that he has performed at employee engagement activities, a talent show and Halloween contest.

This very involved dad is multi-talented with kids who have learned how to excel.

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TECHNATION

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SPOTLIGHT

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ZDZISLAW MARCISZ

The Natividad Biomedical Engineering Department is made up of Greg Marcisz, CBET, CHTM, and Yessenia Ontiveros, BMET II.

DEPARTMENT OF THE MONTH Natividad Biomedical Engineering Department

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

T

he area around the Monterey Bay in central California is one of the most beautiful places in the country. Cities like Santa Cruz, Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea attract tourists for golf, sightseeing and art galleries.

Clint Eastwood used to be mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Just east of the bay sits the city of Salinas in Monterey County. The city was the hometown of writer John Steinbeck. The Salinas Valley is nicknamed the “Salad Bowl of the Nation” because of its substantial agriculture industry. It provides a great launching point for exploring the Monterey Bay area.

Serving the health needs of area residents is the Natividad Medical Center, a public health care system offering a wide range of inpatient, outpatient, emergency, diagnostic and specialty medical care. The medical center is located in Salinas.

“Natividad is a hospital and trauma center providing high-quality health

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care to everyone in Monterey County, regardless of ability to pay,” says Greg Marcisz, CBET, CHTM, department/ account manager of biomedical engineering.

Biomed services for Natividad’s Biomedical Engineering Department are provided by Renovo. Along with Marcisz, Yessenia Ontiveros, BMET II, provides biomed services to the facility.

Renovo Solutions is an ISO that provides healthcare technology management solutions.

Marcisz says that Natividad was founded in 1886 and today is a 172-bed medical center that has more than 10,000 admissions and over 50,000 emergency visits annually. It is also the area’s only Level II Trauma Center. The hospital’s specialized personnel, equipment and services provide a vital local community service that saves lives and keeps patients close to home.

He says that the medical center also operates an accredited Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, giving the tiniest and most fragile babies the best chance for a healthy start. Through its

UCSF-affiliated Natividad Family Medicine Residency, Natividad is the only teaching hospital on the Central Coast.

The small, two-person biomed team covers most areas of equipment.

Marcisz specializes in cardiopulmonary equipment, patient monitoring and ultrasound. Ontiveros specializes in surgical equipment and devices in women and children’s services.

“We directly provide or facilitate full-service support to over 3,400 devices, spanning every modality. We continuously monitor all assets in order to identify predictive and proactive service opportunities, which in turn maximize equipment uptime and assure scheduled patient treatments are not hindered,” Marcisz says.

The team also keeps a close eye on managing service contracts.

“We maintain an accurate database of vendor service contracts in our maintenance management software system, so that they are kept current and can be quickly tracked for upcoming expiration dates. It is always

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

SPOTLIGHT

important to review the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of service contracts, and to evaluate alternative service options that adequately meet the level of support required at a lower cost,” Marcisz says.

Biomed utilizes proprietary software to collect and store important data on their inventory.

“All service-related data is backed up into our CMMS called RENOVOLIVE,” Marcisz says.

In an age where there is cross-over into IT for many biomeds, and networks demand a growing synergy between the departments, the team at Natividad is focused on that cooperation.

“We are fortunate to have a collaborative, interdisciplinary relationship with the IT department here at Natividad. In biomedical engineering, we perform a documented security assessment for each system connected to the network using a security survey tool within our CMMS system based on NIST, HIMSS and ECRI/ACCE best practices. This also includes devices that are not connected to the network but may pose risks to HIPAA and other regulations, (or are exposed to other potential threats),” Marcisz says.

KEEPING TRACK OF EQUIPMENT The pandemic has swelled many hospital inventories as equipment demands have required biomed depart-

Greg Marcisz helps Yessenia Ontiveros test a surgical microscope. ments to increase the inventory of some critical devices. “We have received an incredible influx of medical devices since the start of the pandemic. Everything from ventilators and bedside monitors, to aspirators and infusion pumps have been inspected and serviced as required to support ongoing COVID-19 efforts,” Marcisz says.

He says the team also helped with the conversion of the pediatrics unit into an isolation unit. Biomed was charged with adding advanced patient monitoring, ventilators and other devices needed to treat patients under intensive care.

“We also supported the conversion of several other areas of Natividad to support patient overflow,” he adds.

Greg Marcisz, right, and Yessenia Ontiveros work on a surgical light.

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

The biomed department has chipped in to help problem solve and has maintained equipment availability throughout the pandemic.

“Natividad does not currently have a dedicated asset management/RFID system in place for medical equipment.

Throughout the course of the pandemic, we have had to reallocate numerous devices across the hospital to support the departmental needs, with a fluctuating patient census,” Marcisz says.

He says that initially, this was difficult to track and manage.

“But, by keeping tabs on available rental equipment from outside vendors, manually documenting when/where biomedical devices are moved, and encouraging staff to report those transfers to biomed when we are not involved, we have been able to help ensure facility resources are allocated properly and made ready again as soon as possible after use,” Marcisz adds.

Marcisz and Ontiveros are members of AAMI and the California Medical Instrumentation Association (CMIA), Bay Area Chapter.

The two-person Natividad Biomedical Engineering Department keeps the facility’s medical equipment managed and functioning. The patients in Monterey County can rest assured that the dedicated team is supporting clinicians when they must rely on medical equipment the most.

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Gartner Recognizes ASIMILY as Cool Vendor in IoT Security Gartner Gartner Recognizes Recognizes ASIMILY ASIMILY as as Cool Cool Vendor Vendor in in IoT IoT Security Security Keep Your Medical Devices Safe From Cyber Attacks Keep Keep Your Your Medical Medical Devices Devices Safe Safe From From Cyber Cyber Attacks Attacks WE PROVIDE A ONE STOP SOLUTION FOR BEST IN CLASS ASSET INVENTORY AND WE A SOLUTION BEST IN CLASS ASSET AND WE PROVIDE PROVIDE A ONE ONE STOP STOP SOLUTION FOR FOR BEST CLASS ASSET INVENTORY INVENTORY VULNERABILITY MANAGEMENT FOR ALLINYOUR MEDICAL DEVICES AND VULNERABILITY MANAGEMENT FOR ALL YOUR MEDICAL DEVICES VULNERABILITY MANAGEMENT FOR ALL YOUR MEDICAL DEVICES

Comprehensive Cybersecurity Risk Management Platform for Medical and IoT Devices Comprehensive Comprehensive Cybersecurity Cybersecurity Risk Risk Management Management Platform Platform for for Medical Medical and and IoT IoT Devices Devices Managing and securing the complex and growing networks of IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) devices is a unique Managing and the and networks of (Internet of Things) devices Managingchallenge and securing securing the complex complex and growing growing networksWith of IoMT IoMT of Medical Medical devices is is aa unique unique for every health delivery organization. more(Internet connectivity, come Things) more challenges. challenge challenge for for every every health health delivery delivery organization. organization. With With more more connectivity, connectivity, come come more more challenges. challenges.

99%+ Device Accuracy on Clasification, 85% percent reducation in manpower required, Over 1000 sites deployed 99%+ 99%+ Device Device Accuracy Accuracy on on Clasification, Clasification, 85% 85% percent percent reducation reducation in in manpower manpower required, required, Over Over 1000 1000 sites sites deployed deployed

Key Features and Benefits Key Key Features Features and and Benefits Benefits

Inventory: Monitor and Classify devices passively using machine learning, Inventory: Monitor and Classify devices passively using machine learning, Inventory: andand Classify devices passively using machine deep packetMonitor inspection parsing; characterize security posture learning, deep deep packet packet inspection inspection and and parsing; parsing; characterize characterize security security posture posture Risk Monitoring: Monitor Threats, Anomalies and Cyber-policies Risk Monitoring: Monitor Threats, Anomalies and Cyber-policies Risk Monitoring: Monitor Threats, Anomalies and Cyber-policies Prioritize: ASIMILY prioritizes vulnerabilities with the highest likelihood and Prioritize: ASIMILY prioritizes vulnerabilities with likelihood and Prioritize: ASIMILY prioritizes vulnerabilities with the the highest highest likelihood highest impact on clinical safety, business operations, and data security and highest highest impact impact on on clinical clinical safety, safety, business business operations, operations, and and data data security security Fix: Plan mitigation of vulnerabilities using ASIMILY recommendations and Fix: Plan mitigation of vulnerabilities using ASIMILY recommendations and Fix: Plan mitigation of vulnerabilities ASIMILY recommendations block /quarantine devices if anomaliesusing or security concerns are detected.and block block /quarantine /quarantine devices devices if if anomalies anomalies or or security security concerns concerns are are detected. detected.

Report: Generate reports on Medical and IoT device attribute, configurable Report: Generate reports on and IoT device attribute, configurable Report: reports on Medical Medical configurable reportingGenerate tool to create reports, accessand anyIoT outdevice of theattribute, box ASIMILY reports reporting tool to create reports, access any out of the box ASIMILY reports reporting tool to create reports, access any out of the box ASIMILY reports

In addition to this, you can In In addition addition to to this, this, you you can can

Policy Management: Create & track policies to drive organization Policy Management: Create track to organization Policy Management: Create & &anomalies, track policies policies to drive drive organization compliance for vulnerabilities, mitigation & remediation. compliance for vulnerabilities, anomalies, mitigation & remediation. compliance for vulnerabilities, anomalies, mitigation & remediation.

Utilization, Data, & Flow Management: Track & create alerts on all Utilization, Data, & Flow Management: Track & create alerts on all Utilization, Management: Track & createdevice; alerts on all data flows inData, & out&ofFlow organization & on each connected track data flows flows in in & & out out of of organization organization & on each connected device; track data onon, each connected device; track where devices are used, when they&are & imaging study volumes where devices devices are are used, imaging study where used, when when they they are are on, on, & & imaging study volumes volumes Third Party Vendor Management: Who, when, what & where for Third Party Party Vendor Vendor Management: Management: Who, Who, when, when, what what & & where Third where for for third-party support accessing your connected devices remotely third-party support accessing your connected devices remotely third-party support accessing your connected devices remotely Integrations: CMMS, CMDB, SIEM, NAC & Scanning tools; automate Integrations: CMMS, CMDB, NAC & Integrations: CMMS, CMDB, SIEM, SIEM, NACresources & Scanning Scanning tools; tools; automate automate workflows, create efficiencies maximize workflows, create efficiencies maximize resources workflows, create efficiencies maximize resources

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

NEWS & NOTES

Updates from the HTM Industry

INTERPOWER CORPORATION ANNOUNCES VIRTUAL TRADE SHOW BOOTH Interpower Corporation, an electrical power cord and component manufacturer headquartered in Oskaloosa, Iowa, has launched a virtual trade show booth to connect with customers as well as industry professionals. This virtual booth launch comes after a year of quarantines and travel restrictions which prompted show postponements and cancellations.

“We’re confident our virtual environment will help customers and industry professionals learn more about our power system components made in Iowa, USA,” said Ralph Bright, Interpower vice president of marketing. “This includes North American and international power cords, hospital-grade cords and sets, inlets and outlets, outdoor outlets and power accessories – and our industry-unique one-week manufacturing lead-time.”

A unique aspect of the Interpower virtual booth is the compendium of past trade show questions answered in a “live” booth setting. Over the years trade show attendees and presenters were polled about the most incisive and most frequent trade show questions asked. This exclusive industry content is a must-see segment of the Interpower virtual booth.

“We know industry professionals are eager to return to trade shows and expos to demonstrate their quality products,” Bright said. “They love what they do – they want to reconnect in a safe manner. Our sincere hope is that our virtual booth will help them reconnect at a time when our industry is ready to amp up again.” • For more information, interpower.com.

GRAY MATTER ANALYTICS HIRES CHIEF OF OPERATIONS AND PRODUCTS Gray Matter Analytics, a health care analytics solutions company, recently announced the hiring of Steve Betts as chief of operations and products to support the continued growth and evolution of the company.

With three decades of experience leading successful technology and data initiatives in the health care and financial services industries, Betts will head up the product lifecycle development and enhancement team at Gray Matter. In this role, he will prioritize product portfolio solutions and accelerate the organization’s CoreTechs solution development and customer acquisition.

“Steve’s proven track record of

driving business results in a dynamic market, such as health care data and technology, complements the skills and experience of our team,” said Sheila Talton, president, Steve Betts and CEO of Gray Matter Analytics. “Steve understands how to implement high-quality solutions to meet market demands, and our growing company will undoubtedly benefit from his fresh perspective.”

Prior to joining Gray Matter Analyt-

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

ics, Betts founded Aperture Consulting, where he partnered with private equity firms and their health care portfolio companies in developing digital business strategies shaped by emerging technologies and the rapidly changing digital landscape.

“This is an exciting time to join a forward-thinking organization that’s reshaping how we approach healthcare technology and data,” explained Betts.

“The pandemic proved that analytics products like Gray Matter’s CoreTechs is an absolute necessity to harness insights and empower both providers and payers to improve business results and drive better outcomes for patients.” •

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INDUSTRY UPDATES COOPER LIGHTING SOLUTIONS INTRODUCES TRELLIX LOCATE Cooper Lighting Solutions is helping hospitals marry safety with efficiency with Trellix Locate, designed to work specifically within the health care industry to easily locate assets and people in real time. Customers can create safer spaces and slow the spread of germs through the use of real-time location system (RTLS) technology, which works within the Trellix Smart Spaces IoT Platform to limit waiting room time, track real-time use of operating rooms and hospital beds, and more.

As a leading provider of forward-thinking lighting solutions, Cooper Lighting Solutions developed Trellix Locate to help health care facilities improve asset utilization rates by 40% and eliminate annual shrinkage rates of equipment by 5-7% while improving staff and patient workflow and infection prevention. By integrating installation, materials and services, Trellix Locate is an all-in-one offering of lighting, control system and RTLS, providing customers with a 30% cost savings compared to competitors who may require multiple partners and fees for each aspect.

“We have an opportunity to make a difference in a world that is adjusting to a new normal. The health care industry has been utilizing RTLS technology for years, but only recently have we seen just how important it can be in helping to keep people safe and equipment available,” said Kraig Kasler, president, Cooper Lighting Solutions, a business unit of Signify. “Offering these capabilities with unparalleled innovation and efficiencies is reflective of our commitment to help this crucial industry operate at its full capacity.”

Developed over the course of the past year with early roll out with partners ZulaFly and Vizzia, both well-versed in health care RTLS operations, the technology supports hospitals and medical offices in efforts to properly utilize space, reduce overall energy consumption and enforce new safety and security restrictions that are in line with social distancing guidelines.

Trellix Locate uses sensory data through Bluetooth-powered tags, such as ID badges and patient bracelets, and interactive maps and tables with rich searching capabilities to allow users to quickly locate assets, such as respirators and monitors, and view patient status and conditions in real-time. Spaces and alarms can be configured to help administrators make informed decisions around space management to align with social distancing practices. • For more information, visit www.trellixconnect.com.

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HTM SUCCESSES REFUTE ARGUMENT AGAINST RIGHT TO REPAIR In a new survey conducted by U.S. PIRG’s sister organization, U.S. PIRG Education Fund, 67 percent of medical device repair professionals reported that they or their team fixed a device that the manufacturer could not repair. This finding undercuts manufacturers’ claim that they offer better-equipped service technicians. Manufacturers often assert that to justify restrictions on repair materials.

“Manufacturers’ claim that they alone offer high-quality service is false. In fact, they are outperformed regularly by independent biomedical engineers (biomeds),” said U.S. PIRG Right to Repair Campaign Director Nathan Proctor.

“Manufacturers don’t have a monopoly on quality technicians, but they are monopolistically restricting access to parts, access keys and service manuals.”

As part of its Right to Repair campaign to remove barriers to repair, U.S. PIRG Education Fund has reached out to hundreds of biomeds to investigate the challenges they encounter on the job. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for functional medical equipment repair has spiked. While some manufacturers make necessary materials accessible, others restrict access to necessary information, access keys, tools, manuals and diagnostic equipment for in-house or independent biomeds.

“We hire from the same pool of technicians and engineers as the manufacturer,” said Ilir Kullolli President of the American College of Clinical Engineers (ACCE) and a practicing clinical engineer in California. “There is no overall difference in qualifications or experience, and sometimes our biomeds are just better.

Why shouldn’t they get access to

manuals and other materials?”

A 2018 study published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed that manufacturer technicians, independent servicers and in-house technicians each provide “high quality, safe, and effective servicing of medical devices.” The study said that rather than impose restrictions on third-party repair, “the continued availability of third-party entities to service and repair medical devices is critical to the functioning of the U.S. health care system.” The new finding by U.S. PIRG Education Fund underscores the FDA’s conclusion.

“As on-site technicians, we have a more holistic understanding of how the equipment works with other devices in the care environment. It’s not uncommon for the manufacturer’s technician to come in, fix one problem, but break something else in a connected system because they just focus on that one device.

Our ability to deliver quality patient care depends on having people who see, and can maintain, the whole system,” added Kullolli.

In August, Sen. Ron Wyden (OR) introduced the Critical Medical Infrastructure Right-toRepair Act to remove manufacturer-imposed barriers to fixing medical equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The measure is supported by U.S. PIRG, ACCE, hundreds of biomedical professionals and a diverse group of free-market and public interest nonprofit organizations.

“In-house biomeds have repeatedly outperformed manufacturers’ technicians, and functioning equipment saves lives,” said Proctor. “When manufacturers prioritize profits, patients lose.” •

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

INDUSTRY UPDATES HEARTHERO INC. AWARDED ISO 13485 CERTIFICATION HeartHero Inc., a medical device company developing an automated external defibrillator (AED), announced that the company received ISO 13485 certification for medical device and quality management systems. This certification is a requirement for regulatory approval and is an international standard that outlines the requirements for a quality management system specific to the medical devices industry.

“Being awarded the ISO 13485 certificate demonstrates that HeartHero has successfully complied with the laws and regulations of the medical devices industry,” said Anthony Verdeja, vice president, strategy and sales for HeartHero.

“This certification represents an important milestone for our company and reflects the focus we have on risk-based decision making with a commitment to safety while providing the highest-quality device.”

HeartHero’s AED, Elliot, is an AED designed to increase the chances of survival from sudden cardiac arrest. Built with ruggedness and portability in mind, Elliot is equipped with advanced machine learning, data collection and IoT capabilities. Data collection will aid in patient treatment by providing rescuers with near real time data to allow for better clinical decisions. HeartHero is working with the American College of Cardiology in a novel collaboration to advance knowledge and improve care and outcomes for sudden cardiac arrest through their data collection. Elliot the AED will also help with the social, economic Ad_7x4.5_20Oct21.pdf and gender disparities1 in10/7/20 treatments vc_TechNation_Clr 3:52

by including language and visual representations specifically to combat these disparities in the placement of AEDs and the resuscitation process. • For PM

more information, visit hearthero.com.

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TECHNATION

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL, PHILIPS ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP Tampa General Hospital (TGH) and Royal Philips have announced a long-term strategic partnership designed to keep Tampa General Hospital at the forefront of technological innovation.

Tampa General, one of the largest hospitals in the U.S., will have early and ongoing access to the latest Philips innovations during the seven-year arrangement. This will allow the hospital to continue delivering worldclass care while lowering costs.

Under the terms of this strategic partnership, Philips will provide the hospital with millions of dollars’ worth of new solutions such as new software packages, health care informatics, unique workflow solutions and high-level consulting.

As a result, Tampa General will replace all bedside patient and vital sign monitors throughout the 1,006-bed hospital and upgrade key imaging equipment in the catheterization laboratories and interventional radiology rooms.

Philips also plans to deliver a standardized platform, providing doctors and clinicians with a better overall view of the patient to help make the best decisions when it comes to diagnosis and providing world-class care.

“This partnership allows us to stay on the leading edge of technology for many years to come, in a cost-effective way,” said TGH President and CEO John Couris. “Philips not only provides new solutions, but also serves as a valuable partner by helping us improve our workflows and optimization.

Tampa General’s vision is to become the safest and most innovative academic health system in America, and longterm commitments like this one will help us achieve that vision.”

The transformational partnership shows Tampa General is investing in long-term innovation. Together, Philips and Tampa General have already invested more than 1,000 hours on

technology replacement planning and performed over 400 clinical staff interviews to understand how to better improve the patient and staff experience.

Philips is also working on a technology replacement plan which includes implementing cloud-based technologies such as Philips PerformanceBridge. This technology gives users a view to all their diagnostic equipment and ensures that TGH gets the latest in medical innovation in a cost-effective, timely way.

A key benefit for Tampa General is that Philips solutions are built to integrate with the hospital’s existing technologies for a seamless experience for clinicians and patients. •

UHS BATTLES BACK FROM CYBERATTACK In early October, Universal Health Services (UHS) confirmed substantial progress toward restoration of online operations across all UHS IT Networks. The company experienced a cyberattack early in the morning on September 27, 2020, at which time UHS IT quickly disconnected all systems and shut down the network in order to prevent further propagation.

The UHS IT Network has been restored and applications are in the process of being reconnected, according to an early October press release. The recovery process was completed for all servers at the corporate data center and connectivity was re-established for all U.S.-based inpatient facilities.

“Our major information systems such as the electronic medical record (EMR) were not directly impacted; we are in the process of restoring connections to these systems and back-loading data from the past week,” the release stated.

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“More than half of our acute care hospitals are live already or scheduled to be live by the end of today. UHS has deployed a significant number of IT and clinical resources to the hospitals, to support the resumption of online operations. The go-lives will continue on a rolling basis; in the meantime, those working toward go-live are continuing to use their established back-up processes including offline documentation methods.”

“All patient safety protocols remain in effect and patient care continues to be delivered safely and effectively at our facilities across the country. As we conduct our IT remediation work, we continue to have no indication that any patient or employee data has been accessed, copied or misused. As previously stated, the company’s U.K. operations were not impacted,” the release added. •

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

ONESOURCE IMPROVES USER PLATFORM Recently, oneSOURCE announced an enhanced database with faster and more accessible search functionality. Users will have access to four new features including a single search bar, autocomplete suggestions, spelling forgiveness and streamlined card view.

Further, oneSOURCE has also completed extensive work on overall site improvements that support search scores/rankings, filters, speed and security and performance.

“As we continue to grow the oneSOURCE platform, incorporating relevant features and improved functionality is key to providing a top-of-the-line user experience,” said Jack Speer, president of oneSOURCE. “This new look for our user interface and additional components answer the call from our customers to offer helpful changes that elevate the oneSOURCE database and increase health care professionals’ ability to offer superior patient safety.”

The latest features that users will encounter include an augmented single search bar that eliminates the need to complete multiple search keywords and make dropdown selections.Ad_new.ai Instead1 you can10:16:03 now AM enter a keyword, document 12/6/2019

name, model number, manufacturer, product category or descriptor in the search and the platform will populate relevant information from all oneSOURCE databases instantly.

Other modernized elements include new card views for entries that make the information easy-to-read, spelling forgiveness and autocomplete suggestions. The updates and features are available for all current and future customers and were seamlessly integrated into the platform’s traditional functions.

“These improvements ensure health care professionals are able to conveniently access timely materials such as IFUs, preventative maintenance manuals and other critical documents on demand,” said Heather Thomas, CMO and executive vice president of sales and marketing of oneSOURCE. “Our database has grown significantly in just the past year and with our new formed partnership with RLDatix, our team is more focused than ever on steadily improving the experience, while continuing to offer the necessary tools for our users.” • For more information, visit onesourcedocs.com.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

PARTSSOURCE LAUNCHES NOVEL DIGITAL CHANNEL ANALYTICS PLATFORM PartsSource has launched its latest clinical resource management platform aimed at helping medical equipment suppliers leverage the sheer scale of the PartsSource.com marketplace to improve quality, deliverability and performance across 3,500 hospitals and health systems.

“We’ve undertaken a comprehensive redesign of our platform to give our supplier partners the real-time, 360-degree feedback they need to improve the reliability, availability and quality of their products and service to our mutual health care provider customers,” said Philip Settimi, MSE, MD, president and CEO of PartsSource. “For the first time anywhere, suppliers and providers are now on the same side of the table, each with access to the information they need to support a resilient health care supply chain.”

As the largest digital channel serving health care customers’ equipment, parts, accessories, service and training needs, PartsSource has data on millions of transactions from over 3,500 hospitals. Now medical device makers and service providers can access PartsSource data to gain real-time insights based on their customers’ direct experience. This visibility into their performance and reputation among their customers enables a powerful continuous improvement strategy across quality, operations and fulfillment.

By partnering with PartsSource, OEMs, suppliers and service providers gain new capabilities including: Quality Reporting: Real-time analytics across a dozen quality metrics, including availability, reliability and other quantitative factors, powered by PartsSource’s

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PRECISION procurement, which leverages insights across 15 years and 3 billion longitudinal data elements.

Supply Visibility: View high-demand products to support inventory forecasting, with industry benchmarks, and insights to optimize the ordering experience for customers.

Operational Insights: Gain visibility into operational delivery including average time to ship and real time backorder analysis with order-aging metrics.

Automation Analytics: Automate purchasing for hospitals, boosting quality and service, through better content and EDI connectivity.

Real-Time Performance: Instant access to over 90,000 buyers seeking a streamlined, single source for purchasing medical equipment parts and service to increase uptime.

The launch of PartsSource’s new evidence-based clinical resource management platform comes at a pivotal time in a health care industry that increasingly expects a resilient supply chain. Until now, the medical device supply chain has lacked visibility, transparency and quality feedback to manufacturers and suppliers, resulting in friction that increases equipment downtime and limits the availability of critical medical devices for patient care.

Now with PartsSource, suppliers have free access to performance and operational analytics that reveal how well they are performing in delivering orders to hospitals, as well as the quality of the products they deliver, and insights into their own operations. • For more information, visit partssource.com/supplier.

MEDIGATE, ARROW ELECTRONICS INK AGREEMENT Medigate has entered into an agreement with Arrow Electronics Inc. to bring healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs) award-winning cybersecurity solutions for their connected devices.

The agreement will help HDOs in securing the right powerful cybersecurity threat protection solution for their clinical networks.

“The health care industry is under attack, with the frequency of these threats only increasing over time. HDOs must be able to safeguard their networks and all connected devices in order to keep patients safe. Medigate’s mission is to protect every clinical network from cyberattacks through our revolutionary medical device security and management platform,” said Jonathan Langer, CEO of Medigate.

“We work closely with leading technology providers such as Arrow to bring comprehensive and seamless device security and management solutions to HDOs around the world. Our relationship with Arrow is assisting in solving the growing cybersecurity problems in the health care market.”

Medigate is revolutionizing health care cybersecurity by adding medical device and clinical workflow expertise to traditional IoT security. From its close relationships with leading partners and health care firms, Medigate is continually gathering input to enhance its solution and incorporate advanced security practices into established clinical workflows. Installed in nearly 2,000 health care locations around the world, Medigate’s platform enables the automatic discovery of all connected devices on clinical networks and ensures providers can deliver critical treatment and protect patient data. •

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

INDUSTRY UPDATES CLINICAL ENGINEERS LAUNCH GLOBAL ORGANIZATION The formation of a new organization to bridge and unite clinical engineering efforts worldwide was announced globally during Global Clinical Engineering Day. The Global Clinical Alliance (GCEA) aims to help health care organizations improve safety and health care outcomes through education, knowledge-sharing and collaboration.

GCEA was originally conceived by a group of clinical engineers who met at last year’s Global CE Summit to discuss the potential of a new global organization to share knowledge and encourage collaboration. The central concept to this Founders’ Council was the inclusion of non-clinical professionals who are often engaged in clinical engineering but not eligible to participate in current societies or organizations. They also wanted to include organizations from all spheres and all countries, regardless of ability to pay for membership.

The stated focus of the new organization is to have “one voice internationally” to represent the interests of clinical engineering (CE) and health technology management (HTM) professionals by promoting education and training, best practices, practical research, collaboration, professional competency and innovation – all with the express goal of improving patient experience, outcomes and community wellness.

“Clinical engineering professionals are making important contributions every day all over the world. Therefore, I am excited to see our profession taking its deserved seat at the health care delivery table,” said Yadin David, acting president of the new organization.

“GCEA will serve as the engine16:34 to drive engineering MED-Ad-1_v5.pdf 1 26/08/2020

and scientific collaboration amongst groups not only in our own field, but also between our field and other health care stakeholders.”

GCEA’s launch is being guided by a council with representatives from around the world and underwritten by Treasurer Wayne Morse, who along with David, was one of the original founders of the American College of Clinical Engineering (ACCE) 30 years ago.

Once launched, the nonprofit organization will be funded by membership dues, contributions and the GCEA Foundation. There are 12 members in the Founders’ Council including Saide Calil who is managing the establishment of the bylaws and constitution and Tom Judd, who will head up membership.

GCEA will focus its first-year efforts on recruiting potential society members and similar organizations. Those encouraged to join include national and transnational clinical engineering, biomedical and technologist societies; industry-based organizations; philanthropical and policy think tank foundations; and individual CE and HTM professionals. The GCEA Foundation will underwrite the $300 membership fee for those who cannot afford to join.

GCEA will hold its first meeting in the fall of 2021, at which time it will have a general assembly meeting to elect officers of the board. It will also publish a website and a journal, which will provide members with in-depth knowledge regarding clinical engineering and an online forum for sharing questions and solutions.

For more information, visit www.globalCEa.org.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

RIBBON CUTTING HTMjobs.com

opportunities specific to each users’ needs.

Essentially, it’s a place for HTM professionals to grow at any point in their career.

BY ERIN REGISTER

F

rom the leader in providing news and information to the HTM community, TechNation is excited to provide a new industry career center – HTMjobs. com. The website is a simple, streamlined and effective way to connect qualified candidates with open jobs and help them find their next opportunity.

MD Publishing President John Krieg and HTMjobs.com Recruitment Specialist Kristen Register, along with some users of the site, provided TechNation several insights into this website through a question-and-answer session.

Q: WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR HTMJOBS.COM? Krieg: As we’ve done for over 20 years, MD Publishing is always looking for new opportunities to expand our product line and help the HTM industry.

HTMjobs.com is the latest launch to satisfy a need for the industry. Simply put, when you have more jobs than people to fill them, that creates an opportunity.

What the industry was lacking is a centralized hub for this demand, and that’s

Kristen Register Recruitment Specialist

where HTMjobs.com comes into play.

We’re trying to simplify the process so that it’s easy to match career opportunities with qualified candidates in a highly targeted niche audience. In line with our webinars, local HTM mixers and expanded digital offerings, this is just another way we’re trying to support the HTM industry.

Q: WHAT IS THE MAIN FOCUS OF HTM JOBS? Register: HTMjobs.com is a highly targeted career center that connects a talent network with employers and hiring managers from the leading health care systems and companies. Candidates can create a custom profile and register at no cost. The website matches them with

TESTIMONIAL

“ I know that the entire MD Publishing network is closely associated with and has it’s finger on the pulse of the medical imaging industry. Companies like ours have such a difficult time finding qualified candidates for field service roles that it just made sense to publish our opening with HTMJobs.”

– KENT WHITE, KALAMAZOO XRAY SALES

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

Q: WHAT ARE ALL OF THE SERVICES THE WEBSITE PROVIDES? Register: Registered users can upload their resume, qualifications, desired salary and location when signing up for their membership. Candidates can also subscribe to email newsletters to keep them up-to-date and stay ahead on new job postings. Additionally, there is a career center with articles that provide valuable tips, such as “How Honest Should You Be in an Exit Interview?”

Q: HOW DOES HTM JOBS STAND OUT AMONG ITS COMPETITORS? Register: As far as competitors are concerned, we are the first in what we do.

Of course there are job websites, such as Indeed and Glassdoor, but they don’t provide the niche services we do. Additionally, our job postings stay up for 45 days, compared to the average 30 days.

Qualified candidates have a 50% better chance of finding the right position for them, and employers have that same better chance to fill their positions.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME SPECIFIC GOALS YOU WANT THIS WEBSITE TO ACHIEVE IN THE NEAR FUTURE? Krieg: We’ve already hit 500 talent network registrations in October and should be close to 1,000 by the end of the year. Since its launching, the website has already exceeded our expectations and goals. HTMjobs.com will be heavily promoted within the existing TechNation and MD Expo platforms to bolster and enhance the exposure.

For more information, visit www.HTMjobs.com.

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AAMI UPDATE

BY AAMI

CMMS SUPPLIERS UNITE TO STANDARDIZE MEDICAL DEVICE FAILURE CODES IN AAMI-SPONSORED WHITE PAPER With hospitals and industry leaders all collecting data in their own unique ways, it has been all but impossible for healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals to assess their industry as a whole. That’s why six competing computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) suppliers recently set aside their differences to standardize how medical device information is configured. They outlined an agreed-upon method for optimizing and standardizing failure codes in a recent white paper.

The white paper, Optimizing the CMMS Failure Code Field, was sponsored by AAMI and represents the insights of a CMMS Collaborative made up of experts from Accruent, EQ2, MediMizer, Nuvolo, Phoenix Data Systems, and TMA Systems.

“This is about collecting more consistent and actionable data,” said Carol Davis-Smith, vice chair of clinical engineering of the AAMI Board of Directors and principal of Carol Davis-Smith & Associates.

An HTM thought leader and consultant, Davis-Smith helped facilitate the discussions between the CMMS Collaborative and the HTM community that ultimately led to the new white paper. She explained that the CMMS Collaborative chose to focus on standardizing how HTM departments handle failure codes because of how important this code field is for establishing and assessing the performance of medical

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device maintenance programs.

“In the short term, if everyone treats failure codes the same way, CMMS suppliers can implement their platforms faster.

This will enable healthcare technology managers to collect consistent data and begin internal benchmarking to enhance the management of their medical device inventory,” Davis-Smith said.

In the long term, healthcare technology managers will also finally be able to answer every executive’s million-dollar question: “How do we compare to others?”

Until now, being able to compare the performance of a medical device maintenance program or the reliability of a device network to others has been difficult. However, if everyone is recording and sharing their data in the same way, recognizing what is a benchmark for ideal performance and safety will be universally easier.

“It’s data that’s not only valuable for planning, but also for recalls and regulation,” added Danielle McGeary, vice president of HTM at AAMI. “Let’s say you’re seeing a ton of battery failures in a fleet of infusion pumps three months after a battery replacement. You’re going to want to see if other hospitals are running into the same problem. If everyone is documenting these failures in the same way, you have concrete, actionable data.”

Matt Baretich of Baretich Engineering, thought leader and co-facilitator of the failure code white paper, explained that this isn’t the first time the HTM community has discussed pooling maintenance data for everyone’s betterment. However, it has been difficult to get everyone to agree about how to proceed.

“What makes this effort different is that we’ve got the suppliers who build the tools that use these codes agreeing to this standardization,” he said. “Their customers are looking for a best practice for using these deeply customizable management systems, and now there is one.”

To facilitate a speedy adoption, the CMMS Collaborative members have already committed to working with their existing clients to transition from current platform configurations to ones that leverage this standardized list of failure codes. After evaluating the success of this first effort, CMMS and HTM leadership may consider standardizing additional code fields.

“There is no interest on anybody’s part to standardize everything or make the CMMS software identical,” Baretich added. “Instead, this shared effort is focused on code fields that, if standardized, can lead to clear applications of data, and ultimately, better ways to ensure patient safety.”

To download the free white paper, visit https://bit.ly/2HoMDJe.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

FINALLY, A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF MODERN DIALYSIS STANDARDS After developing and curating knowledge and guidelines for the medical community, AAMI is releasing Complete Dialysis Collection: 2020 edition, a comprehensive collection of 14 dialysis standards from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), AAMI, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The book is a singular point of reference for organizations, facilities, and their diligent dialysis professionals.

“There’s a lot of overlap for who this book is for. It contains information that’s beneficial for everyone to know from manufacturer to end users,” said Cliff Bernier, director of standards at AAMI. This includes the latest versions of the five-part series for ANSI/ AAMI/ISO 23500 dialysis fluid standards – an industry go-to for recommended practices and requirements. Prior to these new versions, the series was last updated by the international community four years ago.

“Medical knowledge and technologies are always improving, and it can be difficult to keep track of it all,” Bernier explained.

“This new 2020 edition and the editions that follow will give people an easy way to stay up to date on a regular basis.”

New editions of the book will be regularly released to keep pace with the rapidly changing dialysis landscape.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/34Tv7EX.

HTM PROFESSIONALS PROVIDE CRUCIAL FDA FEEDBACK USING MEDSUN Thanks to their role using, managing, and repairing medical devices, HTM professionals are crucial providers of voluntary feedback to the FDA about the health technology they’re using every day. In HTM Live! webinar, FDA representatives described how they can use the agency’s Medical Product Safety Network (MedSun) to do just that.

Through case examples shared during the FDA/AAMI webinar regarding MedSun’s use, “you can see a range of ways HTM professionals can share their concerns with their peers through MedSun and how these concerns can be very impactful on some critical life-support instruments that hospitals use on a day-to-day basis,” said Avinash Konkani, a biomedical engineer with MedSun and a member of AAMI’s BI&T Editorial Board.

Through the partnership, hospitals, the FDA and manufacturers can collaborate to ensure the best possible patient care when using medical devices of all kinds.

“We’re always learning new things about how medical devices are performing once they’re out there in the real world being used in real hospitals by real clinical teams,” said Julie Morabito, supervisory biomedical engineer at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). “We’re constantly evaluating and re-evaluating the balance of the benefits offered by a device versus the risk that device poses to patient safety.”

But this requires that HTMs act, which MedSun makes easy and efficient.

Read the full story and see how you can get involved at https://bit.ly/34R2gBi.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

ECRI UPDATE

A Brief Look at Large- and Small-Area Disinfection Technologies

T

he spaces through which we move … sometimes they are barely noticed. But these days, the microscopic details about those spaces are front of mind. With the threat of COVID-19 ever present, technologies that can be used to disinfect the spaces through which we move are garnering significant interest.

To help organizations assess the options, ECRI has produced a series of Technology Briefings on large- and small-area disinfection technologies, including those outlined below. ECRI’s Briefings explore in more detail how a given technology is used, which applications it is best suited to, and the strength of the evidence to support its use.

CHEMICAL FOG ROOM DISINFECTION DEVICES Chemical fog room disinfection systems disperse a controlled amount of chemical fog to provide supplemental disinfection after manual cleaning and disinfection of nonporous surfaces within an enclosed, unoccupied space.

They can be used to disinfect the surfaces of some medical equipment, but are not intended for disinfecting porous surfaces. These systems can be mobile or installed in a permanent location (e.g., OR wall). When used according to the instructions for use (IFU), chemical fog room disinfection systems can help reduce the bioburden on clean and dry solid surfaces in a variety of settings, including for health care applications (e.g., ambulances), in industrial settings (e.g., manufacturing

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clean rooms), and in commercial environments (e.g., offices).

A few cautions, though: Facilities must verify that the equipment in the room can tolerate both the chemical disinfectant and the fogging application of the disinfectant. In addition, trained staff must temporarily seal HVAC vents, smoke detectors, and outer doors in an enclosed, unoccupied space to prevent the escape of fog during disinfection.

ELECTROSTATICALLY AUGMENTED DISINFECTANT SPRAY DEVICES Electrostatically augmented disinfectant spray devices, also known as ionic spray devices, apply a layer of disinfectant to a surface after manual cleaning. The electrostatic charge applied by the device improves the dispersion of the spray compared with standard spray bottles. This can reduce the application time and amount of disinfectant needed to provide surface coverage.

These systems provide low-level disinfection of pre-cleaned surfaces.

Low-level disinfection is appropriate for noncritical medical devices – devices that may come into contact with skin but not mucous membranes – provided that devices can tolerate both the chemical disinfectant and the spray application of the disinfectant.

The systems are intended for use only in environments that have periods of vacancy and where the occupancy can be controlled. Examples include unoccupied patient rooms, open public spaces, enclosed public spaces that can be closed for several minutes, classrooms, conference rooms and auditoriums.

FAR-UVC DISINFECTION DEVICES Far-UVC disinfection devices emit light in the far-ultraviolet C (UVC) range to disinfect air and nonporous surfaces within unoccupied spaces in a variety of settings (health care, industrial and commercial). These devices are permanently installed and may be continuously active or have motion sensors or switches for activation when a room is unoccupied.

Although far-UVC light has been used in some applications for several years, these devices have not been commonly installed in health care facilities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, far-UVC devices have been garnering interest due to claims that the light is safe for human exposure.

Research into this question is preliminary, however, and compelling evidence of safety for human exposure is lacking.

Thus, ECRI and many other experts currently recommend against using these devices when a room is occupied.

HYDROGEN PEROXIDE VAPOR ROOM DECONTAMINATION DEVICES Hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV) room decontamination systems disperse a controlled amount of hydrogen peroxide gas to decontaminate manually cleaned and disinfected surfaces within an enclosed, unoccupied space. The systems can be used to disinfect porous surfaces, such as fabrics, as well as nonporous surfaces, such as compatible medical equipment. (Some equipment may be damaged by HPV decontamination.)

HPV room decontamination systems can be mobile or installed in a perma-

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nent location. When used according to the IFU, these systems can decontaminate pre-cleaned, pre-disinfected, dry environmental surfaces in health care, industrial and commercial settings. To prevent the escape of hydrogen peroxide gas during decontamination, trained staff must temporarily seal HVAC vents, smoke detectors and outer doors in an enclosed, unoccupied space.

UPPER-AIR UV DISINFECTION DEVICES Upper-air UV disinfection systems are installed above the occupied space in a room to disinfect the air. They emit germicidal UV light in a directional manner, with the intention that the UV light stays in the upper portion of the room, away from the occupants. As the air circulates, either actively or passively, it enters the disinfection zone and then returns to the occupied space.

Importantly, upper-air UV disinfection systems do not disinfect surfaces; they are intended only for disinfection of air within a room or other enclosed space. The systems require little effort to use and are well suited for continuous air disinfection in many public and private areas, including patient rooms, public waiting rooms and meeting rooms. Systems with active air circulation may not be suitable for use in ORs with laminar flow systems.

UV ROOM DISINFECTION DEVICES UV room disinfection devices most commonly take the form of portable towers that emit ultraviolet light to disinfect surfaces and reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). These devices are intended for use on nonporous surfaces within a room or other enclosed space. They supplement manual cleaning and disinfection procedures.

UV room disinfection devices can be used to treat patient rooms, ORs, procedure rooms and other moderate-size, enclosed spaces. Some devices may be used in multiples to facilitate

treatment of larger, enclosed spaces, like a physical therapy room.

UV SHOE SOLE DISINFECTION DEVICES UV shoe sole disinfection devices emit UVC light to disinfect the bottom of users’ shoes. Some products generate ozone gas in addition to UVC light as part of the disinfection process. When used according to the IFU, these devices can disinfect pre-cleaned shoe soles in health care settings, such as in OR anterooms, as well as in industrial and commercial settings.

ECRI recommends caution when considering this technology. Peer-reviewed evidence showing the effect of UV shoe sole disinfection devices on infection rates is lacking. In addition, the potential exposure to UVC light and ozone gas is a safety issue. Facilities should require manufacturers to verify that UV light is contained within the region of a user’s footprint; UV leakage outside of the footprint could expose users to unsafe levels of UV light.

Similarly, manufacturers of devices that produce ozone gas should state the ozone concentration generated during a disinfection cycle. ECRI recommends against purchasing or using devices that expose users and nearby people to levels of ozone gas that exceed the permissible exposure limit set by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Moreover, before these devices are used, users should be alerted to wear closed-toe shoes and to cover skin that could be exposed to UVC light.

This article is adapted from ECRI’s series of Technology Briefings on large- and smallarea disinfection technologies. Each article features detailed technology overviews and ECRI’s recommendations for selecting systems for specific applications. To learn more about ECRI membership, visit www.ecri.org/ solutions/device-evaluations, or contact ECRI by telephone at (610) 825-6000, ext. 5891, or by e-mail at clientservices@ecri.org.

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Q: WHAT DIFFERENTIATES YOUR COMPANY FROM OTHERS? A: Asimily’s deep accuracy on Inventory along with its unique approach to Vulnerability Management across both Connected and Non-Connected devices has helped Health Systems save on costs and resources in managing the risks on their devices. With Vulnerability Management, Health Systems can focus on a critical few devices which pose the highest likelihood of attack and the highest impact in the environment and provide mitigations or workarounds that can be applied to manage the devices. Further for non-connected

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RENOVO SOLUTIONS Q: TELL US ABOUT YOUR COMPANY. A: RENOVO SOLUTIONS is the largest privately-held HTM provider in the U.S. We were founded in 2009 by four of the industry’s veteran clinical engineering professionals who pioneered the idea of comprehensive multivendor service and each have over 35 years of healthcare Sandy D. experience. Our employees are the true Morford, CCE value of our company and each team memCEO ber embodies the company culture of “Promises Made, Promises Kept”. As one of the few ISO 9001:2015 certified national providers of HTM, we offer the full realm of clinical equipment management “cradle-tograve” services for healthcare technology. RENOVO has over 350 client locations, in 32 states.

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GLOBAL MED CABLES, INC. Q: TELL US ABOUT YOUR COMPANY. A: Global Med Cables, Inc. (GMC) is a leader in delivering affordable solutions to hospitals and medical facilities specializing in OEM cable replacements for medical devices. They solve one of the most substantial and expensive problems that a healthcare organization encounters; predicting cost for consumables/accessories on affordable and quality FDA certified products.

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Q: WHAT DIFFERENTIATES YOUR COMPANY FROM OTHERS? A: Based on an analysis conducted by the American Hospital Association, there will be an estimated financial loss of $323.1 billion projected by year-end of 2020. GMC is furthering the commitment of affordable solutions in the healthcare industry by offering a special COVID-19 promo-

tion. They are confident that with GMC collaboration, purchasing cost would be reduced by: • Standardizing inventory • Increasing efficiency when par levels are established to facilitate operational sustainability • Providing on-site virtual logistic support for troubleshooting and product ordering • Minimizing hospital waste • Monitoring and analyzing spending trends • Recommendations to optimize purchases • Implementing data capture “From day-to-day there is a tremendous uncertainty on when our lives will go back to normal, therefore, we stand by our mission: We are dedicated to patient safety as we help lower the cost of Healthcare one cable at a time," said Byron Webster, CEO of Global Med Cables. • For more information, visit www.globalmedcables.com.

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BIOMED 101 Unique Experiences

BY KEITH TODD

A

s this year draws to a close, I think back to what a challenging year it has been for the biomed field. When COVID-19 entered the picture in the U.S., our normal biomed routine changed to adapt to the needs and requirements of the hospital and to meet the guidelines passed down from federal, state and local authorities. I work at the Alvin C. York VA hospital in Tennessee. For our biomed shop this meant helping to stand up a COVID-19 wing of the hospital, in-processing multiple new pieces of equipment for the COVID wing and being tasked with duties not typically performed by biomed. For equipment under contract, this often meant having to postpone and reschedule PMs. Vendors were not allowed on campus for a period of time or the vendors themselves did not allow field service engineers to travel or the airlines had restricted travel.

This made me reflect on my time as a biomed in Alaska. I lived in Alaska for nine and a half years. I worked as a biomed at the Alaska Native Medical Center and for Siemens Healthcare for about two and half years as a field service engineer servicing lab equip-

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ment. Traveling in Alaska certainly has its challenges. Alaska is the largest state and has the smallest road system. To be a field service engineer in Alaska means a lot of flying and travel time. It also means a lot of unique experiences.

One time I traveled to Barrow to service a chemistry analyzer. Barrow sees no sun in the winter for about 2 months. It was early February time frame. I arrived at the hospital and walked to the laboratory. I saw almost no hospital employees. When I got to the lab, there was one person that let me in. The lab was empty. I began my PM work and about 30 minutes later the lab manager came in. I asked where everyone was. She said that right now there was about 10 minutes of sunlight and everyone was outside enjoying it – in the subzero temps!

Another time I traveled to Kodiak Island for a repair. Aside from the beautiful day and beautiful scenery Alaska offers, it was a rather standard day and uneventful repair. Almost finished with the repair, I looked out the laboratory window which offered a beautiful view looking out onto the water. Something was flying around in the air. The day was sunny with few clouds and it was June.

What was flying around appeared to be

snow. Late snowfall in Alaska is not uncommon but it was sunny and in June and the snow was becoming very heavy. I asked staff if this was normal. They said no, not like this. They tuned in a radio and checked online. What was flying around was volcanic ash! There was an eruption of the Augustine volcano in 1908 that dumped ash on the mountains across the water on the mainland to the west. It’s a rare occurrence but what happens is upper air currents pick up this deposited ash on the mountains from 100 years ago. It then gets blown across the water and settles. This time onto Kodiak Island. This interrupted air traffic. I could not leave for two days. Jets were grounded. The smaller Raven Air company had turbo props. They could fly when the ash became minimal in the atmosphere.

Another unique Alaska experience!

While traveling in southeast Alaska I was able to see humpback whales migrating using the inside passage.

While at the hospital in Petersburg, I experienced the beautiful Tongass rainforest around Sitka, when you fly into the Juneau airport where the Gastineau channel meets the Mendenhall valley the air can seemingly disappear and your airplane hits the runway like a rock! I cannot forget to

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THE BENCH

mention the incredible scenery as you travel south down the Kenai Peninsula to Seward and the mountains suddenly open to the gorgeous Resurrection Bay. The Northern Lights are an experience no person will ever forget. I got to see them several times but one time in particular bears mentioning. I was flying to the east coast for some equipment training and in-route to Minneapolis for a connecting flight. It was about one in the morning and the pilot came over the intercom and said “I hate to bother you but you really should look out the left side of the plane right now.” The Northern Lights were dancing outside the plane like some kind of magic. The pilot sees the Northern Lights regularly and for him to bring them to our attention says just how spectacular they were.

Lastly, I cannot forget to mention the signage as you enter the hospital in Bethel, Alaska. This modular hospital system was built in the 1970s in the southwestern United States and barged to Alaska. The hospital has been and continues to be modernized, but the signage posted years ago still remains. As you enter the facility you are greeted with the message, “No spitting on the floor.” Yes, COVID has caused all of us in the biomed field to experience and adapt to changes and challenges but unique challenges and events seemed to be the norm for a biomed in Alaska!

Keith Todd is a biomed at Alvin C. York VA Medical Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

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THE BENCH

WEBINAR WEDNESDAY

CE Credit Via Your Computer STAFF REPORT

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he TechNation Webinar Wednesday Series is closing in on 6,000 live views in 2020 with even more views via on-demand access. As COVID-19 continues to limit in-person training and educational opportunities, the Webinar Wednesday Series is a welcome avenue to CE credits and HTM knowledge.

‘HOW HOSPITAL HACKS HAPPEN’ The October 14 webinar “How Hospital Hacks Happen” presented by Rich DeFabritus was eligible for 1 credit from the ACI. The webinar was made possible by sponsor CyberMDX. DeFabritus continues to work to increase awareness of the existing cyber threat that faces hospitals and health care systems. As the threat continues to evolve, the impact is not just reputational or financial – it’s life-threatening.

Hospitals need to be prepared for when a breach occurs. Specifically, DeFabritus provided an overview of the threat and the current state of health care cybersecurity; discussed methods attackers use to gain unauthorized access; and explained why they do it and what can be done to mitigate the risk of attack.

As the senior director of product marketing at CyberMDX, DeFabritus has more than 25 years of industry experience in product management and marketing. He previously worked for Avaya, Lucent Technologies and

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Telcordia Technologies.

About 100 attendees tuned in for the live presentation with many more viewing a recording of the webinar online. Attendees for the live presentation provided valuable feedback including what they liked the most about the webinar.

“Great reminder of how careful and vigilant we need to be with emails,” said S. McClinton, BMET2.

“Very informative, a lot of good information to consider,” Clinical Engineering Director B. Pepper said.

“Real world examples of security breaches,” is what J. Lindsey, BMET, said he liked the most about the insightful session.

MEDICAL MAINTENANCE DURING A PANDEMIC The presentation “Improving Medical Maintenance While Dealing with COVID-19” by Travis Horstman, biomedical account manager for oneSOURCE Document Management Services, was held on October 7. It was eligible for 1 credit from the ACI. This 60-minute webinar, sponsored by oneSOURCE, discussed the recent global pandemic and the strain it has put on the medical community. Many facilities have been required to think outside of the box to maintain equipment and revise infection control programs. Horstman discussed strategies that have helped clinical engineer-

ing departments adapt to the new medical environment. These strategies included maintaining equipment, revising infection control programs and working during a global pandemic.

More than 100 individuals tuned in for the live presentation and more have viewed a recording of the webinar online. Several attendees shared feedback via a post-webinar survey.

“Information was well presented, learned of a service that I was not aware of,” B. Pierce, CBET Tech 5, said when asked what he liked the most about the webinar.

Biomed J. Cozadd said webinars like this one that address “topics on guidelines, regulations and best practices relating to medical devices are helpful.”

“Great Information on current CE practices during pandemic,” said Medical Equipment Planner C. Hardenstein, CBET. TRANSDUCER INSIGHTS The Webinar Wednesday presentation “Analyzing Transducer Damage and Preventative Measures to Increase Equipment Uptime” presented by Summit Imaging’s Larry Nguyen was eligible for 1 credit from the ACI. The Summit Imaging-sponsored webinar drew 91 live attendees with several more viewing a recording of the webinar on-demand at WebinarWednesday.Live.

Nguyen, CEO and CTO of Summit

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Can Your HTM Program Be More Efficient and Effective?

Imaging, educated the audience on the use of ultrasound transducers as well as the maintenance activities associated with these devices. Through demonstration and analysis, he helped users learn how to increase the life of their equipment to better serve patients.

A post-webinar survey gathered positive feedback from attendees. Among the questions asked was, “What did you like most about today’s webinar?”

“Great troubleshooting tips,” Biomed Coordinator S. Richardson said.

“Came to know the measures to take for the long lasting of probes. Also came to know a little bit about the internal construction of USG probes,” Consultant M. Sengupta said.

“The presenter was very knowledgeable and conveyed the message fluidly,” R. Zamudio, a company president, said.

OCEAN SOFTWARE KNOWLEDGE The recent Webinar Wednesday presentation “Ocean Software Continued: Taking Templates to the Next Level” presented by Erik Wikström, manager training sales at RTI Group AB, was eligible for 1 credit from the ACI. Wikström offered a closer look at Ocean templates and showed how they add to efficiency in X-ray QA and preventive maintenance. Attendees gained insight into the efficient use of s/w tools in the field of X-ray QA and

preventive maintenance.

Wikström’s webinar was popular with attendees who shared positive feedback via a post-webinar survey.

Among the feedback were replies to the question, “What did you like most about today’s webinar?”

“It provided information for equipment that I primarily use for my job,” Radiation Physicist T. Sollender said.

“This webinar was in my field of work. We use the meters like the one in this webinar,” Service Engineer C. English said.

Field Service Tech K. Lott said he liked the “ways to document and store several kinds of test results” that were shared in the webinar.

For more information about the Webinar Wednesday Series, including recordings of previous sessions and a calendar of upcoming presentations, visit WebinarWednesday.Live.

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AND BE INSPIRED. TechNation has the resources you need to sharpen your skills and stay in the know, no matter where you’re working from.

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Upon turning unit on, the screen will flicker a couple times and then seem to just flicker here and there. No issues with monitoring. Curious if anyone has had anything similar to this?

I have seen this on their older models. Could be anything from a loose cable, to a backlight PCB going out, faulty display, incorrect incoming power and worst case scenario the main system PCB.

A:

It sounds like a faulty connection or display. Sometimes it helps to open up the device and blow air through it. If there is a lot of dust accumulated in the inside, you can get interference and/or shorts. Sounds like a display issue.

A:

I agree with the above replies, I’ve also seen this with monitors that have been dropped [transport monitors] or that suffered a fall [from the top tray of an anesthesia machine = machine moved with monitor still plugged into the mains] and where the monitor smacks into something [often a door frame with pole/side mounted units] when the anesthesia machine changes rooms. Check loose connectors and power supply.

FUJIFILM CR CONSOLE

Q:

The following error appears on the screen whilst booting, “Connection failure Connection with Flash IIP failed Check IIP and connectivity to cable and hub.” Any suggestions?

A:

Could be several things. First check all your connections. If the unit has a switch, unplug its power cable and let it reboot then reboot the IIP and CR unit. Check and make sure your IP addresses on the IIP or CR have been changed.

System is stuck at Quest - “starting up” at 100%. Is there anything we can do to resolve this issue. We restarted the system a few times, used to work in the past, no longer does.

Coin cell could be dead and lost the system setup, try going into setup and see if you still have the configuration.

REPLY: We did replace the battery because the system was in storage for a while, seems that the BIOS settings are there, not sure if we can confirm the settings are correct though. We can get the system started if we do it a few times, the other problem is that even if we get it restarted and running, it locks up in the middle of the study and needs a hard restart again.

A:

If I had to guess, I would say it’s a memory problem.

Can you replace the memory chips on the motherboard? Like I said, just a guess but it’s where I would look.

A: A:

If you replaced the coin cell battery the Bios has to be reset.

It sounds like the unit can be started and therefore the BIOS is loading, quote: “We can get the system started if we do it few times, the other problem is that even if we get it restarted and running, it locks up in the middle of the study and needs a hard restart again.”

The POST may be detecting an intermitten error and therefore is not allowing the unit to start. In those instances where it does start and then locks up in the middle of the study could be due to bad memory.

SHOP TALK

is compiled from MedWrench.com. Go to MedWrench.com community threads to find out how you can join and be part of the discussion.

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ROUNDTABLE

ROUNDTABLE Test Equipment

T

echNation requested submissions from leading innovators in the HTM community for this article on test equipment. Participants shared their insights regarding a variety of topics from a tool every biomed should have to additional information they think HTM professionals should know going into 2021.

Participants include Pronk Technologies Vice President of Sales and Marketing Greg Alkire; Fluke Health Solutions, Fluke Biomedical and RaySafe Regional Sales Manager Jayne Canty; Radcal Corporation President and CEO Curt Harkless; Datrend Systems Inc. Director of Business Development Owen Liu; BC Group International Inc. Vice President Sales and Marketing Ken O’Day; and Calyx Metrology Lab Inc. Head Coach John Walls.

Q: WHAT IS THE FIRST PIECE OF TEST EQUIPMENT YOU WOULD GIVE AN HTM PROFESSIONAL JUST STARTING OUT IN THEIR CAREER AND WHY? ALKIRE: The first device every HTM engineer should have is a portable electrical safety analyzer. It is the basis for everything that is done in health care to ensure a medical device is safe to be used on patients. Having an understanding of this critical piece of test equipment and how it can impact patient safety is an important foundation to establish first when beginning a great career in health care.

CANTY: Of course, a laptop is an invaluable and essential tool for countless reasons.

The ability to communicate, interface with

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cornerstone. To ensure patient and medical staff safety, you are responsible for carrying out electrical safety testing, PM checklist inspections and performance testing on medical devices such as defibs and ESUs. A good safety analyzer will offer automated testing, a better analyzer should allow HTM professionals to go through PM checklists and maybe even control other test equipment at the same time, and the best ones will download workorders from your CMMS system and upload completed test reports.

Greg Alkire Pronk Technologies

software, store service manuals – the list goes on. Add our new OneQA workflow automation software that enables success by improving productivity, minimizing repetitive tasks, eliminating paperwork and improving processes. All resulting in time savings while improving the safety of medical equipment with a growing library of test procedures, interfacing with most CMMS systems.

HARKLESS: For X-ray quality assurance I would recommend a versatile and extensible measurement system. In general, these systems offer an economical solution for starting physicists and engineers. Some of these systems, such as the Accu-Gold Touch, also support a broad array of additional sensors and accessories. What begins as a basic system today is readily extensible to accomplish any future requirement that may arise.

LIU: If you are a biomed, a high-quality electrical safety analyzer will become your

O’DAY: A safety analyzer seems to be the most widely used piece of test equipment since every electronic device entering a facility, or in routine use, requires an electrical leakage test. Not every technician needs the model with all the bells and whistles and having a full range to choose from provides the opportunity to save money.

WALLS: Impressive test equipment contributes to confidence. Hospital staff, especially nurses, will likely recognize the HTM as the “new face.” Early on, inexperienced HTMs must establish themselves to the nursing staff as confident troubleshooters and problem solvers. Likely, ECG lead related issues will be an early troubleshooting challenge. A solid patient simulator with respiration, perhaps a BC Biomedical PS-2220, would serve a young HTM well.

Q: WHAT TEST EQUIPMENT PRODUCTS SHOULD HTM PROFESSIONALS HAVE ON THEIR HOLIDAY WISH LIST? ALKIRE: It has been a very challenging year and we want to thank every HTM professional for all they do to ensure

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ROUNDTABLE

patients are cared for and safe. More than ever they have earned and desperately need tools equipped with advanced technology that provide maximum portability so their tools are always at their fingertips when performing service. Their wish list should include solutions that provide immediate access to their test procedures, connect those procedures to their test equipment to run tests automatically while seamlessly capturing detailed electronic reports as they work. The reports should be easily saved/printed and or exported to a CMMS/database. These solutions will greatly reduce the administrative overhead they face to not only know how best to service the medical device, but also how to document the work performed in the most efficient and accurate way possible.

Jayne Canty Fluke Health Solutions

CANTY: The VT900A Gas Flow Analyzer and Vapor Anesthesia Tester make up a powerful test duo designed to efficiently and reliably perform a full anesthesia machine preventative maintenance from ventilators to vaporizers. Streamline your test procedures, improve efficiency with auto-detection of anesthetic agents and color-matched gas identification and reduce time – all with the use of an innovative 7-inch color touch screen.

Ensure patient safety with automatic detection and measurement of CO2, N2O and five commonly used anesthetic agents.

And it’s just not ventilators and vaporizers … use it for CO2 and endoscopic insufflators, common gas wall outlets, suction

devices, pressure gauges and anesthesia machines, especially when the accuracy of low volume and pressure is crucial.

HARKLESS: For the holidays, it’s always nice to target those things that make your life easier. Recent advances in X-ray QA include thoughtful integrations of the measurement system with automated reporting software. Many of these solutions are easily adapted for even the most complex QA procedures. In this way, when your measurements are done – your report is done.

LIU: Many businesses have seen budget constraints because of COVID-19. For these departments we recommend looking for products that are modular or have upgrade options for the future. For hospitals with year-end budgets available, I would strongly recommend a ventilator tester. There has been a huge spike in ventilator purchasing in the past few months, and in 2021 all of these will need to be PM checked. Getting an intuitive and full-featured analyzer now will allow you time to train and properly maintain your new assets when they are due.

Curt Harkless Radcal Corporation

Thermocouple module are traditional HTM favorites. But, using the Fluke 80AK-A eliminates the inaccuracy inherent in the 80-TK module. Plus, it doesn’t require calibration! So, retire the 80TK Module and reduce the cost of your calibration! Happy Holidays!

Q: WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A TEST EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER?

O’DAY: Since the HTM professionals’ roles vary so much within an organization, it is difficult to identify one item a professional might want on the holiday wish list. There is a great deal of specialization these days. I would think the test equipment on the wish list would have some key features to rise to that level. It should be able to perform the testing needed with accurate results that are gathered as easily as possible. This would be true of HTM professionals specializing in any of the many subspecialties (anesthesia, imaging, OR, ventilators, etc.).

ALKIRE: A manufacturer should have a serious commitment to their customers with the reliability of the test equipment they produce. This can be easily identified in the warranty that is offered at the time of sale – some companies offer only a one-year warranty whereas others like Pronk offer a 4-year parts and labor warranty. It is a quick and clear indication of how much time was spent during the design phase to ensure the product will have excellent reliability and dependability to keep up with today’s fast-paced service demands.

WALLS: Temperature measurements are one of the most common measurements made in health care. Most HTMs habitually use Type K thermocouple probes and meters.

However, Type T probes are considerably more accurate. I suggest including a shiny new Fluke 52-II and Type T Thermocouple Sensor on your holiday wish list. Fluke 80AK-A Thermocouple Adapter. Fluke Digital multimeters and the 80TK

CANTY: Four things immediately come to mind – quality, compliance, durability and versatility. Today, biomedical professionals, field service and other medical personnel must meet increasing regulatory guidelines, higher quality standards and rapid technological growth while performing their work faster and more efficiently than ever. Fluke Biomedical is a world leader in the manufacture of a full

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ROUNDTABLE portfolio of biomedical test and simulation products, X-ray test and measurement instruments, radiation safety and diagnostic imaging with a reputation of quality and best in class products, service, repair and calibration.

HARKLESS: Naturally, the quality of a product and its ability to accomplish its mission needs to be a major priority. But, the ongoing need for service and calibration of test equipment make your relationship with the manufacturer equally critical.

I recommend selecting a partner that shares your values and understands your objectives. Having a reliable and prompt source for regular maintenance can make all the difference.

LIU: The testing requirements and standards do not change very often in our industry, that means some test equipment can get used for decades. When you are looking for replacements, it is important to find solutions that offer intuitive automation, integration with third-party products, a path for future upgrades, and most importantly innovative ways to improve efficiency, especially with an ever increasing number of assets but a limited number of professionals to maintain their equipment properly. IoT and smart devices are here to stay, so it will be very interesting to see how test equipment manufacturers will take advantage of these technologies.

O’DAY: Is the manufacturer using internationally accepted quality programs in their production and service side of the operation? Look for a company with ISO 9001, 17025, 13485 and regularly inspected by the FDA. A proven track record of producing and maintaining quality test devices. Does the manufacturer support the items they produce for an extended period? Look to see if there is an upgrade path for the devices so that when new features are needed the end user will not have to obsolete their current model and purchase the newest device on the market.

WALLS: Reliable, clearly stated specifications. There’s a significant difference between a specification of +/- 1% of

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Ken O’Day BC Group International Inc.

Range vs +/- 1% of Reading. It’s amazing how many manufacturers fail to distinguish between the Range/Reading specification. Of course, OEM certification fees can be outrageous. If updated software calibration dates are important, consider the long-term ramifications of purchasing test equipment from a manufacture who refuses to allow ISO access to calibration date software.

CANTY: The RaySafe X2 Volt Sensor is the newest addition to the user friendly Raysafe X2 family of diagnostic X-ray test tools. It is used for measuring voltage from the output voltage test points on an X-ray machine with the corresponding voltage measurement in kV or mA/mAs. It can also be used for connecting other measurement devices providing a voltage signal between ±16V such as a mAs clamp for non-invasive mAs measurements. This new sensor adds to the versatility, ease of use and benefits of performing QA with the Raysafe X2 System.

HARKLESS: Quality assurance requirements continuously evolve to accommodate new technologies and modalities. In X-ray QA, Dose Area Product measurement is seeing much expanded use in fluoroscopic and dental applications. Radcal has recently introduced DAP solutions that make these new measurements quick and easy. These solutions are straightforward extension of Radcal’s Accu-Gold product line.

Q: CAN YOU TELL READERS ABOUT ONE PRODUCT OR UPDATE YOUR COMPANY OFFERS HTM PROFESSIONALS? ALKIRE: We are excited about our new product called Mobilize. It adds wireless communication capabilities to our safety analyzer, patient simulators SimCube and OxSim Flex and our FlowTrax IV pump analyzer. Mobilize will wirelessly connect Pronk products to a users’ smart device to provide complete and single-point control of several test devices dramatically reducing overall test time. Users can automate their testing, run CMMS-driven procedures or create their own procedures on our Mobilize App while they work and automatically generate a complete electronic report. This provides HTM professionals the most portable test equipment integrated to their test procedures/protocols, with the ability to execute the testing quickly and eliminate the need to manually document and track their work. Mobilize also includes a range of CMMS/database integration capabilities as well.

Owen Liu Datrend Systems Inc.

LIU: I am happy to announce the release of vPad-CO2, our Breath Simulator for functional testing of capnometers or patient monitors with ETCO2 modules.

Being part of our Vision-Pad platform, vPad-CO2 will come with all the benefits of an Android driven device such as a natural user interface, cloud integration, user customized automation and much more. This product will come in two flavors, with or without a 10-inch LCD, and it can operate as a standalone device

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ROUNDTABLE LIU: With few exceptions, COVID has impacted everyone around the world and created a lot of new challenges. Not only have we seen a transition to remote product demonstrations and business meetings, we have seen a huge jump with remote in-service-training as well.

However 2021 and the future shapes out to be, the online business is here to stay.

This is where smart devices with screen sharing capabilities will really help HTM professionals and manufacturers alike.

or be integrated as part of vPad-A1, our all-in-one patient simulator!

O’DAY: BC Group manufactures a complete family of test equipment for just about every modality in addition to 75 other product lines. It is difficult to pick just one to talk about. Our ESU-2400 is a prime example of BC Group’s commitment to produce the best possible test devices on the market and then provide an upgrade path for the end user to always have the latest features available. The ESU generators have been evolving so rapidly in the past 10-15 years that the demands on test equipment is constantly changing. As a result, BC Group introduced our ESU2400 10 years ago as the most powerful analyzer on the market. In the meantime, the ESU OEMs have introduced new generators that require faster processing and features that were not originally offered on the first ESU-2400 or any competitors products. The ESU-2400 user with serial number 1 has the option to upgrade their original 10-year-old device to the latest ESU-2400H model. No other manufacturer of test equipment provides that pathway for their equipment.

WALLS: Consistently, HTMs have told us they want to avoid the stresses associated with sending their mission critical test equipment away for its annual calibration.

With this understanding, Calyx has increased our onsite certification capabilities to include ventilator analyzers, dialysis related instrumentation, infusion device analyzers and IR thermometers.

Calyx strives to make the experience “smooth” from the proposal stage to when HTMs drop the certificate of calibration into their CMMS. Q: WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK TECHNATION READERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TEST EQUIPMENT GOING INTO 2021?

ALKIRE: We believe providing test equipment solutions that are accessible in the palm of the hands of our customers, easy-to-use portable test equipment, using their smart device to connect these technologies together, will increase the accuracy and efficiency of the service performed while reducing administrative

John Walls Calyx Metrology Lab Inc.

overhead. Providing this benefit to biomedical engineers is the goal we are very much focused on moving forward.

CANTY: Paperless test automation software is essential to saving time, reducing steps and standardization in the health care industry. It is also key to reducing human error and minimizing the chance of infection by eliminating document pass through between departments, individuals and surfaces. Laptops can be wiped down and disinfected as movement throughout a facility is made during the PM process. In addition, training and support are essential components for both software and product. It is available through our Advantage Training Program with an extensive library of modules and registration and use is no charge. When making a decision among the test tool options available to you, we recommend that you take into account the savings in FTE hours by automating your work flow and the reduction of errors that paperless automation software provides along with the initial cost of the test device you will purchase.

HARKLESS: The emergence of COVID has shown the world how rapidly the demands and challenges in health care can change. I think it’s important that readers prioritize versatility and extensibility when choosing test equipment. Measurements and capabilities that seemed complete a year ago may easily become inadequate in the face of an ever-changing environment.

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

O’DAY: I am sure everyone will be happy to have 2020 behind them and in the history books. 2021 will have many of the same challenges as the world gets their arms around this pandemic. HTM professionals will continue to face some of the carry over from 2020. Hospital income has been adversely affected by the decrease in elective procedures and the high cost of battling COVID-19. As a result, hospital and HTM budgets will probably be smaller. HTM departments will need to make sure they get the best value for the dollars they spend. Hopefully, with BC Groups wide range of products and price levels, we can help stretch those dollars as we have been doing for the past 32 years.

WALLS: Many of the HTM professionals’ most popular, even iconic, test instruments are approaching end of life and no longer supported by the OEM. Tap into the expertise of your current calibration provider to assist with selecting replacement instrumentation. They’ve seen it all, can help determine required accuracies (particularly related to temperature and pressure instruments), make recommendations and connect you to experienced, current users. Protect your test equipment from the hazards of travel. The clinic approach to health care delivery requires HTMs to go mobile. Field service operations are disrupted when test equipment is broken and out of service.

Invest in quality test equipment cases.

Perhaps more importantly, customers may not comment on your impressive, brand-new test equipment, but they may wonder if your dirty, broken, taped up test equipment is a reflection of the quality of service they’re receiving.

DECEMBER 2020

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Christmas Wish List

HTM LOOKS FOR A BETTER YEAR AHEAD

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

A

popular social media meme shows the two main characters from the movie “Back to the Future.” Marty McFly and Doc Brown are pictured with the iconic DeLorean from the movie. Doc Brown says to McFly; “Listen carefully Marty; whatever you do, don’t set it to 2020.”

There will be many wishes for 2021 as 2020 winds down, but the most common wish will be that the new year bears little resemblance to the one that is ending. While 2020 started on a strong note, with a thriving stock market and low unemployment, it was quickly downhill from there.

The year saw nationwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, technical problems with the Democrat’s Iowa presidential caucuses and historic wildfires in Australia. There was also the impeachment and acquittal of the president, the killing of a terrorist general and increasing tensions between the U.S. and Iran, a Ukrainian passenger jet crash and the death of Kobe Bryant; and that was just the first half.

On January 7, the World Health

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Organization was notified by the Chinese government that a contagious virus, identified two months earlier, was infecting people in the city of Wuhan. A couple of weeks later, the first case of a coronavirus infection was reported in the U.S. in Washington state.

By the 23 of January, the Chinese government put the 11 million residents of Wuhan in lockdown. And, by the end of January, the United Kingdom officially cut ties with the European Union.

By February, Harvey Weinstein was found guilty and in March, Italy became the first country to implement a nationwide lockdown and a cruise ship off the coast of Japan, with 3,600 passengers went into quarantine. There were 600 infected passengers by the time they were able to deboard.

By March, cases were reported in several states and widespread testing was approved as a national emergency was declared in the U.S. Also, the Tokyo Olympics were postponed until next year.

From that point, the community infection across the U.S. spread and the hospitalization and death toll grew.

Many states issued stay-at-home

directives. By April, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to an ICU. While the pandemic took center stage, wildfires ravaged California and the stock market realized a major crash in March as murder hornets arrived in the U.S. The urge to look forward to a new year and the hope for recovery, healing and an effective coronavirus vaccine became commonplace as most people were ready to bid 2020 good riddance.

This was the backdrop as many in HTM leadership joined people from all professions in thinking ahead to 2021.

In the past, many biomeds had a particular tool or test instrument on their wish list, but 2020 has shifted the focus.

The hope for the new year is that it is an improvement over the year past and that life will return to normal. That was one of the wishes of HTM directors and managers as TechNation queried them about their wish list for the new year.

Those wishes run the gamut from health care reform and more standardization to the search for new qualified staff and increasing biomed’s role in emergency planning.

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“My Christmas wish list would include, like many, that this COVID virus would somehow be controlled and eradicated.”

– MATT YATES, TECH MANAGER, BMET III

“My Christmas wish list would include, like many, that this COVID virus would somehow be controlled and eradicated. Our responsibility to maintain the needs of the hospital could sometimes be difficult to begin with.

The virus compounded that. Dealing with self-quarantining, and staff actually infected, changes the way you have to operate,” says Matt Yates, tech manager, BMET III at ISO The InterMed Group in Alachua, Florida.

Yates says that his group divided their staff in two and alternated weeks working at the hospital.

“One half on site and the other half doing what they could from home.

Fortunately, I am blessed to have the great team that I have and we were able to provide the service the hospital required,” he says.

STAFFING IS A CHALLENGE Yates says that another item on his wish list would be that the HTM field would attract new engineers.

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Christmas Wish List “Finding good talent and qualified candidates is on my wish list for 2021.”

– SALIM KAI, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION SERVICES-BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

“It is becoming more difficult to find quality candidates. A large number of engineers in the field are approaching retirement age – myself included – and we need qualified candidates to fill these positions. I have been in this for 40 years and have seen many changes during that time period. Some really amazing as the field evolved and some not so good,” Yates says.

That wish is not only proving to be a challenge in Florida, but in Pennsylvania as well.

“Finding good talent and qualified candidates is on my wish list for 2021,” says Salim Kai, senior director of information services-biomedical engineering at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

“CHOP is building a new hospital and I will be adding new staff on my team, so finding good qualified candidates is vital to a successful operation,” Kai says.

“Specifically, in the imaging domain, finding a candidate who has been trained by the OEM, for example in MR or CT is highly desirable and would want on my wish list,” he adds.

Not only is the wish for the availability of employees from a particular talent pool, but also employees who understand the importance of the role that they play.

“Managers would like to see new technicians come in with the passion for the job that past generations had for the job. It’s not just a job but a passion/ calling. No different than the passion nurses come in with. We think some of this passion is nurtured in their biomed education, but we have more technicians that come into the field with a basic electronics or IT degree who miss having the passion,” says John M. Petersen, MBA, MMIS, senior director of clinical

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engineering at Trinity Health in Boise, Idaho.

Petersen says it is a challenge to find qualified staff.

“Many of our new hires are not trained in a formal biomed school,” he says.

He says that another challenge is getting staff trained, especially in the COVID environment. Petersen adds that GE Healthcare is one of the first vendors to reach out with some virtual training for biomeds on ventilators.

INCREASE THE CYBERSECURITY CAPABILITIES OF HOSPITALS The need to button-down the network, in an age of bad actors and multiple cyber-threats, is an area rife with concerns and this is the wish of many in HTM leadership.

“Medical equipment and hospital networks that have the ability to turn away every cyber threat and risk. Each day health care organizations face a potential breach that could have an adverse effect on one or more patients.

This reality is something keeping a lot of people up at night and could have a tremendous impact on patient and caregiver safety,” says Mike Busdicker, MBA, CHTM, system director, clinical engineering at Intermountain Support Services/Supply Chain for Intermountain Healthcare in Midvale, Utah.

Another of Busdicker’s wishes, looking forward, would be for standardized HTM practices and data collection processes across the entire industry.

“The ability to compile data for trending, simple analysis, or other data points, could be significant in the improvement of medical equipment use and service. Part of this Christmas wish includes the willingness of the industry

to share data – anonymously, of course – to improve health care and patient safety,” he says.

Bob Meninno, director of biomedical engineering for Hoag Memorial Presbyterian in Orange County, California, says that cybersecurity concerns require necessary resources and that is a wish for the future.

“Staffing and resources to address the cybersecurity issues surrounding medical equipment is for me a must have. The complexity of administering a comprehensive cybersecurity management plan is much greater than the administration of patches and making software backups,” Meninno says.

He says that the sustained effort to support the acquisition, information gathering, maintenance and planning activities is daunting.

“It is all the more so in consideration of the impact to the biomedical equipment technicians, clinical engineers as well as the integrated systems management (ISM) teams and the workflow needed to bring it all together,” Meninno adds.

The wish for more technological capabilities also extends to artificial intelligence (AI) that has been successfully used in applications across many industries. A third-party application that has a more universal application in biomed is another wish.

“Artificial intelligence that is not necessarily vendor-specific to assist with things like proactive maintenance, device utilization, alarm settings and notifications, user adaptability, and patient safety issues. I know there is a lot going on with this type of technology, but it would be nice to have something tied to the EMR and to a CMMS,” Busdicker says.

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HTM LOOKS FOR A BETTER YEAR AHEAD REFLECTIONS OF A PANDEMIC; WISHES FOR PREPARATION Many in leadership lamented the challenges of limiting useful visitors to their facilities. Others spoke of the challenges of training in the face of these unique times.

“I think one immediate need is for biomed to be involved in emergency planning for the facilities. Sure, there’s a lot of experts handling the planning but things are now happening that weren’t thought of before. During this pandemic, vendors have not been allowed in the facilities. This means more training will be required so biomeds can handle the equipment needs themselves,” says Jorge Contreras, CBET, director of biomed and procurement at Sonoma Specialty Hospital in Sebastopol, California.

Contreras also says that he would like to see more back-up units.

“There was a massive surge in patient loads and there have simply not been enough vents, infusion pumps and even beds. Patients have been moved to other facilities simply because they don’t have the right amount of space, equipment or staff. Biomeds can bring units out of retirement. In order to use them, we’ll need a strong amount of supplies. I’d like to see more involvement in

"The willingness of vendors to provide meaningful training will rank high on the list of criteria for capital equipment purchases,” – BOB MENINNO, DIRECTOR OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

emergency planning,” he says.

“I’d also like to see more biomeds stepping up and using the connections they have. I was able to secure beds because I kept contact with someone who helped out three years ago during the first Sonoma fires. We were able to accept patients from other facilities because of the preemptive planning I had created,” Contreras says.

He suggests that biomeds not wait for the risk management team to solve problems.

“We should be presenting solutions to them,” he suggests.

The right to repair issue has been highlighted by the circumstances that biomeds find themselves in.

“As I reflect on the impact of COVID-19, the thing I keep coming back to is the support we receive from manufacturers, in particular training.

We must and will be empowered to directly support our equipment with a minimum of reliance on the OEM for on-site support,” Meninno says.

Meninno says that far too many equipment manufacturers either refuse to provide meaningful training on the maintenance and repair of their equipment or the cost of the training is completely out of line with the value received.

“Our program is outsourced with Renovo Solutions and OEMs frequently claim that training us is ‘against their policy.’ This push-back from vendors against training our staff is unconscionable. I take biomedical engineering’s role in capital equipment planning very seriously and I will be measuring the value of training provided. The willingness of vendors to provide meaningful training will rank high on the list of criteria for capital equipment purchases,” Meninno says.

The right to repair wish was echoed

by Petersen. “Manufacturers giving in-house biomeds the tools and passwords to maintain our medical equipment. Even if there was a cost for the tools and training it should be available,” he says.

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

He also has hopes for more efficiency with available resources.

“The days of large shops are over and as an in-house team we need to be more productive and efficient; incorporate lean processes into the work,” Petersen says.

SUCCESSION PERFECTION AAMI comes through, answering the wishes of many managers and directors with its “Succession Planning Guide.”

With departures triggered by retirements and career changes that are commonplace, the guide might find itself on many wish lists.

AAMI’s new guide is designed to help HTM leaders develop a succession plan for staffing at every HTM career level.

AAMI’s Healthcare Technology Leadership Committee (HTLC) was instrumental in developing this guide.

“No manager should be scrambling to fill a position when someone suddenly leaves or retires,” said Danielle McGeary, AAMI’s vice president of HTM. “A succession plan allows HTM managers and directors to evaluate who on their staff is ready for promotion and how soon – and, for employees who are not ready, to determine the skill sets and development they need to be ready for a promotion.”

The guide provides a comprehensive tool for leaders to assess their team and identify opportunities to support growth, as well as to fairly and clearly explain a pathway forward to their staff. It includes a succession planning template to track the current and potential next roles, competencies, training needs and aspirations of an entire HTM team.

The guide is available online at https://bit.ly/2Ebl2tD. After a trying year, many in HTM leadership just hope that morale and commitment remain.

“My last wish would be that we all maintain the enthusiasm we had when we came into this field – sometimes that’s hard to do – and remember how important the job we do is for the safety of patients and staff every day,” Yates says.

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CAREER CENTER Should You Still Apply if You Don’t Meet All the Qualifications?

BY KATHLEEN FURORE

W

ith unemployment numbers still high and the job market in many industries tight, job seekers are facing challenges as they look for openings they’re qualified for. How important is the list of preferred qualifications most job listings include? If someone is lacking one or two of those qualifications, is it a waste of time to apply? And if they apply, how should they address that shortfall?

Definitely apply; but don’t completely ignore the qualifications, because meeting most of them can help in the long run. Those are the takeaways from the two career experts I reached out to for advice.

“It’s never a waste of time to throw your hat in the ring, even if you lack one or two of the preferred qualifications,” says Charlette Beasley, an HR and payroll analyst at FitSmallBusiness.

“It’s impossible to know who else is applying and what credentials he or she might possess. Plus, many organizations are willing to ease up on some of their preferences in exchange for other valuable skills candidates bring to the table.”

And, as Lori Scherwin, founder of Strategize That, stresses, “Letting bullet points on a job description dictate your worth for a position is extremely limiting.”

“When you limit your options, you are downplaying your worth based on a laundry list of items, rather than valuing your entire experience as a package that differentiates you from other candidates,” Scherwin says. “Not only do you reduce your set of opportunities, but your self-esteem can take a hit as

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well if a job spec makes you believe you aren’t capable of doing a job you otherwise know you could excel at.”

If you find a job opportunity you’re interested in exploring, Scherwin says it is important to remember a few things: • A posting is basically a dream wish list or a draft. “Often professionals rush to get out a spec once they get budget for a position and have an HR professional do a mock write-up based on past positions – and then the role evolves along with team needs and discussions with candidates,” she says. “View the job posting as a sanity check, not gospel, and watch how your ease at applying grows.”

• No job candidate has everything. If you fit the overall description and majority of criteria, go for it. Part of any job is the ability to grow into it and learn,” Scherwin says. “Furthermore, no one is likely matching your resume up with every single bullet.”

• It’s all about the fit. “Clearly there are some hard ‘stake in the ground’ criteria which are critical to getting the job done,” Scherwin says. “But, otherwise, fit is what is going to get you through to the final round post initial screening.”

• Your unique experiences are valuable. Any additional skills you have that aren’t on that qualifications list “could make you a top candidate and supersede any pre-written qualifications,” Scherwin stresses.

So how can someone confidently apply for jobs, even if they can’t check off every preferred qualification?

Scherwin offers this advice: • Be able to give examples of your work. Include things you’ve done and

Kathleen Furore outcomes you’ve generated that would make you successful in the new role. “If there are some bullets you don’t think you hit the mark on, really rethink your experiences and how something tangential or similar could display the same desired outcome,” Scherwin says. “Chances are there’s a path.”

• Be prepared to address straggling bullet points. “Have a quick answer about how you would approach learning that skill [or acquire that] trait,” Scherwin says. “Demonstrate how you have successfully learned a new skill in the past and mastered it.”

• Leverage your network! Do you know someone who already works for the company? If so, ask if they would be willing to pass your resume on. “It is way more likely to be looked at that way than if you just applied randomly to an online system, which may screen for certain keywords,” Scherwin says.

• Be positive in all interactions.

“Attitude matters,” Scherwin stresses. “Remind yourself of all of your skills and accomplishments to inform why you are ready and deserving of more; that energy will come through with your application.”

All of that, however, doesn’t mean to completely ignore the list of qualifications – because they can be important, Beasley stresses.

“Candidates can use the list of

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preferred qualifications to assess how much competition he or she may have to face when applying to a given role,” she explains. “When there’s an abundance of candidates, getting an interview is often decided by which candidates possess the listed experiences versus which candidates that do not.”

How well your qualifications dovetail with that list can also be a good negotiating tool if a job offer is put on the table. “When the time comes, candidates can use the list to negotiate a higher salary. Companies will likely be willing to pay a premium if a candidate has what they want in terms of prior experiences, skill sets and certifications,” Beasley concludes.

KATHLEEN FURORE is a Chicago-based writer and editor who has covered personal finance and other business-related topics for a variety of trade and consumer publications.

You can email her your career questions at kfurore@yahoo.com. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarilyMED-Ad-cables.pdf represent or reflect the of 1 views 25/08/2020 TechNation or MD Publishing.

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SPONSORED CONTENT

HOW TO TROUBLESHOOT COMMON ULTRASOUND NETWORK CONNECTIVITY ISSUES

BY EBBA AL-MUAALEM

I

maging modalities today all connect to the network, whether through a hard wire connection or wirelessly. When I’m tasked to resolve a network-related issue, I always try to follow a simple process and start with easy fixes. In this article, I’ll discuss the most common reasons for network failure in ultrasounds and share my troubleshooting tips.

As with any issue, the first step is understanding the problem. Network failures usually fall into three categories: physical, network settings, or PACS or DICOM administrative settings.

1. PHYSICAL DAMAGE OR CONNECTIVITY ISSUES Whether it’s the network cable, the network wall socket or the NIC card on the ultrasound, it’s important to inspect all physical connections. Is the cable secure in the wall and system, was it fully unplugged when the system was last portable, or was it torn out of the socket? Are the pins in the RJ45 connectors intact on the panel and on the wall? Is the cable damaged? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then the solution is as simple as replacing the cable or testing the wall socket.

You should always carry an RJ45 cable with you to see if a new cable could fix the issue.

2. NETWORK SETTINGS ON THE DEVICE If these settings are done by someone

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problem. Attach a network cable to your computer, go to Start / Programs / Accessories / Command, and send a ping command to the destination device by entering the IP address of the destination device. If the ping returns OK, you obviously have a machine problem. If this is not the case, there could be issues with the facility equipment, switches, hubs, routers or the individual PACS unit.

Ebba Al-Muaalem Avante Health Solutions

with experience, then they go by like a breeze. There is confusion, however, when the settings have been configured incorrectly because the staff member didn’t understand the basic process. For example, I once had a customer who had entered three numbers instead of four numbers and checking the information first allowed me to resolve the issue quickly. Always double check the simple and obvious things.

The most important configurations you need to check are: • AE Title • IP Address • Device Name/Computer Name • Port To verify the connection is corrected, you can use a verify or test button or send a test image. If the problem persists, you can use your laptop to help resolve the issue or at least trace the

3. PACS AND DICOM ADMINISTRATOR SIDE DICOM, or Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine, refers to a standard used to simplify communication across modalities from different manufacturers. PACS, or Picture Archiving and Communication System, refers to medical image and archiving system which receives images and reports via DICOM. PACS can be managed by the IT department in a hospital, a server, or even a cloud-based system. A lot of times communication and networking problems for ultrasounds could be caused by a firewall on the PACS and DICOM side. If you suspect this is the case, check with the PACS administrator or IT person to grant access allowing full communication with the imaging modality.

If all hardware and software is working properly on the imaging device, the problem could be on the receiving end. This could be anything from an improper setup, a malfunctioning connector, or a duplicate IP address.

Another way to test the connection is to

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EXPERT ADVICE

use the TCP/IP Ping command to check the basic connectivity, including the network, router, etc. Second, use the DICOM verification, aka Echo, or DICOM Ping command.

It’s also a good idea to have a DICOM application on your laptop. There are several free DICOM software applications on the Internet. By using one of these, you can configure your laptop to mimic the PACS server and send ultrasound exams to your device using a crossover cable. This is a perfect way to prove that the imaging device is working as it should.

Troubleshooting using common physical, networking and administrative issues of ultrasound connectivity will resolve most network problems, or at least eliminate a list of many possible causes. If your facility is still experiencing network connectivity problems after going through these tips, experienced technical support representatives from Avante Health Solutions can help.

EBBA AL-MUAALEM is a Customer Service Engineer for Avante Health Solutions. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of TechNation or MD Publishing.

For more information about ultrasound solutions from Avante, visit https://avantehs.com/ultrasound.

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CYBERSECURITY

Urgent11, BlueKeep, SigRed, Oh My! Why this Latest Trend has Underscored the need for Proactive Cybersecurity

BY CONNOR WALSH, CISSP

T

he health care industry is under attack like it has never been before. In the past two years, 89% of health care organizations experienced a data breach, and it is estimated that the loss of data will rise to $6 trillion in damages in the next three years (as opposed to $3 trillion in 2017).

As healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals continue to procure and install networked medical equipment, our role in preventing such attacks continues to grow. This leads to a question some in the HTM field may have trouble answering, how is your patch management policy?

Before we can answer the above question, we must look at the inventory of our networked assets. Device name, location, MAC address, inventory tag, serial number, manufacturer/model, operating system (OS), patching frequency, antivirus, and software version are all critical components and should be captured/recorded for any device that you place on your network. If this information is not known, take the time to begin, and start with your medical servers. As you are going through, if you navigate to the update settings, spot check some of these systems to see the last time they received updates. This will lead us into our next section. Even if you have a device that might have a proprietary embedded OS and unable to take any type of patching, showing due diligence and acknowledging this in your inventory is much better than rolling it

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Connor Walsh, CISSP Department of Veterans Affairs

out into your environment with no documentation.

As most HTM professionals know, patching policies in the medical device world are far from standard. Every manufacturer and device may have different patch approval policies, whether it is immediate, delayed or no patching approved. This information is captured in the MDS2 forms and should also be considered during any new product evaluation. For me personally, a device that can receive automatic updates from the OS manufacturer for routine and zero-day vulnerabilities (or quick vendor turn-around patch testing) is a valid reason to select one system over another.

There are few things more frustrating than when a zero-day vulnerability is discovered and a patch is released, but you unfortunately find yourself waiting weeks for the device manufacturer to test the patch. This process should be

streamlined for critical vulnerabilities.

At a minimum, especially this day and age, medical device patching should be performed, or at least reviewed, monthly. All systems in your captured inventory should be looked at and spot-checked to make sure they are receiving the approved patches. Procuring systems that can take all patching, or patching that is applied by the vendor, will not only reduce your workload, but also greatly improve your cybersecurity posture. Additionally, adding this routine patching to your medical equipment management plan will also better prepare your facility for when zero-day vulnerabilities are discovered, such as BlueKeep or SigRed. If it is not sustainable in your current staffing model to support a monthly patching regime, the time has never been better to put together the justification for additional staffing to help support.

Cyberattacks on the health care industry are not going away, and preventing these assaults is a growing role for the average HTM professional. In summary, identifying your assets, procuring cyber-secure medical devices/systems and adding monthly patching to your department policies will all help mitigate the risk of any cyberattack on your medical equipment.

CONNOR WALSH, CISSP, is a biomedical engineer for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of TechNation or MD Publishing.

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VIEW ON VALUE The Future of HTM

BY PATRICK FLAHERTY AND JOSEPH HADUCH

A

s we close out our “View on Value” series of articles it provides us the opportunity to review some of our past discussion points and how they will help define HTM departments in the near future as we are often asked, “What will HTM look like in five years?”

To better predict what the future may hold it is helpful to look at the past.

Many of you have witnessed the evolution of our field from clinical engineering to healthcare technology management. Throughout this evolution, HTM has grown from a field responsible for bed repairs and pin tension testing to a highly trained and highly valued operational service responsible for some of the most complex technology ever developed. The foreseeable future will require HTM to continue to evolve its abilities to service increasingly complicated and interoperable equipment within a materially more challenging economic environment.

Integrated Delivery Networks and Integrated Delivery and Finance Systems will continue to create more economic options through consolidation efforts across the country. Though the recent pandemic has temporarily slowed that trend expect to see more mergers and acquisitions in the future. What does this mean for HTM departments?

Simply, only the strong will survive.

Those departments that have embraced analytics and utilized data and technology will be valued strategic leaders

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“ Those departments that have embraced analytics and utilized data and technology will be valued strategic leaders within their respective business.” within their respective business; a great group of people that can fix anything will be transactional providers of a commodity service. HTM departments that offer diversified and comprehensive services – such as asset management, strategic service and operational analytics, OEM-level training, and employee retention strategies – will replace the “we fix it all” mentality with a “we intentionally manage and align our equipment with our business” approach. This essential shift is required as we begin the journey to align expense with revenue and replace volume with value.

Value-based care delivery models, as discussed in many of our previous articles, will drive intelligent equipment decision making and utilization strategies in the near- and long-term.

Given our volume-based schema, it is hard to imagine the impact on our industry when equipment strategy moves from use it all the time to use it as infrequently as possible. The creation of positive operating margin, value-based care strategies will look to

extract as much cost and overhead out of the health care continuum as possible. This can be both a blessing and a curse for HTM. If there is a reduction in equipment inventory, based on lower utilization, the need for repair services from HTM departments will most certainly decrease and with it, economic buying power. However, hospitals and health systems will need to accurately determine the comprehensive per procedure/per patient cost of care delivery to instill a profit and loss discipline within their business. As institutions more accurately analyze these costs and the ability of their customers to afford the resulting charges, they will undoubtedly look for ways to lower those costs to compete within an increasingly consumer-driven market. Value-based care will ultimately create additional opportunities for HTM departments in areas not traditionally serviced by our field. Operating room robotics, pharmacy carts, medical IT solutions and others are all potential areas for HTM departments to exploit.

It is critical to acknowledge that HTM departments must also be willing to step-up and stand-out individually and collectively, to catalyze the fundamental changes confronting us now and, unless we force the change, in the future. We have been discussing many of these areas over the course of the past year. Suppliers must increase their transparency related to expected and actual parts performance, both in objective published registries as well as in contracts. Suppliers must stop purpose-

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EXPERT ADVICE

fully obsolescing their equipment materially earlier than any provider could reasonably afford. Suppliers must stop charging premium prices for equipment that is 510K approved and has no material contractual incremental performance improvements. Suppliers must stop shifting financial responsibility for their recalls and operational limitations to providers.

GPOs must stop enabling suppliers by staying silent on critical expectations related to objective performance data as well as allowing suppliers to use the GPO as an indexed price which prevents rationale negotiation. The existence of the optimal HTM of the future is fully dependent upon each of our voices and wills. On behalf of Patrick and myself, it has been a pleasure writing these monthly articles for the past year. We are especially grateful to TechNation for affording us the opportunity to express our thoughts and opinions. We originally set out to provide something different, something fresh. Hopefully, you found our articles insightful, informative and, at times, just a bit outside the norm. Thank you so much for your support and, in spite of current conditions, we hope all of you have a joyous and safe holiday season.

PATRICK FLAHERTY is the vice president of operations for UPMC BioTronics. JOSEPH HADUCH, MBA, MS, is the senior director of clinical engineering for UPMC BioTronics. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of TechNation or MD Publishing.

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20/20 IMAGING INSIGHTS What’s That Noise? Part 2

BY TED LUCIDI, CBET

L

ast month, we discussed the issue of EMI, RFI, environmental noise, whatever your preferred terminology and how it can negatively affect image quality in 2D and color Doppler ultrasound studies.

Based on our data, we’ve successfully repaired over 160,000 ultrasound probes. As part of our data-driven repair processes, we track and trend data such as reported problem, modes of failure, root cause, corrective action and where the failures occurred in the product life cycle. A percentage of probes, every month, are reported as experiencing noise artifact. With a high degree of confidence, we can say that less than 10% of those probes have failures affecting noise sensitivity.

Of the fractionally small segment of reported issues that were probe-related, failures to the shielding were the primary root cause. Examples are: • Assemblies designed to secure braided shielding have loosened over-time.

• Set screws, securing shielding within the handle of a TEE probe, have loosened.

• Accidental cable pulls have broken braided shielding from an internal ground plane within the connector

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electronics or scanhead electronics.

• Cable roll-over damage has compromised the integrity of the braided shielding within the wiring harness.

• Trauma to the scan head has broken solder joints of copper shielding surrounding the scanhead electronics and acoustic array.

That leaves greater than 90% of the reported noise artifact issues being related to other factors. Following are some scenarios that my colleagues and I have experienced in our 20-some years in the ultrasound industry.

One-month of troubleshooting, numerous probes swapped/replaced, scanner hardware replaced and noise artifact persisted when using a single probe model until someone disconnected the ethernet cable from the rear of the scanner: A faulty network cable was acting as an antenna and created a

Ted Lucidi, CBET Innovatus Imaging pathway for excessive RF noise.

Replacing the network cable resolved the problem.

Every time scans were performed in a certain area, noise artifact was present when using a select few probe models.

When used in this area, the system was connected to an external monitor via an external video cable. Visual inspection of the video cable revealed roll-over damage which damaged the braided shielding. Replacing the cable (or disconnecting the video cable from the scanner) resolved the problem.

• 1-month of troubleshooting, numerous probes swapped/replaced, different scanners swapped into the same location and still, noise artifact

Damaged RF shielding

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Spectrum Analysis appeared sporadically throughout the day, yet consistently each day: 1-floor above the room where the scans were being performed was a break room. Every time the microwave oven was activated (during break times), noise appeared in the scan image. The microwave was replaced, and the problem resolved.

• Multiple months of troubleshooting noise artifact issues at a small outpatient clinic located in a hot, dry, arid location: Although the system and probes were in ideal condition and the power cord resistance was within tolerance, the issue persisted. Only when water was allowed to moisten the soil, where the ground wire of the electrical panel was sunk to earth ground, did the problem resolve.

• 3-months and numerous TEE probes swapped/replaced due to intermittent image noise when performing scans in a certain area of the facility: Behind a wall, in the area where the scans were performed, was an elevator shaft. Every time the elevator passed-by and a scan was taking place, noise appeared in the middle of the image. The issue only occurred when using a TEE probe.

The elevator motor was replaced,

and the problem resolved.

• 8-service calls spanning 2 months, until by chance when the service engineer was present, a land line phone 30-feet from the scanner rang, and induced noise artifact: Every time the phone rang, noise artifact was observed (and only when using one probe model). Other probe models functioned without issue. The phone was replaced, and the problem resolved.

All strange, but very true scenarios; yet none were related to a failure within the probe. The vast amount of data that we have acquired, combined with the scenarios presented above, suggest that there are multiple variables affecting noise susceptibility within ultrasound imaging and only a small amount may actually be probe related.

I want to share one final story. In one instance, a customer experiencing intermittent noise artifacts sent their TEE probe in for evaluation and our teams could not duplicate the issue.

Over the course of several months, the customer was provided with three loaners and each was reported to experience intermittent noise artifacts.

Unbeknownst to the customer, Innovatus purchased a factory-new probe and sent it as a fourth loaner. Not surpris-

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

ingly, that probe was reported to present intermittent noise artifacts.

The teams at Innovatus Imaging understand the challenges with which service engineers and end-users are presented. The leaders at our FDA-registered Center of Excellence for Design and Manufacturing are well-respected subject matter experts in transducer design. Our technical and clinical support team members, each, possess decades of experience in the modality.

We continuously support our customers through free evaluations, complimentary technical support, no-charge next-day loaners and, if needed, on-site consultation.

Next month, in the final article of this series, I’ll present a solid framework to help you troubleshoot those challenging scenarios and we’ll squelch the noise.

TED LUCIDI, CBET, Customer Experience and Clinical Insights, Centers of Excellence for Ultrasound and MRI Coil Repair, Radiography, Design and Manufacturing, Innovatus Imaging.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of TechNation or MD Publishing.

For more information to see what’s behind a sustainable, reliable probe repair, visit innovatusimaging.com/technology-matters.

DECEMBER 2020

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EXPERT ADVICE

THE FUTURE Recent Grads Share COVID-19 Experiences

BY JOIE N. MARHEFKA

H

ealth care workers have been on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many others have been able to work from home, doctors, nurses, and other health care workers – including those working in healthcare technology management (HTM) – have had to continue on-site work during the pandemic.

HTM is not a career that allows one to work from home. Biomeds may not be as visible to patients as doctors and nurses, but they are just as important in keeping the health care system running and in making sure patients get the care that they need. Throughout the pandemic, biomeds and all health care workers have put themselves and their families at risk just by going to work.

I asked four recent graduates of the Biomedical Engineering Technology Program at Penn State New Kensington a few questions about their experiences and insights on working in HTM during the pandemic.

HOW DOES WORKING DURING THIS PANDEMIC MAKE YOU FEEL? Several people responded that working in a hospital during the pandemic made them feel more appreciated and gave them a greater sense of pride. Jack DelloStritto, a 2017 graduate and currently a Radiology Engineer Tech II

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at WakeMed Health & Hospitals, said that it has given him a greater sense of appreciation for his department’s work, and that their local community has shown its appreciation through donations including PPE and meals to the department. Abdel Hussein, a 2019 graduate currently working as a Clinical Engineer Generalist I at UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, adds that it gives him a “sense of pride in being a valuable asset in these unprecedented times. The skywalk from the Hillman Cancer Center is lined with the words ‘Heroes work here.’ Food trucks come outside somedays for lunch and passerbys honk their horn in support. People who see me in scrubs thank me for what I do and nothing is more rewarding than helping the hospital staff to deliver the best quality health care. The appreciation is there and it’s great motivation for us.” On the other hand, Justin Pooley, a 2019 graduate working as a Biomed I at St Luke’s Medical Center in Boise Idaho, said that he doesn’t really feel any different, adding that the reason that patients are in the hospital does not impact how biomeds prioritize the equipment that treats them. Dalynn Park, a 2020 graduate working as a Clinical Engineer Generalist I at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, adds “Though there is some apprehension due to the current situation, I feel safe and well cared for at work.”

Joie N. Marhefka, Ph.D. Penn State New Kensington

HOW HAVE THINGS AT YOUR JOB BEEN DIFFERENT DURING COVID-19?

A common response was that hospitals have decreased the number of surgeries and other procedures scheduled and limited the number of people in the hospital. Several people mentioned budget limitations, difficulties getting parts and training sessions being postponed because of limits on travel.

Hussein added that the pandemic has led to “less equipment to fix in general but high priority equipment in demand and in larger volumes such a powered air purifying respirators (PAPRs), respirators, feeding pumps, telemetry monitors and pulse oximetry, and anything COVID related.” On the other hand, DelloStritto commented, “Honestly, it has been pretty much business as usual.”

WHAT EXTRA PRECAUTIONS DO YOU TAKE BECAUSE OF COVID-19?

Everyone commented that masks are now required in their hospitals, and several people mentioned that employee temperature checks are conducted before each shift. Other precautions include extra cleaning of equipment before servicing it and, when possible,

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

EXPERT ADVICE

waiting before doing PMs or repairs on equipment that was used in a COVID-19 patient’s room.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE? Pooley highlighted some of the extra work that has been required of biomeds, such as setting up central monitoring in departments that did not originally have it so that alarms can be heard when room and corridor doors are closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and repairing PARPs. Others discussed how people and departments have come together during this time. DelloStritto commented that they “have been able to assist other departments in many ways

(setting up tents, problem solving, etc.).

I believe it to be clear that, working together, we are successfully managing our health system during this pandemic, and because of that, we can tackle any obstacle that is to come our way in the future.” Hussein echoed this sentiment, saying “despite all the social distancing, I’ve seen a lot of people come together, work long hours, take extra precautions, and show that they are willing to make sacrifices and put themselves on the front line to help others.” Park adds that, working during COVID-19, “each day brings new, interesting challenges and adventures.”

All of the graduates who answered these questions mentioned some of the

DON’T RISK IT ALL.

challenges that they, their departments and the hospitals have been experiencing during the pandemic. But they also discussed the ways they have risen to these challenges to keep hospitals running and ensure that patients are getting the care that they need. Thanks to them for their honest responses.

Also thanks to them and everyone performing essential work during this pandemic!

JOIE N. MARHEFKA, Ph.D., is the biomedical engineering technology program coordinator at Penn State New Kensington. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of TechNation or MD Publishing.

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THE OTHER SIDE What Do You Do After the Fire?

BY JIM FEDELE. CBET

W

e go through training annually on how to respond during a fire. I believe most hospital-based biomeds are required to know this information. But, I have never been trained or experienced what to do after a fire occurs. I, unfortunately, experienced this firsthand at one of our small rural hospitals. Given the lack of information on this subject I felt it would be good information to share with readers.

For me, it all started when I was out with friends and one of them got an alert from Facebook that there was a fire at one of our hospitals. I immediately checked my email and text messages looking for a disaster announcement. To my surprise, there was nothing sent. I assumed that it must have been minor. Then, 10 minutes later, I received an announcement that they were evacuating the hospital because of smoke and smell. The staff did everything they were supposed to, even non-working staff who were local responded to the emergency to help. In a very short time, patients were relocated safely and the hospital was closed.

The next morning, I went to see the damage. The cause of the fire was determined to be a chemical reaction between spray on insulation and a coating in a utility tunnel. The utility tunnel housed steam pipes from the detached boiler building to the hospital. The boiler room and tunnel were part of a refreshing project to repair some aging infrastructure.

The fire was quickly contained, and we thought extinguished. As I walked through the building it really didn’t look too bad.

They had a disaster recovery team onsite assessing the damage. However, that evening when they were excavating the tunnel the fire re-ignited and filled the lab, emergency department and imaging departments with toxic smoke. This time it

was much worse.

The next time I visited the hospital to assess the damage it required full hazmat PPE with PAPRs. The soot from the smoke was highly toxic and required full protection to tour the facility. After the tour, we were told that every piece of equipment in the affected zones would need to be cleaned inside and out. In my mind, I was wondering how we were going to accomplish such a feat. There were over 200 pieces of equipment directly impacted, from a CT scanner to patient monitors and everything in between. Also, there was extreme pressure to get the hospital opened as soon as possible. At this point, I stepped back from the situation and called any and everyone I thought might know what really needed to be done. Unfortunately, nobody I knew had ever experienced a hospital fire like ours. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do.

The next day, I visited the site again.

There were many experts meeting and discussing realistic timelines and plans for cleanup. I was introduced to Paul from a company called ERS, he spoke to me about the service they provide. ERS was going to clean and assess every piece of electronic equipment. Their plan was to bag and relocate contaminated equipment to a designated decontamination location for cleaning. For the large mounted imaging and lab equipment they would clean it in place and then they would build a structure around it to protect it. They would then reinstall it once the area was clean and safe. Finally, they would coordinate the OEM certification after the area was ready. What a relief this was for me; I wasn’t comfortable having my team clean the hazardous soot from the equipment. Also, it would have required me to pull all my resources to do the job which would have left five other hospitals without our support.

I worked closely with Paul. I gave him an inventory list. His team did a physical

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

Jim Fedele, CBET UPMC and BioTronics

inventory as well and started cleaning the equipment. Their plan worked well; we did have one snag as others not involved with the process started to schedule vendors in for certifications and Paul thought we wanted to do it ourselves. We had to scramble the last week to get vendors in to certify the equipment.

In the end, the tasks were completed to get the hospital ready. Every room affected by smoke was emptied. Contents were evaluated to be saved or discarded. Every ceiling tile was replaced, carpeting and porous flooring removed. Walls were cleaned, repainted and sealed. My team touched every piece of equipment outside of the affected departments to ensure it was in good shape and in working order.

My team coordinated vendor certifications of all equipment that was cleaned by ERS. The duct work completely replaced, and every surface cleaned. This short paragraph doesn’t do justice to the amount of work that was needed to accomplish opening the hospital.

My hope is that you found this informative. I would also like to thank my team for coming together and getting the work done.

JIM FEDELE, CBET, is the senior director of clinical engineering for UPMC. He manages six Susquehanna Health hospitals. He has 30 years of HTM experience and has worked for multiple service organizations. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of TechNation or MD Publishing.

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ROMAN REVIEW On Personalities

BY MANNY ROMAN, CRES

I

f you have ever attended my presentation on customer relations, you know that I rely heavily on personality identification. I contend that having a good concept of the varying personalities goes a long way to establishing good relationships both in business and personally. This begins with knowing your own personality type well enough to facilitate the communication process.

Well, I recently explored a couple of interesting articles and received the “news” that personality testing is mostly meaningless. Could I possibly have been wrong all these years? I always have said that, “I may not always be right but I’m never wrong. I thought I was once but I wasn’t.” Let me explain this apparent dichotomy.

In the article “Goodbye to MTBI, the Fad That Won’t Die” (psychologytoday. com) the author states: ”There’s just no evidence behind it,” says Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania who’s written about the shortcomings of the Myers-Briggs previously. “The characteristics measured by the test have almost no predictive power on how happy you’ll be in a situation, how you’ll perform at your job, or how happy you’ll be in your marriage.”

According to the article the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) is taken by more that 2.5 million people a year and is used by 89 of the Fortune 100 companies.

In the article “Why one popular personality test is ‘pseudoscientific at best’” (inverse.com) by Sarah Sloat, she quotes Luke Smillie, the director of the Personality Processes at the University of Melbourne: “Frankly, the enneagram is probably at the top of the list of tests I would not recommend. It is pseudoscientific at best.” The #enneagram is associated with more than 50 million views on TikTok. The need to more deeply explore the

tendencies and predispositions of personalities is evident by the above numbers. I, however, disagree with the process.

My objection has always been that the questions or statements tend to place people in situations to which they are asked to respond. How we actually respond to a situation is dependent on too many variables such as who is involved, their reactions, our present state of mind, etc. It is difficult to not use multiple past experiences to influence the response. Add to that the reason you are taking the “test,” such as HR requires it, who will see the results, how will others view you differently, etc. I know of one instance where an entire department took MTBI and had to wear color-coded badges on their chest indicating who they were determined to “really” be. I believe that this would not help relationships because of the inherent preconceptions when people are involved.

We all carry around multiple personalities to display at the appropriate times to the appropriate people. Completely removing these outer personalities is not a good idea, in my modest opinion.

I get that the attempt is to improve relationships by allowing people to act with each other as they actually are. I propose in my presentations that the best way to determine who you really are is to perform you own self evaluation. Look at the descriptions of the different personalities and then do this: imagine that there are no situations or people involved. How do you feel then? Example: Are you most comfortable with confrontations, facts and figures, people, getting the job done, etc. I call this defining how you feel when you are “home” where you should be the most comfortable.

We know the golden rule is a great way to morally live. The platinum rule, treat others as they wish to be treated, is the way to go when dealing with others – especially in business. If you can determine the real home personality of others, you will be able to change your outer personality to

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

Manny Roman, CRES AMSP Business Operation Manager match their home no matter what outer personality they show up with.

An example: I ask attendees what personality nurses are likely to be? Most immediately say they are pragmatic (the one concerned with the job and tasks) and just want their equipment repaired and they normally are upset when the service professional shows up. I then ask what personality would want to take care of people who may be sick and contagious and may need their butt wiped? Immediately the response changes to the amiable personality which is the one concerned with people. So, no matter what outer personality the nurse displays, we can gently say and do things that match the amiable personality. “I will get the unit repaired as soon as I can so you can get back to taking care of your patients” instead of “so you can continue making money from your services.”

Relationships are complex and difficult enough without having some questionable test define us without a good and honest self evaluation. I took The Big Five Project Personality Test for this column. I was apprehensive and had difficulty honestly answering between the Agree and the Strongly Agree, etc. My mind kept bouncing around all the past situations and people that kept changing the answer.

Number 8 “Tends to be lazy” was a no brainer as my lovely wife, Ruth, will testify. See, the answer is influenced by people and situations.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of TechNation or MD Publishing.

DECEMBER 2020

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First clear view deep inside Mars Seismologists (earthquake scientists) have made the first direct measurements of three layers within Mars reaching from the planet’s crust all the way to its core.

Transition zones CRUST MANTLE

Crust consists of iron, magnesium, aluminum, calcium and potassium minerals. Iron oxide (rust) gives Mars its red color.

Mars’s crust has no plate tectonics

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Mars’ internal layers

1 2 3

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Crust-mantle boundary 35 km (almost 22 mi.) below surface

CORE

Like Earth, Mars has a dense metal core wrapped by lighter outer layers Core is mostly molten iron and nickel, plus about 16% to 17% sulfur

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Mantle -core boundary 1,520-1,600 km (945 to 994 mi.) deep; rock gives way to iron-rich liquid core Radius to center of core 1,600–1,810 km (994 to 1,125 mi.)

Size comparison Earth, by contrast, has moving, colliding plates of crust, constantly reshaping surface; new crust forms at under-sea cracks

EARTH MARS

Source: Alan Levander and Sizhuang Deng of Rice University; Geophysical Research Letters; NASA images Graphic: Helen Lee McComas, Tribune News Service

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7

P P P

59

P P

4

P P

17

Labratory Ozark Biomedical

www.ozarkbiomedical.com • 800-457-7576

Mammography Ampronix, Inc.

www.ampronix.com • 800-400-7972

Monitors Select BioMedical

www.selectpos.com • 866-559-3500

17

Monitors/CRTs Ampronix, Inc.

www.ampronix.com • 800-400-7972

USOC Bio-Medical Services

www.usocmedical.com • 855-888-8762

800-323-4282

P P P P

4 7

P

P P P P

www.alcosales.com

Bed & Stretcher Parts - Wheelchair Parts - Casters NEW - RECONDITIONED - REPAIR

Scan this QR code or go to our website to join our email list and receive a FREE gift!

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90

TECHNATION

DECEMBER 2020

Pen Stylus

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

SERVICE INDEX PartsSource

28

www.innovatusimaging.com • 844-687-5100 www.partssource.com/shop • 877-497-6412

Nuclear Medicine InterMed Group

69

TTG

87

www.intermed1.com • 386-462-5220 www.ttgimagingsolutions.com • 866-NUC-MED1

Online Resource

P P P P P

49

HTM Jobs

55

MedWrench

75

www.htmjobs.com www.MedWrench.com • 866-989-7057

Webinar Wednesday

42, 86 www.1technation.com/webinars • 800-906-3373

Patient Monitoring 77

Ampronix, Inc.

4

www.ampronix.com • 800-400-7972

P

www.globalmedcables.com • 888-800-6825

Jet Medical Electronics Inc PartsSource

www.partssource.com/shop • 877-497-6412

Southeastern Biomedical, Inc.

Biomedical Repair & Consulting Services, Inc. 91 www.brcsrepair.com • 844-656-9418

17

28 64

sebiomedical.com/ • 828-396-6010

Southwestern Biomedical Electronics, Inc. www.swbiomed.com/ • 800-880-7231

USOC Bio-Medical Services

www.usocmedical.com • 855-888-8762

79 7

Patient Monitors FilAMed

54

www.FilAMedllc.com • 833-FILAMED

P

Power System Components Interpower

P P P P P P

www.ampronix.com • 800-400-7972

Renovo Solutions

www.renovo1.com • 844-4RENOVO

P

95

P

4

P P P P

Radiology Ampronix, Inc.

P P P P P P P P P P P P

85

57

www.jetmedical.com • 714-937-0809

www.interpower.com • 800-662-2290

AIV

aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755

Global Med Cables

P P P

Fluke Biomedical

www.flukebiomedical.com • 800-850-4608

www.biomedicalsupportsystems.com • 1-800-290-1345

TRAINING

8

SERVICE

Biomedical Support Systems

Innovatus Imaging

PARTS

MRI

Company Info

AD PAGE

TRAINING

SERVICE

PARTS

AD PAGE

Company Info

41

QUALITY BIOMEDICAL SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR SPECIFIC NEEDS EQUIPMENT INCLUDES: • • • • • •

Patient Monitors Biomedical Modules Telemetry Systems Central Monitoring Gas Analyzers Transmitters

• Case Kits Available for: GE Apex Pro! GE Apex Pro CH! GE Apex Pro FH! Carescape T-14!

• Bezels for the Dash Series Monitors

SERVICES INCLUDE: Flat Rate Repair | Replacement and Exchange Parts | Free Tech Support

(844) 656-9418 www.brcsrepair.com

Carescape T14 transmitter flat rate!

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EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

Call about our Carescape V100 & Procare Specials!

DECEMBER 2020

TECHNATION

91

SERVICE INDEX TRAINING

www.bmets-usa.com/ • 870-431-5485

63

Refurbish

A.M. Bickford

www.ambickford.com • 800-795-3062

BC Group International, Inc

AIV

aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755

77

www.BCGroupStore.com • 314-638-3800

Fluke Biomedical

www.flukebiomedical.com • 800-850-4608

Rental/Leasing Elite Biomedical Solutions

elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6703

61

Repair ALCO Sales & Service Co.

www.alcosales.com • 800-323-4282

Elite Biomedical Solutions

elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6701

Jet Medical Electronics Inc

www.jetmedical.com • 714-937-0809

Elite Biomedical Solutions

elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6701

Engineering Services, KCS Inc

www.eng-services.com • 888-364-7782x11

ZRG Medical

www.zrgmedical.com • 760-438-8835

P

90 61 57

61 16

P P P P P P P

93

Respiratory A.M. Bickford

www.ambickford.com • 800-795-3062

FilAMed

www.FilAMedllc.com • 833-FILAMED

Software Asimily

Asimily.com • 408-627-4097

Medigate

P 54 P 6

20 70

www.medigate.io •

Nuvolo

nuvolo.com • 844-468-8656

Pronk Technologies, Inc.

www.pronktech.com • 800-609-9802

Radcal Corporation

www.radcal.com • 800-423-7169

Replacement Parts

82

Surgical

Rigel Medical, Seaward Group

www.seaward-groupusa.com • 813-886-2775

RTI Electronics

www.rtigroup.com • 800-222-7537

Southeastern Biomedical, Inc.

sebiomedical.com/ • 828-396-6010

www.capitalmedicalresources.com • 614-657-7780

Healthmark Industries

hmark.com • 800-521-6224

59

P

65

Telemetry

College of Biomedical Equipment Technology www.cbet.edu • 866-866-9027

ECRI Institute

www.ecri.org • 1-610-825-6000.

Fluke Biomedical

www.flukebiomedical.com • 800-850-4608

Tri-Imaging Solutions

www.triimaging.com • 855-401-4888

aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755

Biomedical Repair & Consulting Services, Inc. www.brcsrepair.com • 844-656-9418

Elite Biomedical Solutions

elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6701

FilAMed

www.FilAMedllc.com • 833-FILAMED

Multimedical Systems

www.multimedicalsystems.com • 888-532-8056

Southwestern Biomedical Electronics, Inc. www.swbiomed.com/ • 800-880-7231

USOC Bio-Medical Services

www.usocmedical.com • 855-888-8762

DECEMBER 2020

P P 91 P P 61 P P 54 P 87 P 79 P P 7 P P 77

96

P P

49

Cadmet

www.cadmet.com • 800-543-7282

PartsSource

www.partssource.com/shop • 877-497-6412

Tri-Imaging Solutions

www.triimaging.com • 855-401-4888

23 3 63 64

P P

11 74 49 48

25 28 48

Ultrasound AllParts Medical Ampronix, Inc.

www.ampronix.com • 800-400-7972

CIRS, Inc.

www.cirsinc.com • admin@cirsinc.com www.innovatusimaging.com • 844-687-5100

P

5

Tubes/Bulbs

Innovatus Imaging

AIV

6

Training

www.allpartsmedical.com • 866-507-4793

Capital Medical Resources

TECHNATION

SERVICE

Test Equipment

Stephens International Recruiting Inc.

92

PARTS

Recruiting

Company Info

AD PAGE

TRAINING

SERVICE

PARTS

AD PAGE

Company Info

P P P P

P P P P P P

P P 4 P P 37 P 38

8

X-Ray AllParts Medical

www.allpartsmedical.com • 866-507-4793

Engineering Services, KCS Inc

www.eng-services.com • 888-364-7782x11

Innovatus Imaging

www.innovatusimaging.com • 844-687-5100

InterMed Group

www.intermed1.com • 386-462-5220

RTI Electronics

www.rtigroup.com • 800-222-7537

Tri-Imaging Solutions

www.triimaging.com • 855-401-4888

38 16

P P P

8 69

P P P

63 48

P P P

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

ALPHABETICAL INDEX A.M. Bickford…………………………… 6

Engineering Services, KCS Inc………

16

Nuvolo…………………………………

82

AIV……………………………………

77

FilAMed………………………………

54

Ozark Biomedical……………………

59

ALCO Sales & Service Co.……………

90

Fluke Biomedical……………………

49

PartsSource…………………………

28

AllParts Medical………………………

38

Global Med Cables……………………

17

Pronk Technologies, Inc. ……………… 5

Ampronix, Inc.…………………………… 4

Healthmark Industries………………

65

Radcal Corporation……………………

23

Asimily…………………………………

20

HTM Jobs……………………………

55

Renovo Solutions……………………

41

BC Group International, Inc…………

96

Infusion Pump Repair…………………

88

Rigel Medical, Seaward Group………… 3

Biomedical Repair & Consulting Services, Inc.……………

91

Injector Support and Service…………

Biomedical Support Systems…………

85

Cadmet………………………………

25

Capital Medical Resources……………

59

CIRS, Inc.……………………………

37

83

RTI Electronics………………………

63

Innovatus Imaging……………………… 8

SalesMaker Carts……………………

33

InterMed Group………………………

69

Select BioMedical……………………

17

Interpower……………………………

95

Southeastern Biomedical, Inc.………

64

Jet Medical Electronics Inc…………

57

Master Medical Equipment…………

77

Southwestern Biomedical Electronics, Inc.………………………

79

Maull Biomedical Training……………

72

College of Biomedical Equipment Technology………………

11

Crothall Healthcare Technology Solutions…………………

31

Medical Equipment Solutions………… 2

D.A. Surgical…………………………

37

Medigate………………………………

70

ECRI Institute…………………………

74

MedWrench…………………………

75

Elite Biomedical Solutions……………

61

Multimedical Systems………………

87

Medical Equipment Doctor, INC.…… 27, 57

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

Stephens International Recruiting Inc...63 Tri-Imaging Solutions…………………

48

TTG……………………………………

87

USOC Bio-Medical Services…………… 7 Webinar Wednesday……………… 42, 86 ZRG Medical…………………………

DECEMBER 2020

TECHNATION

93

93

BREAKROOM

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TECHNATION

DECEMBER 2020

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North American Hospital-Grade Replacement Cords Interpower® offers 1-Week Lead-Times on North American Hospital-Grade replacement cords and Same Day Shipping on in-stock Hospital-Grade cords. These cords utilize NEMA hospital-grade plugs bearing the “green dot,” and are rigorously tested to surpass UL 817 and CAN/CSA C22.2 no. 21 requirements for Hospital-Grade power cord sets.

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N E W F S X - 11 0 1 S P O 2 S i m u l at o r A Standalone Unit with an Unprecedented LIFETIME Warranty

Upgrade your SPO2 Simulator with the New FSX-1101!

The FSX-1101 is a small light weight digital SPO2 simulator with a variety of features.

It has a bright, 2.4” color touchscreen with an intuitive menu structure, which makes any test with your SPO2 monitor easier and faster. The device can be powered by its two internal AA batteries or with the provided cable from the auxiliary port on your BC Biomedical Patient Simulators. It can also use a USB port or the provided universal AC adapter. With the battery powered operation, you will have 10 hours of backlight intensity. The FSX-1101 comes in a carrying case with everything you need for any test, and did we mention, it comes with a “LIFETIME Warranty?”

5.00

$1,49

View our How to Videos

FSX-1101

You can connect the FSX-1101 to multiple devices!

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SCREEN VIEWS Sync Mode Setup Menu Preset Menu

Phone: 1-888-223-6763 Email: sales@bcgroupintl.com Website: www.bcgroupintl.com ISO 9001 & 13485 Certified ISO 17025 Accredited