TechNation Magazine January 2022

1technation.com

Vol. 13

JANUARY 2022

ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL / HTM PROFESSIONAL

On the Future of HTM

14 Professional of the Month:

Andy Martinez

18 Company Showcase

USOC Bio-Medical Services

24 Company Showcase

Medical Equipment Doctor

72 Scrapbook

Florida Biomedical Society

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CONTENTS

FEATURED

48

HE ROUNDTABLE: T PATIENT MONITORS In this issue of TechNation, several insiders share their insights regarding patient monitors.

Next month’s Roundtable article: Cybersecurity

54

IMPACT OF PANDEMICS ON THE FUTURE OF HTM The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact HTM professionals in a variety of ways that include supply chain concerns, right to repair issues and increased on-the-job stress. ext month’s Feature article: N Updated AAMI ST91:2020 for Endoscope Reprocessing: An HTM Perspective

TechNation (Vol. 13, Issue #1) January 2022 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. ©2022

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

JANUARY 2022

TECHNATION

9

CONTENTS

PUBLISHER

John M. Krieg

VICE PRESIDENT

Kristin Leavoy

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Jayme McKelvey Megan Cabot

ART DEPARTMENT Karlee Gower

Taylor Powers EDITORIAL

John Wallace

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

EVENTS

Kristin Leavoy

WEBINARS

Jennifer Godwin

HTMJOBS.COM

Kristen Register Sydney Krieg

ACCOUNTING

Diane Costea

EDITORIAL BOARD

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

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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JANUARY 2022

Proud supporters of

INSIDE Departments P.12 SPOTLIGHT p.12 Department of the Month: TRIMEDX’s Clinical Engineering Department at Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola p.14 Professional of the Month: Andy Martinez p.18 Company Showcase: USOC Bio-Medical Services p.20 Shifting Gears: Refining Skills for that Chicken Dinner p.24 Company Showcase: Medical Equipment Doctor P.26 p.26

p.30 p.32 p.34 p.36

INDUSTRY UPDATES News and Notes: Updates from the HTM Industry Ribbon Cutting: smart-position Welcome to TechNation AAMI Update ECRI Update

P.39 p.39 p.40 p.42 p.45

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

P.58 EXPERT ADVICE p.58 Career Center p.60 20/20 Imaging Insights: Savings add-up with a TEE probe PM program, sponsored by Innovatus Imaging p.63 The Future: A Need for Teachers, Too p.64 Witt's End: HTM Remains Strong p.66 Cybersecurity: Medical Device Cybersecurity Incident Response P.68 BREAKROOM p.68 Did You Know? p.70 The Vault p.72 FBS Scrapbook p.76 MedWrench Bulletin Board p.86 HTM Strong p.82 Service Index p.82 Alphabetical Index Like us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/TechNationMag Follow us on Twitter, twitter.com/TechNationMag WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

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The course introduces federal regulations, accepted standards, and the accreditation procedure to biomedical equipment technicians.

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This introduces biomedical equipment technicians to the exciting fieldNFPA of imaging by enhancing their understanding of as radiographic Thecourse course will walk students through interpretation of federal regulations, guidelines for healthcare facilities, as well the instrumentation usedDNV-GL, in medicine diagnosis, treatment, andregulations, life support, including basic operation, repair troubleshooting, andas the The course will walk students through interpretation ofItfederal NFPA guidelines for healthcare facilities, as well standards for both and for TJC Accreditation. will also cover the process of an accreditation inspection. preventative care and maintenance of equipment. standards for both DNV-GL, and TJC Accreditation. It will also cover the process of an accreditation inspection.

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SPOTLIGHT

DEPARTMENT OF THE MONTH TRIMEDX’s Clinical Engineering Department at Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

O

n any list of the best beaches in the U.S., Florida has the lion’s share with some of those along the panhandle always mentioned. One city that is home to some of those pristine beaches is Pensacola, a city on the western-most end of the panhandle. Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key are good examples.

The city of Pensacola had a population of 52,975 in 2019 and is known for its National Naval Aviation Museum and Museum of Art in addition to its beautiful beaches.

One of the local providers of health care services in this busy beach city is Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola Hospital. The 566-bed critical care hospital operates a 24/7 emergency room also.

A related provider of pediatric health care in the area is the Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Ascension Sacred Heart. The facility includes pediatric surgical and intensive care facilities with six operating rooms.

Equipment management for both hospitals is provided by a 21-member TRIMEDX clinical engineering department consisting of Site

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Manager Vernon Jones and three team leads who head up biomed, lab and radiology teams.

“There are 12 members on the biomed team and four each on the other two modalities,” Jones says.

The leadership members include Radiology Senior Technician Mike Watson, Laboratory Senior Technician Don Jernigan and Biomed Senior Technician Eric Bird, CBET. In addition to managing the medical equipment at Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola Hospital and Ascension Studer Family Children’s Hospital, the CE team is responsible for devices at Haven of Our Lady of Peace. They also support medical equipment in more than 150 clinics.

The Haven of Our Lady of Peace is a 120-bed nursing home operated

by Sacred Heart Health System and Methodist Homes for the Aging.

Ascension Studer Family Children’s Hospital is Northwest Florida’s only facility dedicated to the medical needs of infants and children.

The biomed team does a complete job of capturing data and knowing every device in inventory.

“When a new device is presented for entry into the database, all accompanying data is collected from the data nameplate of the device.

Additionally, for network capable or connected equipment, operating system and MAC address information is collected and stored in the database. All warranty information is also collected and stored,” Jones says.

COVID-19 EXPANSION AND OTHER PROJECTS With the expansion of intensive care areas in hospitals to accommodate COVID-19 patients, the need for additional constant electronic monitoring has taxed the resources of biomed departments in expanding these resources.

“During the COVID surge in Florida over the summer, we had to assist the hospital with reallocating telemetry resources to best cover newly opened areas. Going from two adult ICUs to three, and from one PCU to three, placed a heavy burden on the monitoring capability of the hospital. We were able to coordinate viable options with the nursing leadership in order to safely monitor those critically ill patients,” Jones says.

Standing up additional adult ICUs and PCUs comes with challenges, especially when time is of the essence. The biomed team addressed

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SPOTLIGHT

The Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola department works hard to ensure all equipment stays up and running.

"The biomed team does a complete job of capturing data and knowing every device in inventory."

these concerns using resourcefulness and ingenuity.

“Some of the challenges included the fact that many of these areas were not wired for in-room monitoring nor did they all have gases piped in for support and operation of the ventilators that are normally used in higher levels of care. O2 tanks were used in those cases and roll-around MP50 monitors were used as workarounds for these issues,” Jones says.

Another project team members addressed beyond their normal day-to-day biomed duties included lending their critical knowledge to acquisitions. They performed capital equipment planning for eight surgical suites as well as 10 pediatric ICU rooms.

“All the equipment needs had to be scrutinized to ensure that they would integrate with the infrastructure used in the rest of the campus and network to provide more cross functional utilization of nurses and staff. All the new equipment had to be inspected and entered in the database,” Jones says.

The group also was instrumental in the development of an emergency department at the Ascension Sacred Heart at Nine Mile Road facility.

“The new ER provides 24-hour emergency services for children and adults and has a separate waiting area and treatment rooms for children. It includes 13 treatment rooms and two critical care rooms staffed by emergency medicine physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists. In addition, the facility provides the services of a lab, pharmacy, CT scanner and X-ray imaging,” Jones says In the problem-solving arena, the team updated software, taking into account considerations for maintaining uptime.

“The department performed cyber remediation on the hospital's Philips telemetry system. This involved multiple software patches on 60-plus PIC ix, PCs and software on the servers themselves. Downtime had to be scheduled with the input of the nursing staff and was executed with

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

very minimal disruption to patient care,” Jones says.

Away from the workplace, some members of the team are members of the Florida Biomedical Society (FBS).

The biomed team also does its part to help prepare the next generation of biomeds with hands-on training and experience.

“The department also partners with Pensacola State College as part of their biomedical course offering. Approved and vetted students intern at the facility to get a broader exposure to the biomedical field. They shadow technicians in all the different modalities to obtain valuable insight that cannot be duplicated in the classroom environment,” Jones says.

On the gulf coast of Florida, the city of Pensacola has important health care needs covered by several modern facilities and patients can be confident that the equipment will be working properly thanks to the HTM professionals that make up this TRIMEDX clinical engineering team.

JANUARY 2022

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SPOTLIGHT

PROFESSIONAL OF THE MONTH: ANDY MARTINEZ

Enthusiasm for the Profession

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

T

he HTM profession certainly needs new recruits to bring its numbers up to full staffing. Some of those newer to the profession are already impressing their bosses and making their mark.

That is the case with one biomed in Sebastopol, California.

Andy Martinez is a central supply technician/biomed technician with Sonoma Specialty Hospital in that northern California city.

“I became interested in biomedical engineering very recently in my life. I was introduced to biomed by my boss, Jorge Contreras, who first showed me the different types of machines and equipment our facility housed,” Martinez says.

He says that after working in a hospital in central supply, Contreras pointed out all that biomed had to offer.

“Having the knowledge that these monitors and machines can help save lives in the day-to-day workplace.

From telemetry systems to bedside monitors to fixing beds, biomed just grabbed me by the arms and made me feel like I am taking part in helping save a patient. I have never had anyone in my family do any work in the biomed field, so when introduced to

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this specific field, my patience and focus and attention to detail improved drastically,” Martinez says.

Martinez does plan on pursuing certification in the future, but for now, he is training under the guidance of his supervisor. Every day proves to be a valuable learning experience as an HTM pro.

“I have been actively training in biomed from October 2020-present date. So far, I have learned about all cables needed for a Nihon Kohden beside monitor, all cables for a Phillips bedside monitor and telemetry system.

I have repaired a ribbon cable on an EKG machine. I have worked on patient beds, specifically Stryker beds.

On those beds, I have replaced circuit boards, foot boards, fowler switch, power connector and load cells. I have learned to replace battery doors and stickers on telemetry boxes,” he says.

Martinez has also learned the different ways to properly use biomed test equipment, such as testing defibrillators and telemetry boxes. The on-the-job education continues.

“I have also tested centrifuges in the lab calculating the RPMs. I have very basic training in the biomed field, and I am beyond excited for what training lays ahead for me and the programs available around the country,” he adds.

LEARNING WHILE DOING In most biomed departments, teamwork is key, and especially when rookie biomeds depend on getting tips and insights from more veteran colleagues.

“I have always worked well at teamwork rather than working alone.

A special challenge I have encountered is troubleshooting on my own. Most of my encounters include biomeds, or under supervision; however, there are certain occasions where I may proceed to solve a problem by myself,” Martinez says.

He says that this can be a challenge when relying on himself while in a patient room or if a nurse requests an immediate repair on a machine.

“This has taught me patience, trusting my instincts, and ‘Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS).’ I have learned that overthinking leads to over-complicating the particular assignment I am on. So, I take my time to assess what screw or what wire goes where,” Martinez says.

He says that he is grateful to be part of a special project, which is the preparation for the installation of a new telemetry system.

“Only being 21 and not certified in biomed, I have been honored to assist my boss with this project. For example, I have helped figure out where the

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SPOTLIGHT

FAVORITE BOOK: "Lord of the Flies"

FAVORITE MOVIE: "Kill Bill"

FAVORITE FOOD: Ribs

HIDDEN TALENT: Dancing

WHAT’S ON MY DESK? Multimeter, leatherman, Thermos with ice water, Skittles, drill

FAVORITE PART OF BEING A BIOMED? “That little bit of excitement once the job is completed.”

Andy Martinez is shown working on several different types of equipment.

antennas are throughout our building and have made sure all are properly connected and labeled. Also, figuring out how far our monitors can reach from the central station when attached to a patient,” Martinez says.

He says that the project has shown him how to program new telemetry boxes to the existing system at the central station.

“Using a bedside monitor of the same manufacturer as the telemetry box with a configuration cable. I understand how important telemetry systems are with it being able to monitor a patient’s heart rate and oxygen, which helps the nurses attend to the patient when needed, so I couldn’t pass up this specialty project,” Martinez says.

Off the job, the rookie biomed enjoys hobbies and sports.

“A couple of hobbies that I enjoy are doing are Jiu Jitsu, playing basketball with old friends and

spending time with my two cats. My cats are part of what keep me going,” Martinez says.

Family is also important and that extends to both coasts.

“I have a pretty big family; my family is from all over. I have family from Mexico, as well as still living in Mexico. I have family in New York and family that have lived in California for decades. I have family that have become a part of my life later down the line,” Martinez says.

“My wife, Isabella, has brought a new light to my life that has changed my life for the better, and there are my grandmothers, Pascuala and Kathleen; my dad, Ramon; my mother, Marie; and four siblings: Cassandra, Amanda, Seraphina and Adriano. And, of course my two cats Rona and Meeko,” he adds.

Martinez says that he and his wife were born and raised in Santa Rosa, California.

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

“My dad was an immigrant from Mexico and came to America in the mid-1980s. My mother was born and raised in Santa Rosa, California as well. My mother is American, as well as Native American,” he says.

A big sports fan, Martinez likes to be a spectator and a participant. He has played sports since childhood. He led his high school basketball team in points per game during all four years of high school.

“After high school, I have been married since 2020 to my beautiful wife and have taken on a love for cats, but am still more of a dog person. My life is still yet to begin, as I have many years ahead and am still figuring out my interests as I become wiser with age and experience,” he says.

If enthusiasm is any predictor of success in the biomed field, this biomed should develop into a topnotch HTM professional and resource for his employer.

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SPOTLIGHT

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

COMPANY SHOWCASE USOC Bio-Medical Services

U

SOC Bio-Medical Services is a leader in the medical device industry determined to know its customers, provide high-quality services, build solid relationships and maintain vendor neutrality. As stated in its mission statement, the company’s core values are quality, integrity, innovation, accountability, collaboration and leadership.

USOC employs more than 100 people who provide biomedical equipment repair solutions to health care facilities, clinics and medical companies of all types and sizes. The company’s commitment to providing high-quality, cost-effective equipment and services is reflected in its ISO 9001:2008 and 13485:2016 certifications.

Located in Irvine, California, USOC has a proven approach designed to keep medical equipment running in peak condition at a guaranteed cost savings.

The company is used as a reference by the market for patient monitoring equipment repair and for refurbished devices. Additionally, the USOC team strives to help biomeds who may not specialize in specific types of equipment when faced with the daunting task of maintaining patient monitoring devices and every type of hospital equipment.

The company partners with the BMET community and is present at biomed tradeshows throughout the United States.

For more about USOC, we asked them to share their insider knowledge

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about the company’s recent acquisition

by CSAT Holdings LLC as well as its services, goals and customer service.

Q

Please share a little bit about your company’s history and how you achieved success.

USOC: USOC was founded in 2010 and provides patient monitoring device repair services, equipment and parts sales, onsite technician services, and rental solutions for hospitals, clinics and medical equipment management companies. USOC specializes in patient monitors, modules, telemetry, CO2 modules, infusion pumps and an array of other modalities.

One of the keys to USOC’s success lies in our commitment to understanding not just the equipment, but each customer’s unique situation, level of expertise, and needs. The company has achieved success by understanding the pressures that today’s health care professionals face. Our innovative practices and expert engineers have allowed us to reduce the price of patient monitoring services without sacrificing quality.

Q

What are some advantages that your company has over the competition?

USOC: Our edge is our value proposition, especially when compared to the competition. We are more than a repair facility for our biomeds. We are a trusted partner to our biomeds. We create bonds with the biomeds and

support them. We are a biomed shop as well as 24/7 technical support. Most importantly, we understand more than anyone else the biomed’s needs.

We have leveraged our experiences to create a unique repair facility that meets the quality standards and turn times of each valued customer. Our quality is why we have the confidence to offer a 12-month end-to-end warranty for most repairs. We facilitate our biomeds’ daily tasks through our updated customer portal (USOC e-link) that is used not only for repairs but also provides support and guidance. We also have an emergency kit for our biomeds. The emergency kit consists of the most popular items that break down. It can be used as an exchange program when devices break down.

Q

Please explain your company’s core competencies and unique selling points.

USOC: USOC provides biomedical equipment repair solutions to health care facilities, clinics and medical companies in the USA, Canada and beyond.

Here is how it works: The hospital calls for troubleshooting and, if necessary, sends equipment to us. We test, diagnose and repair it at our facility and then send it back to them.

We offer a warranty that allows the biomed shop to send the equipment back free of charge if there is ever a problem. We also offer troubleshooting

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SPOTLIGHT

over the phone. If the equipment needs to be sent in for repair, USOC Bio-Medical Services will program a loaner based on the hospital’s data and expedite shipping to the facility.

Q

Can you share information about the reason for the recent acquisition by CSAT Holdings LLC and what it means for USOC BioMedical?

USOC: USOC is always looking to expand across equipment types and geographies in order to serve our customers better. CSAT has core expertise in engineering and logistics and will greatly enhance our value proposition. We are extremely excited for this new chapter of USOC.

Q

What can USOC customers expect following the acquisition?

USOC: Our customers can expect the same customer service and quality equipment repair solutions that we have always provided. Overall, this partnership will benefit our customers’ needs.

In the near future, we will be able to

offer a wider array of services, new repair depots and faster shipping services to help customers have less downtime in their facilities.

Q

Can you tell us about your employees and what they mean to the company?

USOC: Our employees are what make USOC great. Their dedication, determination and passion for each of their jobs is unmatched. Everyone at USOC works as a team for one common goal – the customer. They understand that each person’s job is unique and doesn’t work without each other. We are a team that respects each other.

Q

What is your company’s mission statement?

USOC: Our vision is empowering better patient health with technical insights.

Our three goals are to promote a healthier world, build value and create an inspiring workplace. Our five-point strategy to achieve our goals is to grow through innovation, drive operational

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

excellence, simplify the organization, focus on technical information services, and deliver great products and services.

An important part of the USOC Bio-Medical Services environment is our behaviors, which are customer-focused, performance-oriented, united as one team, transparent and agile. The core values at USOC Bio-Medical Services are quality, integrity, innovation, accountability, collaboration and leadership.

Q

Is there anything else you want readers to know about your company?

USOC: USOC has always been and will continue to be customer driven. We are always looking for their feedback, as it’s their suggestions that we take to heart for our continued improvement. We are definitely looking forward to what the future holds and the new exciting opportunities we have created.

For more information, visit www.usocmedical.com

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SPOTLIGHT

SHIFTING GEARS

A Look at HTM Professionals Away From Work Refining Skills for that Chicken Dinner

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

O

ne billion people can’t be wrong.

That’s the number of PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds (PUBG) mobile downloads; a very popular online game with a strong following worldwide.

The first full release of PUBG for the PC was in December of 2017. It was officially released the following year for Xbox. The free mobile version for Android and iOS was also released in 2018.

The original release of the game has sold over 70 million copies, and the even more successful mobile version has exceeded 1 billion total downloads (not including mainland China). The game has grossed more than $6.2 billion for its developers. PUBG Mobile is in its 20th “season.”

The game uses the “battle royale” format for online, multiplayer matches.

Players can choose to play in first-person mode or third-person mode. Players can play solo, in duos or in squads.

With duos or squads, 100 players bail out of a plan over a choice of maps.

The play area within the maps shrinks during gameplay requiring players to be in closer proximity. Players scramble, upon landing, to locate weapons and armor.

When a player is “killed,” the conquering player can “loot their crate” and get more supplies. They then battle

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each other until the last team or individual is left standing. That team wins the “chicken dinner.” (Winner, winner, chicken dinner) Among those 1 billion mobile players is a biomed manager who has honed his PUBG skills going back to Season 2 of the game.

Uriel Vargas Jr., BSEE, A+ Certified, is an HTM biomed manager in the greater Austin (Texas) Region with the healthcare technology management department at Baylor, Scott and White.

“I have never really been into mobile gaming; I was always more into PlayStation first-person campaign gaming (me finishing my missions and beating the games),” Vargas says.

He says that as time progressed, and his schedule become busier, he had less time to be in front of his TV at home.

He happened to come across the PUBG Mobile app back in Season 2.

“I didn’t really take it seriously, but more of a, ‘Let’s see what this game is about.’ As I started to get a feel for the game, I didn’t really play aggressively until about Season 6,” Vargas says.

He says that from that point on, he made it a point to play hard and was determined to try and be one of the best.

“It is now on Season 20 of the game, and I have pushed myself to be an ACE and ACE Master player every season since Season 6,” Vargas says.

In the tier system in PUBG Mobile,

players are paired against more highly skilled players as they climb the ranks.

The ACE rank represents highly skilled players who are exceptional at playing the game.

“A few seasons back I managed to make it to Top 991 on North America Server and I am very proud of that,” he adds.

Vargas says that he has a squad of friends that he usually runs with, and they all play and know each other very well.

“We work well together and make sure we are always on the same page,” he says.

“We entered the PUBG Mobile All Talent Championship and placed first in the first few weeks on the preliminary competition,” Vargas says.

Vargas says some members of his team were not able to play at specific times, and the squad dropped to 12th in the region – which is out of the finals.

“I use PUBG Mobile to unwind and take a break from the real world and the stresses it can bring,” he says. “I usually sit in my home office and play the game till I feel more relaxed, I get tired or something else comes up.”

A FOCUS ON GETTING TO THE NEXT LEVEL Different PUBG Mobile players have preferences for the format that they play. Some like the solo approach, while others like the camaraderie and teamwork of playing duos or squads.

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SPOTLIGHT

Top: When not working Uriel Vargas Jr. has proven himself to be one of the top 1,000 PUBG players in North America.

Bottom: At work, Vargas is an HTM manager in Austin, Texas.

“I usually play squads; then, when I hit ACE and got my title and parachute, I start duos; either solo-duos or with a partner, even if its random for practice on different techniques and hot dropping,” Vargas says.

Vargas points out that when some other players discover he is a little older than the mean age of many PUBG players, they may question why he is even playing the game. Then, he demonstrates how to play the game with skill and how to get the most out of enjoying the game.

Despite his experience and advanced skills in PUBG, Vargas still takes note of the different techniques that good players use and says that some players are on another level.

Speed and accuracy are always skills to be admired in the game.

More of Vargas’ time is spent as a veteran of the HTM field than in virtual battlefields.

“I have been a biomed technician and in the electronics field for more than 15 years. I worked at a few hospitals in California, but when I finally got the opportunity to move to Texas, I jumped on it and now I am here. Now that I am a manager, I co-manage all of Central Austin Texas (seven hospitals and surrounding clinics). We manage a team that must be based on communication since we are few and cover a huge area,” he says.

Vargas says that he makes sure that his team has all they need to get the job done. Team members have only minor obstacles when trying to work.

“I meet with leadership daily to discuss workflow and area details to make sure each hospital’s piece of equipment is attended to and working properly,” he says.

“I enjoy doing what I do and truthfully see myself moving up with this company. I am happy with the team I work with and the hospital I work for; I can honestly say I enjoy coming to work every day,” Vargas adds.

Whether raising his skill level on the job or in a competitive PUBG match, it takes tenacity, determination and focus to excel. This biomed has all three.

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

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COMPANY SHOWCASE Medical Equipment Doctor

M

edical Equipment Doctor CEO and Founder Albert Negron recently shared more information about the company he started after a decade of experience in the medical device industry gave him a huge passion for making connections in health care. That passion gave him the drive to make a massive impact. How could he do that? By starting up his own company!

“We know a sturdy foundation is key when it comes to building a business.

We value strong relationships, and we bring a vast knowledge of industry experience to the table. Throw in a customer-centric approach, and voila – everything else just falls into place,” Negron says.

Q

What does your company do?

Albert: In a nutshell, we buy, sell, rent and service a wide range of medical devices. We specialize in patient monitoring devices, infusion pumps, surgical and imaging equipment, and so much more!

At our core, our company is dedicated to offering high-quality refurbished equipment that allows our customers to cut costs without ever having to sacrifice patient safety, which we believe should always be the highest priority. As a bonus, we sell

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new patient cables to make life even more convenient for our customers.

Q

Why do you think customers should choose you over the competition?

Albert: Being a small company gives us some awesome advantages – we can be more flexible and really take care of each of our customers on an individual basis. We pride ourselves on making sure each customer feels heard. We make a point to understand their unique equipment needs and we can usually accommodate their needs right away.

We believe in transparency in our pricing, too. Our customers only ever pay for what they need. Who doesn’t love knowing exactly what they’re getting into when doing business?

Q

hat’s the biggest challenge your W company faced last year, and how did you overcome it?

Albert: We grew a ton! Which was exciting, of course. But we also found it challenging to meet an increasing demand during the pandemic when hospital occupancy was at record highs across the country.

We were fortunate to have relationships that run deep in our industry that helped us pull through.

Even when we worried about resources growing scarce, our

incredible network of suppliers helped us obtain life-saving equipment when our customers needed us most.

Q

hat’s something your company W offers right now that you’re the most excited about?

Albert: The fact that we can offer service and sales of Alaris pumps has us pretty thrilled! With the recent OEM recalls and continued demand for pumps, we’re so glad we can support hospitals around the country with refurbished Alaris pumps as well as servicing their existing pumps.

Q

hat is on the horizon for your W company? How will it evolve in the coming years?

Albert: We’re excited to continue expanding our inventory and offerings thanks to our rapid growth over the past few years. We also can’t wait to hire more experienced professionals who can support our growth and allow us to continue meeting the needs of our ever-growing customer base.

Q

an you think of a time that you C “saved the day” for a customer?

Albert: We’ve honestly lost count of the number of times we’ve “saved the day” for a customer! When customers are in a pinch, they rely on us to put out the fire time and time again.

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SPOTLIGHT

We strive to be a key source for end-to-end solutions in buying, selling, renting and servicing medical equipment for your health care facility.”

— Albert Negron CEO - Founder aka 'The Doctor'

Why do they call on us? Because we have an extensive inventory of equipment, resources and flexibility that they can always rely on. Of course, we don’t prefer to operate as if our “hair is on fire.” But we’ll always do our best to go the extra mile to meet the needs of our customers.

Q

hat’s your company’s W facility like?

Albert: We have a new, bigger facility that’s fantastic because it gives us space to expand our service capabilities and increase how much inventory we have on hand for our customers. Each department is closely connected, which facilitates a smooth order experience from start to finish. I love how well this company works as a team! It’s been excellent to see this new space foster an efficient workflow and ease of communication throughout the company.

Q

o you have any recent changes to D your company, inventory or services?

Albert: Thanks to the huge surge of growth over the past year, our company has tripled our staff, bought our own building with a large warehouse to meet growing demand and invested in a state-of-the-art ERP system that ensures a smooth experience for our ever-growing customer base from order to delivery.

We’re also excited for our ISO audit coming up in the first quarter of 2022. This is a huge milestone for us!

And we think it’s the perfect way to show just how dedicated we are to meeting the highest of standards.

On top of all that, we’ve invested a great deal in inventory, testing equipment and hiring new technicians to meet the growing need for equipment service and sales. We expect our company to continue its rapid growth and we look forward to the future!

Q

an you please tell me about your C employees?

Albert: We have an enthusiastic, fresh and fun sales team. They are energetic, eager to learn and ready and able to serve our customers. Our technicians have 10-plus years of industry experience. They are innovative, solution-oriented and, above all, they’re dedicated to the highest quality of service.

Our operational support staff works together seamlessly to coordinate this business behind the scenes. Most of us wear a lot of hats here, and we do it proudly. The synergy with this team is beyond amazing.

Q

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

hat is most important to you W about the way you do business?

Albert: Here at Medical Equipment Doctor, we strive to be a key source for end-to-end solutions in buying, selling, renting and servicing medical equipment for your health care facility. And beyond simply providing these essential services, we hope to form real, meaningful relationships with our customers. We care about getting to know their unique needs so we can deliver above and beyond their expectations.

Q

I s there anything else you want TechNation readers to know about your company?

Albert: We want to highlight and promote our patient monitoring cables and accessories line. Over the years, we’ve listened to our customers, and we’ve constantly heard that buying accessories like SpO2, ECG and NIBP accessories is challenging for the hospital staff. There are so many different configurations, manufacturers, styles and part numbers – it can become overwhelming fast. As a solution, we’ve developed a comprehensive website to simplify this process. You can check it out at: cables.medicalequipdoc.com.

We also want to highlight our knowledgeable staff that is eager to assist you and ensure that you get exactly what you’re looking for.

For more information, visit cables.medicalequipdoc.com.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

NEWS & NOTES Updates from the HTM Industry MEDICAL MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE Medical Manufacturing Technologies (MMT), a global provider of medical device manufacturing solutions, has launched a new user-friendly website to showcase its process-driven manufacturing solutions.

“As an end-to-end provider of integrated manufacturing solutions, we are excited to launch an easy-to-navigate, dynamic website,” MMT CEO Robbie Atkinson said. “Our new design focuses on our customers’ desire for a clean and informative platform. The website also gives us another new and exciting way to communicate with our team members and keep them informed and up-to-date with many of the exciting changes in our business.”

The website aligns the capabilities of our industry-leading

subsidiaries, SYNEO, GLEBAR, CATHTIP and Engineering By Design (EBD) with the vision and values of MMT. The simplified design represents the company’s ability to solve complex medical device manufacturing challenges. Additionally, its easy-to-use navigation allows our customers to source and request information quickly.

“We understand the complexity of the Med Device industry and our new website support customers along their buying journey by effectively showcasing our robust technology portfolio and Total Care services,” said Atkinson.

For more information about MMT and its subsidiaries, visit www.mmt-inc.com

AMPRONIX PRESENTED PRESIDENT’S ‘E’ AWARD FOR U.S. EXPORT GROWTH Ampronix announced that it is honored to accept the President’s “E” Award in Washington, D.C. at a ceremony held at the Department of Commerce Building. For the in-person ceremony, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves presented Ampronix Director of Business Development and Marketing Michael Thomas with the President’s “E” Award.

“As we sell and service life-saving medical equipment, exporting is a vital part of our sales channel. Our customers in 151+ foreign markets look to us to provide the highest quality medical products that are made in the United States, and we are honored to receive the President’s “E” Award,” Thomas said.

Previously, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross notified Ampronix of its selection to receive the President’s “E” Award for Exports. The President’s “E” Award is the highest recognition any U.S. entity can receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports.

“Ampronix, Inc. has demonstrated a sustained commitment to export expansion. The ‘E’ Awards Committee was very impressed with Ampronix’s exports to more than 135 countries. The company’s investment in product certification to gain entry into more international markets was also particularly notable. Ampronix’s achievements have undoubtedly contributed to national export expansion efforts that support the U.S. economy and create American jobs,” Ross said in his congratulatory letter to the company announcing its selection.

In total, Secretary Ross honored 39 U.S. companies and organizations from across the country with the President’s “E” Award for their role in strengthening the U.S. economy by sharing American ingenuity outside of its borders.

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As a leader in medical imaging technology since 1982, Ampronix develops, distributes and services groundbreaking solutions in more than 151 countries that promote optimal patient outcomes.

U.S. companies are nominated for the “E” Awards through the U.S. Commercial Service, part of the Department’s International Trade Administration. With offices across the United States and in embassies and consulates around the world, The International Trade Administration lends its expertise at every stage of the exporting process by promoting and facilitating exports and investment into the United States; administering anti-dumping and countervailing duties orders; and removing, reducing, or preventing foreign trade barriers.

For more information, visit ampronix.com.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

CENTRAK ACQUIRES INFINITE LEAP CenTrak Inc., a Halma company, has acquired Infinite Leap, a health care consulting and services provider for real-time technologies, joining two leaders in real-time location systems (RTLS).

“The acquisition expands and strengthens capabilities for CenTrak and its extensive partner ecosystem, helping health care organizations improve patient outcomes and substantiate return on investment from RTLS solutions,” according to a press release.

“To further mark CenTrak’s evolution from a leading provider of IoT devices to an end-to-end solution provider, this news anchors its growing managed services by offering onsite clinical and technology support and success management programs for customers.”

“The acquisition of Infinite Leap and their seasoned team will accelerate the development of a robust managed services program for CenTrak,” said David Minning, president and CEO at

CenTrak. “Infinite Leap has provided extensive clinical consulting services for years, and by bringing their experts on board, we can ​​scale more quickly, provide enhanced post go-live support, and introduce on-site assessment services to ensure customers are successfully optimizing their location technology.”

CenTrak will immediately and seamlessly integrate the services currently performed by Infinite Leap, from solution design and business planning to implementation, training, operational support, managed services and program optimization. Existing Infinite Leap customers will continue to receive support, install new systems and expansions under the umbrella of CenTrak’s offerings.

“Collaborating with CenTrak throughout a highly successful, multiyear partnership has demonstrated the importance of offering RTLS solutions

and managed services to benefit the customer, and we’re excited to continue our work and jointly expand our capabilities,” said Mark Rheault, founder and CEO at Infinite Leap. “I look forward to combining the talent of these two organizations and joining the CenTrak leadership team, together we will further drive the impact of RTLS in health care and improve the patient experience.”

“Transitioning CenTrak from a hardware technology provider to a value-based, full enterprise solution required the addition of a strong and strategic clinical consulting partner,” the release states. “With the added RTLS expertise gained from Infinite Leap, CenTrak is well positioned to further enrich its services, solutions and products to support the needs of health care providers in the post-pandemic world and enhance the company’s position in the global health care market.”

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

CROTHALL HEALTHCARE, INTELEX LAUNCH QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM PLATFORM Crothall Healthcare’s Healthcare Technology Solutions (HTS) division has announced the launch of teamQUEST, a dedicated web-based quality management system platform powered

by Intelex.

“Crothall’s teamQUEST provides a singular platform to structure the quality management system (QMS), allowing it to react, expand and evolve more effectively over time. teamQUEST also ensures consistency in operations, enhancing the repeatability of a particular process,” a press release states.

“Data is key. TeamQUEST provides HTS the ability to collect and collate our quality data to quickly provide reports, insight and trends, using automation to help staff work smarter and more effectively,” said Sheila O’Donnell, vice president of Crothall’s Technical Resource Group. “The automated data capture allows our staff the ability to complete quality inspections on a mobile application, track customer feedback through to resolution and provide managers with a holistic view of QMS training compliance.”

Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) is a critical piece of the HTS quality program. The teamQUEST CAPA module helps identify, anticipate and correct defects and nonconformances that prevent services from meeting customer require-

ments. It does this by tracking existing or potential nonconformances to identify root causes, initiate containment and develop an appropriate action plan to prevent future defects.

The Document Control module within teamQUEST provides the ability to easily view and reference the QMS procedures. The module also includes a function to allow users to quickly submit change requests to a documented procedure that are then submitted to the document owner(s), which efficiently facilitates changes that previously would have taken much longer to occur.

The Training Management module provides full QMS training compliance tracking and email notification for QMS training assignments, allowing managers to closely track their staffs’ QMS training requirements.

“Ultimately the quality data captured in teamQUEST enables HTS to identify opportunities, which ensure our program’s continuous improvement and high levels of client satisfaction,” added O’Donnell.

VIZZIA TECHNOLOGIES RELEASES INVIEW UPGRADE Vizzia Technologies, a software and managed service provider of real-time location systems (RTLS) for health care organizations, has commercially released a significant upgrade to its InVIEW software platform.

According to a news release, Vizzia InVIEW offers a faster, more secure, cloud-based experience, with industry-requested features, powerful analytics and new maps. The enhanced platform leverages more than 15 years of “go-live” experience with hospitals and clinics nationwide.

“The InVIEW platform is a very powerful data analytics tool with a clean and intuitive user interface,”

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said Francesco Petruzzella, director of biomedical engineering at Providence Mission Hospital.

Vizzia InVIEW software features highlighted in the news release include: • Sophisticated Analytics: real-time and actionable data to optimize key asset utilization • Robust Dashboards: operational and historical KPIs with dynamic editing and refresh • Enhanced Alerts: adjustable and clear alert settings highlight urgent operational needs • Advanced Maps: single button navigation of assets shown by

facility, floor and room • Enterprise Security: data meets HIPAA & HITRUST standards and is hosted by AWS “The Vizzia InVIEW software platform is highly scalable and has tracked more than half a billion data events in real-time,” remarked Howard Hatcher, chief technology officer of Vizzia Technologies.

“Biomeds, clinicians and the C-suite want a robust solution that provides comprehensive visibility into a hospital’s most important assets.”

For more information, please visit VizziaTech.com.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

AUS ANNOUNCES DIAGNOSTIC ULTRASOUND SERVICE CAMPS Advanced Ultrasound Systems (AUS) has announced a new five-day intense training course. The new Diagnostic Ultrasound Service Camps (DUSC) course is designed to equip HTM professionals with the skills necessary to maintain, troubleshoot and repair ultrasound.

Students who complete the DUSC Program, made of three well-established individual ultrasound classes, will have all the tools necessary to begin servicing ultrasound equipment. The courses are worth 1 CEU per hour of instruction toward recertification.

“AUS programs are highly interactive,” said Jim Rickner, service and training director for AUS. “Our students learn by ‘doing’ vs. ‘listening.’ Hands-on instruction with actual GE, Philips and Siemens systems in the classroom is an essential component to every training course we offer. With no pre-requisite required, any clinical engineer, biomed or HTM professional can enter the DUSC program knowing little to nothing about ultrasound and leave with the confidence to work on at least two systems.”

All graduating students receive priority service on parts requests and continued telephone/video technical support from AUS.

Operate Efficiently, Perform Real Time, Simplify Compliance Your CMMS should provide:

PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM ACQUIRES USOC BIOMEDICAL Insight Equity Holdings LLC, a Southlake, Texas private equity firm, announced that one of its portfolio companies, CSAT Solutions Holdings LLC (“CSAT”), has acquired USOC BioMedical LLC. Founded in 2010, USOC provides medical device repair services, equipment and parts sales, and leasing solutions for OEMs, hospitals and medical equipment management companies. USOC specializes in patient monitors, modules, telemetry, CO2 modules, infusion pumps and an array of other modalities. USOC is located in Irvine, California, and operates throughout the United States and Canada through a depot repair model.

“We are excited to partner with USOC and further expand into the medical device industry,” said Paul McCutcheon, president of CSAT Medical. “This combination marks a new chapter for CSAT, and we will continue our tradition of providing best-in-class service to our customers.”

Ali Youssef, CEO of USOC, added, “Joining forces with CSAT will help USOC expand its geographic footprint, modalities and customer base. More importantly, CSAT’s technical knowledge, logistical expertise and customer-centric culture are a great match for USOC.” “Ali and his team have built a market-leading platform that provides mission-critical products and services to some of the top hospital systems and health care operations in North America,” commented Warren Bonham, partner and chief operating officer at Insight Equity. “Together, we will deliver a differentiated value proposition for the medical device industry with over 2,100 associates.”

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

• • • • •

Compliance Solutions Security Integrations Continual Evolution Test Equipment Integration Feature Control

We offer this and so much more.

Check us out!

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

RIBBON CUTTING smart position BY: ERIN REGISTER AND SHANNON McGINLEY

s

mart position CEO Byron Webster said, “smart position started when I was fortunate enough to connect with Sebastian van Wickern, and Ronald Derler of smart IoT group in early 2020. smart IoT develops cutting-edge smart device and Internet of Things (IoT) products for leading medical device companies in Germany like Roche and Boehringer-Ingelheim. smart IoT had just finished a research project for peerless 4-dimensional location accuracy with the Bochum University of Applied Sciences and had already created a secured software platform to take advantage of this new location technology.”

new company in an interview with Webster.

Around this time, Webster also connected with Roderick Bell, who has over 20 years of experience in healthcare technology and IT services for leading U.S. health care systems, such as Wellvana Health and Resolute Health.

“With my background in real-time location systems (RTLS) from my AeroScout days, supply chain management and visibility with my Global Med Cables company and overall operational efficiency solutions, it was a perfect match to combine our passions and launch smart position in the U.S.,” added Webster.

TechNation learned more about this

Q: WHAT IS THE MAIN FOCUS OF SMART POSITION? A: There are a lot of organizations out there that simply don’t have the internal resources, time or budget to deploy RTLS for equipment or environmental monitoring. Too many organizations are still manually locating equipment or monitoring environments, and it doesn’t have to be that way. smart position focuses on helping overwhelmed staff be more efficient. We focus on helping hospitals and clinics who want an RTLS but don’t have a lot of staff to deploy and maintain. We focus on temperature monitoring for labs, blood and tissue banks, pharmacies,

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nutrition and pathology and asset location for patient care, medical equipment recalls, and overall operations.

And we do this using the latest in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, which keeps costs down while opening up new application opportunities.

Byron Webster CEO

Q: WHAT ARE SOME SERVICES SMART POSITION OFFERS? A: We work closely with customers from beginning to end on everything they need to create, deploy and use their RTLS and monitoring solutions. We audit customer use cases to provide the appropriate quote, so customers know exactly what they’re going to need as far as hardware, software, labor, training and support.

Use cases range from simple temperature monitoring of 5 to 500 refrigerators for complete regulatory compliance to PAR-level asset management or integrations with an equipment maintenance management system.

Due to our commitment to BLE technology and agile software development, deploying additional use cases is easy; this is where we shine. We work with customers to figure out ways to best use smart position. In fact, right now we’re working with a customer to use BLE tags for emergency calls and to notify cleaning staff of a soiled room.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

Q: HOW DOES SMART POSITION STAND OUT IN THE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT FIELD? A: We call smart position next generation because that’s exactly what it is. We reimagined RTLS from the ground up with the latest BLE, location technology, software interfaces and security. smart position is light, effortless and cost-effective which is the exact opposite of a big, bulky, complicated and expensive legacy RTLS. We also don’t force organizations to use our BLE tags. We can simply connect 3rd party tags. In fact, any BLE-based beacon can be integrated into our software platform. BLE makes it so much easier to connect to everything – at a fraction of the cost of legacy systems.

We provide a very simple-to-use system that doesn’t require a staff of IT professionals to maintain. You don’t need to be an IT person to install. Our guides and documented procedures allow facility or office managers to install – it’s that easy.

Customers are up and running in less than a day.

Q: DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIFIC GOALS THAT YOU WANT YOUR COMPANY TO ACHIEVE IN THE NEAR FUTURE? A: First goal is to help as many organizations as we can to deploy and benefit from real-time location and 24/7 monitoring solutions. It pains me to know that roughly 75% of U.S. hospitals and clinics don’t use RTLS. Our second goal is to help organizations realize the full benefits of IoT and BLE. BLE is in nearly every wireless device, uses little power, is low-cost and super easy to implement and can be used in many location-based applications. The possibilities are endless, and that’s what excites us the most. smart position can leverage BLE beacons, personnel badges and sensors for location-aware applications in workflow optimization, employee safety, remote patient monitoring and smart homes. Yes, these solutions exist now but at what cost and complexity? With BLE and smart position, the barriers to entry come down.

For more information, visit smart-position.com.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

NEW ADVERTISERS:

WELCOME TO THE TECHNATION COMMUNITY! COX COMMUNICATIONS

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Q: TELL US ABOUT YOUR COMPANY/SOLUTION. Cox Prosight, an extensible, IoT solution from Cox Communications that tracks and monitors assets, environments, and people to improve operational efficiency, staff safety, and clinical flows while engaging patients inside and outside of the hospital footprint. Our end-to-end solution includes hardware, software, and services using BLE sensors and light-weight gateways to track the location of assets and people in real-time to improve the staff and patient experience. This powerful solution furthers Cox's commitment to reinventing the health care journey to a more personalized, frictionless and overall better patient experience.

Q: WHAT DIFFERENTIATES YOUR COMPANY/ SOLUTION FROM OTHERS? One of the things that makes Cox Prosight different than other RTLS solutions on the market is our IoT platform, Prosight CORE. RTLS adoption within hospitals is lower than it should be due to the conGeorge Valentine straints of legacy solutions in the market Executive Director, which make it difficult and costly for New Growth & Development hospitals to scale. Our solution is a cloud-based, platform solution that enables hospital to invest and expand to multiple use-cases across their facility. Additionally, we are part of the Cox Communications portfolio which gives us the stability, resources and innovation of a large organization. • For more information, visit coxprosight.com.

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Q: WHAT PRODUCT, SERVICE, OR SOLUTION DOES YOUR COMPANY PROVIDE TO THE INDUSTRY? Sakomed is a boutique well known Biomed Service Company with over 20 years of experience that guarantees to bring customers great quality at an affordable cost.

We began this journey on year 2002 with the vision of securing a healthy future for our nation by making our services on both Sales & Repairs affordable and easy to access on products such as Defibrillators & AEDs, ElectroSurgical Units, Patient Monitors and Anesthesia Machines.

Q: TELL US WHAT DIFFERENTIATES YOUR COMPANY FROM THE COMPETITION. Our Biomed team at SakoMed are all manufacturer trained and Certified engineers with the main focus on making our clients happy and fully satisfied.

Matin Kondori, MS We are proud of showing off our knowledge of equipment and capabilities Biomedical Engineer or repairs. Taking care of repairs in Founder & CEO minimum of the lead time which is normally 1-2 days by using high-end automated analyzers and providing loaners at no cost, Large inventory of parts in stock, and last but not least being ISO certified make Sakomed different than other companies. • For more information, visit sakomed.com.

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A RTLS platform that helps streamline and modernize operations in your hospital.

Cox Prosight, the latest healthcare solution from Cox Communications, is an extensible, secure solution that provides the capability to track and monitor assets, environments, and people across a hospital facility.

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Engage visitors through digital location services

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

AAMI UPDATE TRIMEDX Joins AAMI BMET Apprenticeship Program as Employer Partner

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pprenticeship combines education with up to 6,000 hours of on-the-job learning.

A U.S. national BMET (biomedical equipment technician) Apprenticeship Program recently launched by AAMI has gained a valuable new employer partner. TRIMEDX – an industry-leading, technology-enabled provider of clinical engineering, medical device cybersecurity, and clinical asset management solutions to health care systems – will be offering apprenticeship opportunities through the AAMI registered apprenticeship program (RAP) as soon as early 2022.

“At TRIMEDX, we pride ourselves on culture and training within our Associate Value Proposition,” said Kristi McDermott, president of clinical engineering.

“By investing in talent development and creating partnerships to grow associates’ skills in the clinical engineering industry, this partnership provides both quality service to clients and increases associate competency and career pathways.”

AAMI’s BMET Apprenticeship Program, recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor, combines traditional education with up to 6,000 hours of on-the-job learning. Prospective BMETs are hired by program partners in their area, who then provide them with training and paid work experience and cover expenses for the requisite educational courses.

With its corporate office based in

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Indianapolis, Indiana, TRIMEDX partners with health care providers to optimize the management of their clinical assets at more than 4,500 locations across the U.S. and employs nearly 1,150 biomedical equipment technicians, called BMETs. TRIMEDX’s broad reach across the country is just one reason why Danielle McGeary, vice president of HTM at AAMI, is so thrilled to call them an employer partner for the fledgling BMET Apprenticeship Program. With the support of an industry leader like TRIMEDX, prospective BMETs will have more opportunities to get the hands-on experiences that are so necessary for this crucial field.

“An apprentice could be someone who’s ready for a career change, has an interest in the field but doesn’t have the means or life flexibility to go to college at this point in their life, or it could be someone just out of high school or in high school,” said McGeary. “This program is intended to bridge that gap to get them the training they need to be successful while concurrently helping to facilitate the strong HTM pipeline the field so desperately needs right now.”

Employers who take part in the program, McGeary added, benefit from having entry-level workers on their payroll they can train to their particular equipment and service specialties. “If an

employer wants them to stay after the apprenticeship ends, they’ll already be up to speed – they won’t need retraining.”

According to Dawn Griffin, chief human resources and diversity officer at TRIMEDX, the company will initially bring on four apprentices during year one of the partnership.

“We are excited to participate in this program that aligns with our strategy to grow and develop talent,” says Griffin. “With client locations in 40 states across the country, including Washington, D.C. and Cayman Islands, TRIMEDX has the ability to provide optimal opportunity as an employer partner. We will be able to work with our clients to meet their needs as well as review prospective apprentices to find the best fit.”

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

AAMI and MedCrypt Establish Cybersecurity Visionary Award

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ybersecurity represents one of the most significant – and increasingly dangerous – challenges facing the health technology community. That’s why AAMI and proactive medical device cybersecurity innovator MedCrypt are establishing a new award focused on recognizing and encouraging leaders in the emerging medical device cybersecurity space: the AAMI & MedCrypt Cybersecurity Visionary Award.

“AAMI and AAMI Foundation Awards recognize those who are working to improve patient safety and push the boundaries of health technology. But until now, we haven’t offered an award specific to those working in the increasingly critical area of cybersecurity. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce the launch of the AAMI & MedCrypt Cybersecurity Visionary Award, an award program that recognizes cyber defenders who are innovating every day to keep health technology safe,” said MaryJane Thomas, senior director of membership development at AAMI. “Thank you to MedCrypt for their generous support of this award!”

The AAMI and MedCrypt Cybersecurity Visionary Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated the vision and leadership necessary to solve

some of the industry’s most critical medical device cybersecurity challenges.

This individual’s contributions will have moved the industry forward, leading to improvements in our collective cybersecurity posture while continuing to ensure patient safety. Thanks to the generous support of MedCrypt, this award includes a plaque and a $2,000 check, to be presented at the annual AAMI eXchange.

“MedCrypt and AAMI recognize the importance of cybersecurity in health care, but also the imperative for progress so that we, the cybersecurity professionals, can help protect the industry that protects lives. We have our work cut out for us and are dependent on cybersecurity leaders to solve the hard and complex problems we are facing.” said Axel Wirth, chief security strategist at MedCrypt.

“With this award, AAMI and MedCrypt have taken an important step to advance the recognition of cybersecurity champions and, by extension, their mission to make this a more secure and therefore safer industry. But also, through this recognition, we hope to provide public visibility to the cybersecurity topic and thus inspire future leaders.”

CANDIDATES MUST DEMONSTRATE: • Leadership by identifying the larger challenges and mapping out a path

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

on how to address them.

• Strategic thinking and leadership among stakeholders in the medical device cybersecurity risk management space, combined with the ability to execute tactically on specific challenges.

• The ability to work across stakeholders and constituencies in government, care delivery, security research, academia and manufacturing.

• Evidence provided through: • A body of work that reflects consistent and substantial contributions in reducing medical device cybersecurity risks • Breakthrough accomplishment(s) that substantially improve(s) critical aspects of the industry’s cybersecurity posture • Proposed solutions that blaze a way forward to reduce the identified risks Nominators should include evidence of achievements that substantiate the candidate’s qualifications, as well as two letters of support.

The deadline for 2022 submissions is Friday, January 21, 2022. For more information, visit www.aami.org/awards or contact awards@ aami.org.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

ECRI UPDATE

Navigating the Transition to ENFit Enteral Connectors

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NFit enteral tubing connectors were introduced more than five years ago to prevent misconnections involving enteral feeding tubing – misconnections that have had fatal consequences. While ENFit connectors have been widely adopted in Europe, their adoption has lagged in the United States and elsewhere. In 2022, that should change.

Traditional enteral feeding tubing – tubing that incorporates “legacy connectors” – can be inadvertently connected to patient lines intended for other purposes, sometimes with fatal consequences. In one deadly incident, enteral nutrition was delivered into a patient’s lungs when feeding tubing was misconnected to a ventilator suction catheter.

In another, nutrition was delivered through an IV line directly into the patient’s bloodstream; the patient did not survive.

Severe incidents such as these are rare, but enteral tubing misconnections with the potential to cause significant harm have occurred. To prevent such misconnections, health care industry groups developed a standards-based connector design for enteral feeding systems. Known by the trademarked name ENFit, these enteral connectors fit only with each other, not with other connector types. “It’s an engineering control that eliminates the misconnec-

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tion hazard,” explains Juuso Leinonen, a principal project engineer in ECRI’s device evaluation group. “That’s what makes this design so important.”

The ENFit connector design won’t prevent harm, however, if the connectors aren’t used. Despite being introduced more than five years ago, these connectors have not gained full adoption yet in the United States, or in many other regions. (In contrast, the connectors are widely used in the European Union, Australia and New Zealand.)

The landscape is changing, however.

Some of the roadblocks that have slowed the conversion process have been resolved, and access to legacy (i.e., nonprotective) products is about to become more difficult. As a result, health care organizations will not be able to delay the change much longer.

Efforts to drive the adoption of ENFit connectors have been spearheaded by the Global Enteral Device Supplier Association (GEDSA), a nonprofit trade association. In July 2021, members of GEDSA stopped manufacturing legacy (i.e., non-ENFit) feeding tubes, as well as the cross-application adapters that had been made available to help facilities through the transition. And in January 2022, many will stop manufacturing transition sets and adapters sold separately from other devices. (Note, however, that some manufacturers are not part of GEDSA

and may continue to market legacy enteral products.)

THE BENEFITS OF ENFIT CONNECTORS Unlike traditional Luer-lock connector designs, ENFit connectors have a female-to-male orientation; administration devices have a female connector that fits around the male connector on the feeding tube, reversing the traditional orientation. Thus, it’s impossible to directly connect, for example, an ENFit administration device to legacy IV tubing, since both connectors are female. ENFit connectors also have a locking feature to provide a more secure connection and minimize leaks.

The use of ENFit connectors will standardize connections among all enteral devices (e.g., enteral syringes, nasogastric tubes), helping to ensure that enteral connectors will fit only with each other, and not with other connector types.

ENFit is part of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 80369 family of standards, which was developed by ISO to reduce misconnections by specifying different small-bore connector designs for different health care applications, such as intravascular, limb cuff, and breathing system and driving gas connectors. Each application has its own distinct connector design.

ENFit connectors meet the dimensional requirements of the standard for enteral applications, ISO 80369-3.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

Figure: ENFit enteral connectors. The female end on the administration set (top) fits around the male end on the feeding tube (bottom). An ENFit administration device cannot be connected to a legacy (non-ENFit) connector. ENFit has a locking feature for a more secure, leak-free connection.

Image courtesy of GEDSA

THE BARRIERS, AND BREAKING THROUGH THEM Transition challenges. Perhaps the chief deterrent to ENFit conversion is the significant time and expense associated with rolling out an organization-wide transition of all enteral connectors. The effort includes providing staff education and training, adjusting to new workflows and coordinating with suppliers. The implementation process requires substantial resources (e.g., supply chain management, project management personnel, training) – especially given the fact that ensuring the best and safest transition calls for making the switch in all areas simultaneously, rather than in phases, to avoid a mix of legacy and ENFit products.

“The cost and effort of the transition will always be an issue,” advises ECRI’s Leinonen. “But eventually you’ll need to make the switch” as legacy products become harder to find.

Plus, by reducing the risk of misconnections, an ENFit-equipped facility will save on the costs associated with misconnection incidents.

Product availability. Another obstacle has been the perception that the ENFit market is not sufficiently mature, and that product availability may be limited. When ENFit connectors first appeared on the market, early adopters were unable to maintain an adequate supply, due to supply chain gaps caused by factors such as low demand and the lack of adoption of the

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

standard by some manufacturers. The situation has improved significantly.

Today, over 30 manufacturers offer ENFit products worldwide, and more syringe sizes are available to suit a wider range of patients. In addition, manufacturers now offer a wider array of accessories, such as bottle adapters to facilitate syringe preparation, and caps to support syringe transportation, storage and security.

Product quality. Facilities may also have lingering concerns that product design improvements are needed.

Initial ENFit connectors had design flaws that in some cases actually introduced safety concerns. However, recent design improvements have addressed several of the flaws that originally caused concern.

For example, the dead space in the original ENFit syringe was high, meaning that a larger-than-desired amount of fluid would be left in the syringe and tip after the plunger is fully depressed. The excess dead space could lead to underdosing or overdosing, which could have a particularly significant impact with low-volume doses.

This dead-space issue has been remediated in two ways: (1) Through the introduction of medicine transfer straws; these attach to the syringe tip and allow medication to be drawn directly into the syringe barrel, reducing accumulation in the dead space. And (2) through the introduc-

tion of an ENFit low-dose tip (LDT) for small-volume (i.e., <6 mL) syringes; the LDT has less dead space, and thus minimizes drug retention after oral administration, increasing dosing accuracy.

Another concern was that early cap designs were prone to both falling off during transport and leakage. Manufacturers redesigned the caps to remedy these issues.

MOVING FORWARD ECRI strongly encourages organizations to convert to the ENFit connectors to eliminate the risk of enteral misconnections. Refer to ECRI’s guidance on the topic, as well as GEDSA’s www.stayconnected.org website. The GEDSA site is a rich source of information about the ENFit products, as well as other connectors designed to reduce medical tubing misconnections.

To Learn More This article is adapted from ECRI’s “Adopting ENFit Enteral Connectors: Guidance for the Coming Transition” (Device Evaluation 2021 Oct 27). The complete article is available to members of ECRI’s Capital Guide, Device Evaluation, and associated programs. To learn more about membership, visit www.ecri.org/ solutions/evaluation-and-comparison, or contact ECRI by telephone at (610) 825-6000, ext.

5891, or by e-mail at clientservices@ecri.org.

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BIOMED 101

Young Professionals at MD Expo (YP at MD)

BY MEGAN STRAND

I

n 2019, young professionals at MD Publishing (YP at MD) came together to work on building a networking group in the HTM industry. The goal was to build a community of individuals who were up-and-comers in the biomedical world. We started by building out a Facebook and LinkedIn group where we could have conversations, share important industry news along with the occasional meme or fun Friday gif. YP at MD also has a monthly e-newsletter to keep group members informed regarding important and useful information that will not only help their HTM career, but hopefully their life in the outside world, as well.

When our digital presence started to take off, we decided to host our first YP at MD event. It took place at the fall 2019 MD Expo in Baltimore, Maryland. At our first event, we had over 50 young professionals join us. Since the first event, we have hosted four more networking opportunities for attendees and exhibitors who are 40 and under at MD Expos. We have built a strong networking group of young people who want to thrive in their place of work, help each other grow and who now have multiple people in the industry that they can call a friend.

For those who may not know, we have a leadership summit (TN20) that takes place at our MD Expo. The

leadership summit is an event where high-level professionals in the HTM industry come together to discuss successes, problems and share perspective on a multitude of topics that pertain to their careers. I’ve personally been able to sit and listen in at multiple leadership summit talks, and the amount of information I am able to learn is worth more than you can imagine. At our most recent MD Expo in Las Vegas, I learned from our leadership summit participants about how important it is to invest in young people within the biomedical industry. I found it refreshing (being someone in my 20s) to hear people I respect state how important it is to hire young people and help them acquire the skills and tools needed to keep the HTM industry going strong for years to come.

I know how intimidating it can be to start your career in a new industry. My top three suggestions, after the four short years I have been in this industry, are below. They have helped me tremendously. They are: • Listen more than you give your opinion: The amount of knowledge I have gathered by taking in conversations over dinners, during educational sessions and by asking questions has been a wealth of information.

• Say “Hi” to that person you don’t know: Some of the best advice I have received from leadership at

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

MD Publishing is network, network, network. The number of people who have taken me under their wing or have invited me to their table just because I introduced myself is astounding.

• Join the group, go to the event, put yourself out there: Go to that state association meeting, attend that conference, come join us at YP at MD. You will not regret the connections you will make.

I hope you will hang out with us on social media or come to one of our events in the near future. The connections and friends you will make are valuable to your career. I promise you will already have one friend in me if you join us.

Follow us on our social media channels and sign up for our monthly e-newsletter below to stay up to date on all things YP at MD! Facebook – YP at MD (https://www.facebook.com/groups/ypatmd) LinkedIn – YP at MD (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8959473/) E-news – Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter (https://1technation.com/yp/) Megan Strand is a senior account executive at MD Publishing and coordinates YP at MD events.

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TOOLS OF THE TRADE POWERetc METSyS Current Probe Kit

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OWERetc Corporation’s CCPK-6 Cabinet Current Probe Kit enables routine panel capacity studies to be performed in 480V panels – without the need to open or power down the panel. The kit includes a 4-phase, 6-inch diameter MicroFlex current probe assembly rated at 4000A, a thru-panel cabinet adapter/connector, and an exterior jumper cable to connect the METSyS logger to the cabinet connector plug. By facilitating the setup of the METSyS logger and POWERetc’s custom report generator package, the kit makes it easier to conduct Cal OSHPD (PIN 38 for medical facilities) and NEC 220.87 (Exception Method) connected load studies.

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“Panel-capacity connected load studies that comply with NEC 220.87 or OSHPD studies in California medical facilities are very common – and challenging,” said Bruce Lonie, president of POWERetc. “Live panel setup of these tests requires use of PPE and, in many cases, powered-down setup isn’t even possible, particularly in hospital environments where critical loads are affected. Our new permanently-installed METSyS adapter kit allows facility personnel to safely and quickly conduct these studies without interrupting power.”

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→ Integration with your OT security monitoring tools

Get connected today with Nuvolo Connected Workplace for Healthcare. www.nuvolo.com/industry/healthcare

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WEBINAR WEDNESDAY

Experts Discuss Asset Tracking, Cybersecurity STAFF REPORT

T

he Webinar Wednesday session “The New Generation of Asset Tracking” was sponsored by Cognosos and eligible for 1 credit from the ACI.

In this 60-minute webinar, Cognosos Chief Product Officer Adrian Jennings discussed the transition from bulky, problematic RTLS systems that once dominated the market to a lightweight, wireless versions in service today. The new generation of RTLS are less complicated and much less expensive to install. The new systems provide room-level tracking without room-level hardware and deliver on the promise of a hard-dollar driven return on investment.

In this webinar, Jennings examined the key components to building a strong finance driven RTLS business case and the larger impact increased equipment visibility delivers to a facility.

More than 100 individuals registered for this popular webinar. Attendees obtained valuable information from the session with additional expert insights during a question-and-answer session with Jennings.

One question was, “Isn’t machine learning just like fingerprinting technology from a few years ago?”

Jennings said it is and it isn’t. He explained that the old technology relied

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on Wi-Fi and was not very accurate.

The new technique is more advanced with machine learning algorithms that continue to learn.

“So, they cope with changes, just automatically, which is a fantastic feature that comes built in with technology,” he added.

He also answered a question about the installation process and timeline.

Attendees provided feedback via. A survey that included the question, “How will today’s webinar help you improve in your role?”

“Better understanding of how to use RTLS for strategic decisions,” Senior BMET S. Rivera said.

“There are options out there for improved accuracy,” Senior Biomedical Electronics Technician J. Peiman said.

“Helps me know more about devices or technologies that I may be involved with purchasing,” Clinical Equipment Project Manager G. McNeil said.

ORGANIZATIONAL BUY-IN FOR RTLS The Webinar Wednesday session “RTLS Simplified: Generating Organizational Buy-In for Asset Tracking” was sponsored by Midmark RTLS and eligible for 1 credit from the ACI. In this 60-minute webinar, Midmark RTLS experts Jeanne Kraimer, RTLS product manager, and H.T. Snowday, vice president of innovation and

technology discussed how to generate buy-ins across departments and with leadership for an RTLS initiative.

Rounding throughout the hospital looking for equipment to perform preventive maintenance is seen as a necessary part of the biomedical engineer’s job. Often, biomeds are searching for equipment that will never be found. IV pumps travel to other hospitals with patients, bladder scanners are hidden so well by nursing that they can’t be located, telemetry packs get lost in the laundry and wheelchairs mysteriously disappear.

Most health care leaders believe this reality to be unavoidable, and alternative solutions like RTLS to be cost-prohibitive or too complex to implement.

To compensate, hospitals over-spend on equipment, but the impact is far more wide-ranging – not only on equipment purchases, but also asset write-offs, rental equipment, staff inefficiency and dissatisfaction.

Attendees were able to learn how to quantify these costs, identify other uses and advocate for RTLS in their hospital.

The presenters also discussed how to evaluate the various technologies available, including new and simpler ways to implement an accurate RTLS. Additional information was shared during a question-and-answer session.

One question was, “How often do

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facilities install or use multiple types of locating technologies?”

“We do see that quite a bit in health care, you know, with our IR proprietary technology that we’ve offered for many years, that can be combined with Wi-Fi. For example, other Wi-Fi locating providers often combine with infrared or ultrasound. So, it is very common out there. With the new BLE technology we’re hoping that BLE can take that.

The need for RTLS, especially for asset tracking. It can’t be the only technology, but we still do see a need for infrared.

For example, when you need that room level granularity for things like nurse call automation or patient flow optimization,” Kraimer said.

Additional questions resulted in great insights regarding RTLS. Attendees provided feedback in a post-webinar survey that included the question, “How well did the content that was delivered match what you were promised when you registered?”

“Spot on,” Clinical Engineering Manager P. Graham said.

“Informative,” Senior Biomedical Electronics Specialist P. Lindquist said.

The Webinar Wednesday series continues to have its best year ever with just shy of 5,000 registrations through November 10. Webinars are attracting approximately 100 attendees per session plus on-demand viewers.

OPERATIONALIZING MEDICAL DEVICE CYBERSECURITY AT UHS The recent “Operationalizing Medical Device Cybersecurity at UHS” webinar was sponsored by Asimily and eligible for 1 credit from the ACI. In this 60-minute webinar, experts Chris Nowak, senior director at UHS, and Priyanka Upendra, senior director of customer success of Asimily, discussed medical device cybersecurity implementation at Universal Health Services. Attendees heard about the dos and don’ts of an implementation, the resources involved and how to improve HTM workflows by integrating cybersecurity. The speakers also discussed applicable regulations, standards and best practices that enable HTM professionals to sustain a medical device cybersecurity program through Asimily’s implementation and use.

The presenters also answered attendee questions following their presentation.

One question was, “Did you adopt the NIST cybersecurity framework to drive the proof-of-concept/pilot with Asimily and how?”

Nowak said, “Our IT team has many, many tools that they use to look at the network, and the security of the network, and the amount of data can be daunting. I think the Asimily tool has really helped them focus on what’s important, rather than the white noise,

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

that can sometimes get the attention and waste time, precious time and resources, or inappropriate response.”

More than 130 people registered for the webinar. Attendees provided feedback via a survey that included the question, “What do you like best about the Webinar Wednesday webinar series?”

“I like the variety of topics and the ability to get ACI credits for my certification,” Clinical Equipment Project Manager G. McNeil said.

“Well organized and informative,” Senior BMET S. Rivera said.

“Training access to a variety of subjects,” NTX Imaging Support Regional Service Manager D. Price said.

For more information, visit WebinarWednesday.live.

Thank you to our sponsors:

JANUARY 2022

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THE BENCH

SHOP TALK POWERED BY

PHYSIO-CONTROL LIFEPAK 9P When we were conducting a PM and testing the output of the paddles, when it charged to 200J it would only output around 20J. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Q:

A:

Sounds like the capacitor and/or the therapy PCB. Is there a service light on? I’d recommend upgrading to at least a Lifepak 12 with Biphasic output.

DRAEGER - FABIUS GS PREMIUM Leak Test failed. How can I solve it?

Q: A:

Do you know if the leak is input primary supplies; inspiration side and expiration?

Do you have the test card? If so, follow that.

A: What failure is it? A vent leak failure or a system leak failure?

If it is a vent leak failure, check the following items ...

• Patient circuit leak – make sure your patient hoses are good • Flow sensor connection leak – I’ve seen an older flow sensor have a crack in it, check for discoloration

• Pressure sensor tubing –verify it is secure and not pulled loose • Peep valve leak • Inspiratory valve leak • O2 sensor leak – if it has O-rings, make sure there are no nicks in them or they are missing. Be sure to push it down fully into the dome.

If it is a system leak failure check ...

• the absorber (soda lime container), soda lime dust could cause it not to seal fully • APL valve • Manual bag and bag arm –make sure the bag arm screws are secure and the bag arm hasn’t twisted loose) • Vaporizers – make sure they’re shut off • Fresh gas hose – this works loose from moving the COSY assembly and is a cause of a lot of leaks.

Make sure the connection is threaded tightly.

• E xpiratory valve – check if condensation is causing ceramic discs not to seat fully (this also causes Exp. port leakage alarm)

BAXTER - COLLEAGUE CXE Hello everyone! I’m having problems with the pump Colleague CXE, I didn’t use it for two weeks and now isn’t charging. Every time that I unplug it from the electricity it lost battery power, each unplug makes it lose 1%, now it has only 15%.

I don’t know what I should do or what is the problem. I think it could be the battery but it could be the wire to.

Could someone help me please?

Q:

A:

When it is turned on and plugged into the wall, does the green “plug” symbol light up or is it the orange “battery” symbol that lights up?

Reply: A lightning flash symbol color green what appears, behind it is the battery in red color.

A:

If it is operating on AC power but not battery, I would replace the battery first. There is a wire harness that can be easily pinched when replacing the battery. However, if it was operating correctly on battery power previously it is probably just a bad battery.

SHOP TALK

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

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

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ROUNDTABLE

ROUNDTABLE Patient Monitors

I

n this issue of TechNation, we ask healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals to share their insights regarding patient monitors.

Participating in the roundtable article are USOC Medical Quality Manager Joe Bowen, Avante Health Solutions – Patient Monitoring Center of Excellence Lead Technician Minh Bui, Pioneer Biomedical’s Clint Creal, Renew Biomedical’s David Lindsay, Medical Equipment Doctor Sales Representative Alan Rodriguez and Jet Medical Electronics COO David Wakefield.

Q: WHAT ARE THE BASIC CAPABILITIES BIOMEDS MUST INSIST UPON WHEN PURCHASING PATIENT MONITORS? BOWEN: This should be determined on a case-by-case basis. Before purchasing any patient monitors, biomeds should discuss with the unit managers what capabilities are needed and the

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BUI: The basic capabilities biomeds must insist upon when purchasing patient monitors should be the basics: pulse oximetry, ECG, NIBP and CO2. However, before making any capital purchases, the biomed should always confirm that the patient monitors they are acquiring fit the needs of their facility. These needs can differ between different departments, like ICR, ER or NICU.

Joe Bowen USOC

possibility of future expansion. An ED or a Tele department most likely won’t need end-tidal CO2, but a PACU might. So, to get the most out of your budget, determine needs before purchasing.

CREAL: This should be discussed with the clinicians and biomeds together as a team. The clinicians will know what they want/need measured at the bedside, and the biomeds know how to translate that into equipment capabilities for the order. Biomeds and clinicians often face an “us vs. them” mentality which is tough to get past. We faced it within our company in the past (biomeds vs. sales) and since aligning ourselves as a team moving toward the same goals, we’ve

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ROUNDTABLE

accomplished more than we thought possible. I understand that biomeds are constantly getting hounded to fix the equipment that clinicians break, but the more facilities can face things as a team, the better it’s going to be in the long run. It goes both ways though; clinicians need to stop acting like immortals and understand the frustrating world biomeds live in and respect that they drop whatever they’re doing to come fix a “broken” unit by plugging it in to give it power or hitting the silence button. It takes a team to sail a ship.

David Lindsay Renew Biomedical

LINDSAY: Patient monitors must have ECG, pulse oximetry capability and NIBP if used in patient rooms. If monitors are to be used in ICU or the operating room, they should have the capabilities mentioned above and also include IBP (invasive blood pressures), end-tidal CO2 … and a 5 agent gas module if used on an anesthesia machine.

RODRIGUEZ: It really depends on the state of the patient being monitored.

If you are in a critical care unit, you are going to need all parameters, including ECG, pulse oximetry, cardiac output, non-invasive/invasive blood pressure, end-tidal CO2, etc. If you are in a non-critical department, ECG, pulse oximetry and non-invasive blood pressure would be sufficient.

WAKEFIELD: The basic capabilities are purely dependent on the care setting.

E.g. In a open heart surgery suite, you’ll need the most comprehensive monitor capable of almost every parameter – ECG, Resp, NIBP, pulse oximetry, multiple invasive pressures, cardiac output as well as anesthetic gases. Whereas in a pre-operative care setting you can get by with just the basic ECG, NIBP and pulse oximetry. The basic capabilities are also dependent on the locale. Many rural hospitals work to get the more severe patients stabilized then transfer to a more capable/specialized facility.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME NEW FEATURES HEALTH CARE FACILITIES SHOULD SEEK OUT WHEN PURCHASING PATIENT MONITORS? BOWEN: The basics to patient monitoring are ECG, SpO2 and NiBP. Before making any purchases, the biomed staff needs to ensure that the patient monitors they are purchasing fit the needs of the hospital staff. There are a wide variety of monitors, each with their own capabilities. To determine which monitors are best used for the hospital, good communication between the departments and staff is key. The needs of the patient, the capabilities of the staff and the

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

business needs of the organization all play a role.

BUI: Some new features health care facilities should seek out when purchasing patient monitors are software option compatibility. They may require specific software and options so that the monitor will be compatible with other systems in the hospital. For example, most Philips monitors come with the latest Software M, N and GE Dash 3000/4000/5000 has the latest software 7.2 or 7.3. This may not be compatible with older equipment, like modules, that would be used with the patient monitor.

CREAL: A lot of facilities are wanting more and more parameters on their units. Sometimes it’s better to have something and not need it than it is to need it and not have it. We’ve seen EtCo2 requests increase over the past few years and it seems to be becoming a standard of care for most facilities.

However, we currently live in an age where software is king. Therefore, when purchasing new equipment, make sure the software aligns with your current system, so you don’t end up paying for an expensive module/ unit and need to send it back out because the software doesn’t match up. In addition to software, make sure you have all the correct options loaded onto new units. We’ve heard horror stories of millions of dollars spent on new equipment only to find out that it is loaded with the wrong Spo2 type or it doesn’t have invasive pressure on it and forcing hospitals to send the equipment back to get those features added for a … “small fee.” Do the leg work upfront so there are no issues on the back end.

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LINDSAY: Ensure that the monitor software is compatible with the existing electronic medical record (EMR) system. This will prevent the need for additional infrastructure updates in the future. Additionally, it will save time and reduce errors in patient charting. Most newer patient monitors have options for touchscreen and Wi-Fi communication.

Also, make sure cables and accessories are not expensive to replace, as that effects the true cost of ownership.

RODRIGUEZ: It’s important to consider admit/discharge/transfer integration with an electronic medical record system and bar code technology to help expedite integration. Another feature to look for is large numerics on devices as they can be better seen throughout the department and increase patient safety.

throughput of data collection has become vital in today’s health care setting.

Q: WHEN IT COMES TO END OF LIFE, WHAT STEPS CAN BE TAKEN TO HELP FURTHER EXTEND USEFULNESS OF PATIENT MONITORS? BOWEN: First and foremost, proper care and handling of all equipment, as a repair facility the amount of needlessly damaged equipment we see is extraordinary. Despite most equipment appearing robust, at the end of the day all of it is sensitive electronic equipment and should be treated as such, whether you’re installing it, moving it or cleaning it care needs to be taken. In addition to this, finding a reputable third-party like USOC Medical, that can repair broken equipment and offer replacement units, can help any hospital extend the life of its aging monitoring equipment.

BUI: Some helpful steps that can be taken to help further extend the usefulness of patient monitors is to always follow the service manual's preventive maintenance recommendations. Also, using OEM parts and aftermarket parts that are FDA approved/refurbished parts. Make sure parts replaced equivalent with OEM specification will help to extend the life and usefulness of your patient monitors.

David Wakefield Jet Medical Electronics

WAKEFIELD: At this point, there will need to be some sort of electronic medical record (EMR) interface. This can usually be done at the bedside monitor with a data out connection or it can be pulled from a central station or server. The seamless

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CREAL: Manufacturers are professionals at scaring customers into replacing units due to end of life. And if scaring them with no support doesn’t work, they’ll charge you some astronomical amount to upgrade your whole system, which may not be necessary. There are a ton of great vendors out there that can continue to support equipment long after the manufacturers discontinue service/ support on it. In addition, with everyone recovering from COVID,

budgets are tight. Upgrading fleets may be out of the question for some, so extending the life of current units is the only option and can save money over time. However, you can only hold off for so long. I’ve encouraged biomeds to start tracking all the money they’re saving by extending the life of their monitors so when it does come time to upgrade, you can show the “suites” the dollar figure you’ve saved over the past 2-5 years by supporting your current fleet and not having to upgrade everything.

LINDSAY: As monitors become end of life but not end of service, proper preventive maintenance becomes even more crucial. A proper PM schedule can extend the life of the equipment, even as parts become less available.

RODRIGUEZ: First, you should verify whether the device is truly end of service life. It can be helpful to utilize a third party to perform an evaluation.

Knowing your resources on the third-party market to supply parts and accessories is critical to further extend your monitors’ usefulness. Another important issue to consider is if the patient monitors are connected to a central station that has an outdated operating system which can make them vulnerable to cybersecurity threats.

Clint Creal Pioneer Biomedical

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ROUNDTABLE

WAKEFIELD: Proper and timely inspections of patient monitors is key to the longevity of electronic equipment. As a general rule, any device with moving parts such as pumps, motors, fans should always be replaced with new when they fail.

Q: CAN YOU SHARE SOME TRAINING OPTIONS FOR HTM PROFESSIONALS? BOWEN: A lot of biomeds might not be aware, but most OEMs offer basic training for the biomed/technical aspects of the monitoring equipment they produce. These can be quite pricey so needs and benefits would need to be determined before enrolling. There are however more cost-effective means out there, for instance, USOC Medical has recently started offering basic training courses for most of the modalities that we service.

BUI: Training options for HTM professionals can be found by referencing the service manual of the patient monitor. Some monitors require specialized training, others may not.

CREAL: I know the manufacturers offer training on new equipment, but the best training happens during the middle of a repair. As much as biomeds love sitting on the phone listening to current popular musical artists for 30-60 minutes as they wait for the Philips, GE , Mindray and other manufacturers to pick up the phone to answer that one small software question, we’ll get them in touch with a real technician (often sitting right next to me) that has the answer right away! These are techs that have worked for those manufacturers in the past and know what they’re talking about. Think of it as a direct access line for all your monitoring questions. And believe it or

not …. we don’t charge a fee for picking up the phone. We tell folks all the time to use us and abuse us with your questions … unless you do truly enjoy waiting on hold for eternity.

LINDSAY: Manufacturers (OEMs) offer training, often made available to HTMs via webinars. Personally, I would like to see more “train the trainer” classes. The HTM community is a small community, and we could do better by sharing our knowledge.

RODRIGUEZ: You should always consider the training options available when purchasing patient monitors. Some important questions to ask are: Would the seller come on-site to train and would there be travel costs involved? How many techs can be trained? Does the vendor have a field service team to help with on-site issues or does the responsibility fall solely on the in-house HTM professional? Is there a discount offered on service training when you purchase the product?

Q: WHAT CAN HTM PROFESSIONALS DO REGARDING PARTS AVAILABILITY FOR PATIENT MONITORS? BOWEN: This question is a tough one, not only do you have the normal difficulties of finding parts for aging equipment, but now with the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts that it has had on the global supply chain, availability and lead times have all been negatively affected, further increasing the difficulty of attaining parts. The best thing to do is to anticipate these delays and order parts prematurely.

For us, we’ve been doing historical analysis and trending to determine our needs, in an effort, to do our best to stay ahead of any delays.

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

Minh Bui Avante Health Solutions – Patient Monitoring Center of Excellence BUI: Techs should be trained to know how to distinguish between OEM and non-OEM parts and their organization should actively seek (and maintain) reputable vendors with low fail/defective parts rates.

CREAL: After the past few years, there are some words/phases we hope to never hear again like “Pandemic, unprecedented times, social distancing, mask up,” and the one we’re currently in now … “supply chain issues.” As frustrating as it is right now with supply chain issues, I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon.

And since your new parts are on a shipping container along the coast, biomeds will have to rely on preowned/used parts in the meantime.

When using used parts, make sure the vendors you’re buying from have fully tested the parts and put a warranty on them. Preowned/used parts don’t have a negative connotation if you’re buying them from a vendor you know and trust.

LINDSAY: There are always parts available from the manufacturers or distributors like Master Medical Equipment for units that are not end of service or end of life. There are

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also third-party parts vendors like PartsSource, for example. Depending on the part, if it is preloaded with software, then it most likely would have to come from the manufacturer.

At ReNew Biomedical, we obtain screws locally from Fastenal, which is an example of finding other options if vendors are overwhelmed with parts orders.

RODRIGUEZ: HTM professionals should always examine their service data to develop service delivery plans, including parts that have a trend of failure. Again, develop a strong resource management portfolio that includes independent service organizations, parts depots and organizations that sell used equipment. Also, consider which parts are normally on backorder and obtain a supply of them at your facility.

WAKEFIELD: Having a good source of reputable third-party companies to provide parts/service well beyond OEM support. Jet Medical can still support equipment well in excess of 20 years of age.

Q: WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK TECHNATION READERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PURCHASING AND SERVICING PATIENT MONITORING DEVICES? BOWEN: Research the company you’ll be using for the purchases. Can they support the equipment in the long term? Access to parts is also key. Buy from a reputable source that is qualified and can support the unit in the long term. Though patient monitors have become very versatile and last a very long time, having a

Alan Rodriguez Medical Equipment Doctor company that can support the device even after it becomes end of life can save your facility a lot of money.

BUI: It is always recommended to find a company that has the most ISO certifications and supports quality controls that comply with the medical devices your company services.

CREAL: There are so many great companies out there to use for parts, service, rentals and capital equipment when it comes to patient monitors.

Competition benefits both the vendors and the biomeds. Use a company that shares the values you have whether it’s high-quality work, true turnaround time and fair pricing or just people you enjoy doing business with. Just always remember, the equipment you send out for repair may be used on a family member of yours so make sure it’s someone you trust.

LINDSAY: In the world of technology that we live in, health care is moving more and more toward digital records to reduce time and error. It is essential to know the capabilities and compatibility of the current EMR system in your facility. When PMing equipment, it is vital to be thorough and make sure equipment is clean and free of dust that builds up with the heat from power supplies. Dust only increases the temperature inside the unit and causes components to break down at an accelerated rate.

RODRIGUEZ: Patient monitors are generally reliable, but it’s a good idea to have backup monitors in case of an emergency or even a pandemic. Be sure the preventive maintenance is completed per manufacturer recommendations because a lot of monitors store the last calibration date. We have come across monitors that were serviced in-house for non-invasive blood pressure with calibration dates that were over five years old. Patient safety should always be the priority for patient monitors and that safety begins with proper service.

WAKEFIELD: Many times, the biomed department is not part of the conversation when it comes to purchasing new equipment. An experienced biomed director can convey the importance of choosing equipment that will have support well beyond OEM end of life. You always want to have multiple choices when it comes to service and parts to support your equipment. This especially rings true once you reach the aforementioned OEM end of life.

For an informative video, visit 1TechNation.com/roundtable and select this month’s article!

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COVERSTORY

On the Future of HTM

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

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COVERSTORY

I

n March of 2020, northern Italy was experiencing complete devastation; the hospitals in Bergamo and Lombardy were overflowing with very sick patients, and the death toll was staggering. During that one month in Bergamo, 5,700 people lost their lives to COVID-19.

Historically, the novel coronavirus pandemic has proven to be the deadliest challenge to the health care systems of countries worldwide since the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. That deadly pandemic was at a time when the medical community had few therapeutic tools in its arsenal and 20 to 50 million people died worldwide. In the U.S., the toll was overwhelming with 675,000 deaths resulting from the virus.

Unlike 1918, the ability to bring video news coverage in real time through news broadcasts, or through social media, has made the impact of the coronavirus pandemic very real for people around the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has already been fatal for more than 5 million people who have died from the highly transmissible virus, and more likely an estimated 12 million, which represents “excess deaths” compared to prior years. The Economist has compiled data which suggests 16.8 million worldwide COVID-19 fatalities.

The sheer magnitude of the epidemic has overwhelmed health care professionals at times with ICU capacity challenged in hospitals around the world. Clinical and support staff have faced surges of very sick patients, staffing shortages, severe restrictions on patient contact, PPE shortages and transmission mitigation protocols.

Healthcare technology management (HTM) staff have witnessed protocol changes and additions as well as special projects and challenges with the frustration that an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) field engineer may be curtailed by restrictions on access.

SUDDEN CHANGES Early in the coronavirus pandemic, manufacturers that did not make ventilators as part of their product line, began to produce ventilators to try to make up for a global shortage of the devices.

At the time, this seemed like a generous and extraordinary thing to do, yet these brand-new devices had to be maintained or repaired. A number of new devices entered the health care ecosystem and many were unfamiliar to clinicians and technicians.

The pandemic also provided a new lens into the right-to-repair debate.

When emergency equipment needed attention that could not wait, and COVID-19 created new restrictions on movement and admission, the need for in-house repair and maintenance became paramount.

Yet, without the service manuals and often required passwords or service keys to access diagnostic information, and restrictions of field engineers, the problem came into sharper focus.

To “stand up a surge unit” may have been a foreign concept to many in HTM as recently as 2019, but it is a common part of the HTM vernacular today.

Telemedicine expanded its scope and use out of necessity, and biomeds were a part of this expansion.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on society at large and the health care industry and healthcare technology management community specifically. Many HTM departments had to quickly deploy unfamiliar operational strategies like physically distancing, reprioritizing work, and producing necessary personal protective equipment to continue to support medical devices, clinical systems, and health care organizations, all while running on a skeleton crew,” says Donald Morge, a consultant with Sigma Health Consulting LLC. Morge was a panelist during the virtual 2021 AAMI eXchange Rewired conference for a discussion titled:

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

“COVID-19’s Impact on the Future of Healthcare and HTM.” The panelists reflected on how the COVID-19 pandemic had changed the health care environment since early 2020 along with many HTM protocols.

The panelists also explored the likelihood that many of these changes would endure.

“Many in the HTM industry were quick to publish and share best practices through established organizations like the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) and ECRI to ensure others had the opportunity to quickly learn and deploy similar practices locally,” Morge says.

He says that the pandemic was a test of the established HTM community.

“While there are still areas for improvement, the decades of hard work that the community has put in helped health care organizations continue to function under such intense pressure,” Morge adds.

THE EXHAUSTION THAT EXCEEDS THE NORM Clinicians who have been interviewed by local news outlets have all lamented the exhaustive nature of dealing with the pandemic. Not only the stress of dealing with thousands of very ill patients, but the long hours and taking additional precautions to protect loved ones at home.

This exhaustion has not been limited to clinicians.

“People are tired. HTM is a field that often deals with high-stress situations.

We now are constantly sitting with the worry of ‘what if?’ What if I need to don extra PPE to go into an isolation room? What if I need to expand patient care areas overnight? What if I take time to be with my family and I’m needed by the team,” asks Stephanie Drake, clinical engineering manager at Intermountain Healthcare IMC/TOSH. Drake says that she, and other leaders in health care, have had to affirm these concerns and find ways to ensure there is adequate coverage so that

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her team and others can accomplish their work while also giving them the personal time they need to regroup and recover.

It is no surprise that biomeds would be worn out when so many additional demands were made on their limited time.

“Our department was called on to assist in making patient rooms fit the current needs, convert units to treat COVID-19 patients, and source and test PPE equipment to protect our team members. We also assisted in accommodating new sterilization procedures, new equipment handling procedures, and new protocol for repairing equipment that may have been exposed to COVID-19,” says Alvin Fajardo, supervisor of HTM at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Illinois.

He says that like nurses, doctors and other colleagues in the health care field, we have shown up to the front lines every day at a time when most of the workforce was switching to a remote environment.

“Throughout it all, our facility did not experience a drop in the quality of support provided by the HTM team despite additional and evolving demands,” Fajardo says.

Not only did HTM show up, despite fatigue, but the entire field dealt with challenges that were offshoots of the pandemic.

“Supply chain disruptions; obtaining parts in a timely manner.

Pricing increases. Burnout. Loss of workplace comrade. An increased visibility on the right to repair,” says Brian, a senior BMET in the northwest who declined to provide his last name.

He says that biomed departments faced struggles when they could otherwise fix a device and keep it going or reduce the cost of care, but vendors will not share the information/sell parts needed to make necessary repairs or perform preventative maintenance even though biomeds are qualified to do so. In some cases the only way to receive the

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Donald Morge Sigma Health Consulting needed items is to first attend the vendor’s school.

“Then, there is a license key fee to access the machines annually," he says.

HOW HAS THE PANDEMIC CHANGED HEALTH CARE? Clinical staff have witnessed frustration and desperation as they attempted to deal with an illness caused by a virus that offered few therapeutic protocols in the early months. The pandemic pointed out inadequacies as well as best-practices.

“I’ve seen a lot of burnout by both the clinical staff and my HTM staff.

All of the ‘extra’ things we have to do every day has taken a toll on what we do every day. A positive note; it does really force us to stop and think through things more to take impacts and precautions into consideration, which I didn’t always see being done pre-COVID-19,” says Anthony McCabe, MBOE, MBA, LSSBB, director of clinical engineering and central equipment at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

McCabe says that resources and scheduling of vendor maintenance has been the largest challenge for HTM at his location.

“Getting parts in a timely fashion has been the largest challenge overall, that has impacted both repairs and PMs. Even if we order parts months ahead of schedule, they still don’t

always show up on time. We are also experiencing issues getting new equipment in for replacement projects that were on hold until well into the pandemic for end-of-life equipment, so we are having to try to keep equipment running that is no longer supported for much longer than expected. This has caused some delays in care, as the repairs take longer even if we are prepared,” he says.

Health care has also been forced to be nimbler.

“The pandemic has changed health care by resource mobilization. Health care institutions have learned to move resources and re-tool the environment very quickly. It has also changed the monitoring of usage of available resources through improved communications methods. There has also been an increase of par level stocking of emergency supplies and maintenance parts,” says Joseph Beaudoin, CBET, senior biomedical technician in the clinical engineering department at St. Peter’s Health Partners in Albany, New York.

The pandemic caused many workers to stay home because they were sick with the virus or simply reduce a two-worker household to a single worker or take federal benefit supplements instead of working.

“Difficulty in maintaining adequate staffing levels at hospitals especially in the areas of lab, EVS and nutritional services as so many have opted out of working,” says Paul Gudenau, CBET, CHTM, regional manager, southern region of clinical engineering services for McLaren Healthcare Inc. in Flint, Michigan.

HOW HAS THE PANDEMIC CHANGED HTM? While most people who lived through 9/11 will remember its impact on their lives and the emotions they experienced, the likelihood that clinicians and other health care workers will always remember the emotions and experiences of the pandemic is a given.

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COVERSTORY

That experience is certain to stay with biomeds for years. The additional challenges imposed by the experience may change future procedures and priorities.

“In our system, we have had some challenges with parts delays because of the supply-chain crisis. Also, during the pandemic peak we had some challenges in getting OEM field service engineers to respond and/or come on site for service needs. Thus, stocking more critical parts and PM kits has become a standard now in HTM,” Gudenau says.

In addition to part acquisition challenges, training and staffing challenges have been magnified by the pandemic.

“It seems to have shifted some priorities of what we do every day, and even how we start our days at work.

Getting training has been an issue with a lot of cancellations. Some vendors have moved to virtual learning, which is a better option than nothing, but the techs seem to lose out on the hands-on more,” McCabe says.

He says that staffing challenges seem to be across the board, which was already an issue before COVID-19 started, but has been worse for the whole process of recruitment to actual hire.

“There are individuals now looking for ‘work from home’ jobs, which doesn’t work well in HTM. Others we make job offers and they accept, but then coming all the way up to the start date the new hire notifies us that they’ve taken another position, sometimes outside of health care completely. It seems that the pool of qualified candidates keeps shrinking, and we are having to continue to get more creative and more involved with other partners to help keep the flow of staff going,” McCabe says.

While training and staffing have come into focus, so have some outside services that proved beneficial during the pandemic.

“HTM teams, which typically are not

Stephanie Drake Intermountain Healthcare large, have had to find a way to meet the rising demands of a community dealing with a pandemic while also keeping our team members safe. Our organization prioritized by creating a floating pool of medical equipment, such as ventilators, to be dispatched out to any facility that needs it. This has also led to a boom in the use of medical courier services.

Couriers are relied upon heavily to make sure equipment reaches the facility in need in the shortest time possible,” Fajardo says.

He says that another change brought about by the pandemic was that his HTM teams have had to work together to develop workflows for disinfecting and handling damaged or defective equipment that may have been exposed to COVID-19.

“The pandemic has provided health care and HTM with many challenges.

Resources such as labor and supplies are less available. EMR and integration projects move forward as frontline staff struggle to provide patient care in a pandemic situation. My experience holds suspect the work from home culture and my ability to get the best customer service from vendors and parts suppliers. When speaking with some ‘work from home’ colleagues, I sense a disconnect between the employee and employer. This left me questioning the quality of the supply chain,” Beaudoin says.

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

On the flipside, Beaudoin says that he has also seen the pandemic bring out the best in some of his health care and HTM colleagues.

“Health care partners who view the pandemic as an opportunity to strengthen weaknesses in our health care systems in order to respond to the challenges the future will bring us,” he adds.

Drake says she has seen a shift in priorities.

“We normally would not have gone in after hours for a PAPR repair but, due to the increase in isolation patients, PAPRs became a high demand item that the floors struggled if they were short,” she says.

“My teams have had to look farther ahead on our scheduled maintenance to ensure we can get into rooms and to high use equipment to keep everything up to date and in line with Joint Commission standards,” Drake says.

She says that a by-product has been the delay in delivery of new equipment for upgrades.

“My facility was set to upgrade our patient monitoring system Q3 2021 and that has been pushed back until earliest of Q1 2022. This kind of situation is not likely to lead to a risk to patient care but makes us aware of the need to look farther ahead to other equipment upgrades that may be more emergent,” Drake adds.

The importance of the role of a biomed can bring with it some stress in a normal environment as PM schedules or servicing critical equipment present challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken so many lives and put enormous pressure on health care, has proven to be a sort of baptism by fire for so many who did not ask for it.

HTM has developed best practices and adjusted protocols to best meet the challenge and biomeds have proven their value in meeting the demands of an unrelenting opponent which has tested their endurance and skills.

HTM remains the unsung hero.

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EXPERT ADVICE

CAREER CENTER

Is Frequent ‘Career Jumping’ Frowned Upon?

BY KATHLEEN FURORE

I

just spoke with a friend who told me her daughter accepted an extremely well-paying job with fantastic benefits – the fifth or sixth career move she has made since graduating college not more than 10 years ago.

I always thought companies frowned on that kind of career jumping, but evidently it isn’t hurting many of these young job seekers. Is there a recommended minimum amount of time someone should stay in one position before moving on to another job with another company, or have all of those “rules” been thrown out the window?

As the old saying goes, “rules are meant to be broken” – and they certainly have been where minimum time of employment is concerned, career search experts say.

“Those rules have been thrown out the window – and certainly, the great resignation that we are seeing is part of this,” says Colleen Paulson, an executive resume writer, career coach and the communications chair of the Pennsylvania Career Development Association.

According to Paulson, employers don’t view multiple moves in such a negative light any longer.

“The idea of skill stacking is much more accepted now,” she explains.

“Employers know that workers are gaining different skills through new experiences and aren’t afraid to take a chance on a new employee even if they have had five jobs in five years.”

Millennial business consultant Jessie DaSilva, the founder of Jessie DaSilva Coaching, who works with CEOs, entrepreneurs and unhappy employees alike, offers her take on frequent career moves.

“From my expertise, it seems the rule of thumb is that two years is enough time in a position before moving on to

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Kathleen Furore

the next; however, I’ve literally told clients to quit within the first month of new jobs once they’ve been in the work environment and realized it’s toxic or not a good fit,” DaSilva says. “I had one client quit after their first day.”

In reality, it’s all how you format your resume and spin the job switches in the interview, she explains.

“Structure your resume to highlight the most relevant roles to the job you’re applying for and give extra context in an interview to explain your overall work career,” advises DaSilva, who has had five jobs – including her current business – since graduating law school in 2013. “If I were applying to jobs now, I would just select my most recent gig and the last two to three jobs I had that directly spoke to the duties of the position I wanted. I would title that section 'Relevant Experience', knowing I could always explain more in an interview.”

Brian Snedvig, CEO of Jofibo, a company that offers resume, CV and cover letter building services, has a slightly nuanced take on the topic: It isn’t that all the rules have been thrown out the window – it’s that companies have adjusted expectations based on the

industry in which they operate.

“Tech and finance, for instance, are well known for being quite mercenary.

If you have the skills and an employer thinks you will add value and give them a competitive edge, the length of your tenure at previous jobs is less of an issue,” Snedvig says.

However, it’s what he describes as “flitting around” from industry to industry that has the potential to become a roadblock. “If you go from wanting to be a banker to a marketer to an HR person, a hiring manager is more likely to interpret that as you not knowing what you want, as opposed to simply trying to leverage your skills and experience for the best possible deal,” Snedvig cautions.

If you’re wondering what has caused such a switch like I was, here’s what the experts say.

“Workers are thinking critically about where they are and are making a move if the culture or role isn’t a fit,” Paulson says.

A lack of rewards for loyalty is another, DaSilva adds.

“Younger workers are not rewarded for spending longer periods of time with their companies and often encounter refusals to raises, promotions, internal transfers and the like,” she says.

“Pensions are also a dead practice, which might have been the only saving grace for staying in a company aside from these other employee needs. That means, often, the only way to get ahead in one’s career is to leave and find a better job.”

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.

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EXPERT ADVICE

SPONSORED CONTENT

20/20 IMAGING INSIGHTS

Savings add-up with a TEE probe PM program

BY TED LUCIDI, CLINICAL, TECHNICAL, AND COMMERCIAL SPECIALIST

L

ast month, we provided an overview of TEE probes and prior to that provided evidence that suggests that adding probes to a comprehensive PM program can contribute to long-term cost savings and greater returns on investments. Based on the design and use of TEE probes, they are an excellent candidate for preventive maintenance. Yet few facilities consider TEE probes capital assets and almost none have added them to a PM program. The following might be considered a case study that examines just that, the benefits of specifically adding TEE probes to a PM program or Alternative Equipment Maintenance (AEM) Plan.

Currently, manufacturers of ultrasound probes and systems do not recommend preventive maintenance on TEE probes and only offer costly replacements ($20,000 to $40,000 each). After repairing over 170,000 ultrasound probes, with over 40,000 being TEE probes, we’ve acquired a full understanding on points of wear, modes of failure and model-specific characteristics.

Combine this with our material selection process, testing, and qualification processes, the teams at Innovatus can confidently speak to this topic. As TEE probes are used, they encounter significant wear to their mechanical components.

Punctures and perforations to the bending rubber, and subsequent fluid invasion during disinfection, is the primary cause of TEE probe failures … and is the primary reason that many TEE probes are beyond repair. The bending rubber starts to become more-brittle after 100-150 uses.

This is because of the acidic nature of GI fluid and the harsh chemicals used in disinfection. As the bending rubber becomes more brittle, it is more apt to perforate when encountering a sharp object such as a tooth, surgical instrument, or 60

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Ted Lucidi other hard surface or object. Knowing that bending rubber damage WILL occur at some point, is this component not a prime candidate for preventive maintenance?

Another common failure is articulation, or tip deflection. Over time, the internal steel cables that control articulation will stretch and fray, similar to old shoelaces.

Eventually the distal tip’s range of motion becomes reduced, leading the users to exert greater force on the knobs, adding more stress to an already compromised cable.

Eventually, the articulation cables break from continued stress. Knowing that the articulation components are a point of wear, is this area not another candidate for preventive maintenance?

Just like many standard probes have sealant surrounding the acoustic lens, so do certain TEE probes, specifically 3D volumetric TEE probes, such as the Philips X8-2t, GE 6VT-D, and Siemens Z6M. Over time, the sealant, medical-grade caulking as an example, will degrade and wear-away. Eventually, the lack of sealant will leave a void, potentially allowing gross fluid invasion during disinfection. Again, gross fluid invasion is the primary reason that TEE probes fail and many are beyond repair. Is this not yet another argument for

adding TEE probes to a preventive maintenance program?

Interestingly, the three items above can be visualized and monitored over time, but in reality, it seldom occurs. Departments that perform TEE studies are legally required to log each probe’s use, by serial number or other identifier. Depending upon usage, 100-150 uses may span less than 90 days at some facilities, one year at others.

Operator manuals cite the importance of end-users, and those performing probe disinfection, to be performing visual inspections. It’s also recommended that echo-techs perform a functional check of the articulation between each use inspecting range of motion.

Our data suggests that TEE probes have an annual failure rate of 65% to 100%.

This translates to a catastrophic failure on each TEE probe every 12 to 18 months.

Obviously, this is dependent upon the practices in place and the level of care and handling occurring at each facility. Our data is not expected to indicate the failure rate at your facility. An example of an annual PM to a 3D TEE probe would consist of: 1. Replacing the bending rubber; 2. Adjusting the articulation’s range of motion; and 3. Replacing the seal surrounding the acoustic lens.

For the sake of conversation, let’s place the cost of an annual PM at $1,000, the cost of an OEM replacement 3D TEE at $22,000, and the average cost of repairing a 3D TEE at $5,000. What also needs to be considered is the loss of revenue because of canceled patient studies due to TEE probe failures. Let’s also assume that your department supports 10 TEE probes. Above is a model that suggests that adding TEE probes to a PM program offers considerable savings over the traditional OEM model.

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Even if additional TEE probe failures occur, the cost savings are significant.

So where do you begin? Start by inventorying your TEE probes and adding them to a PM schedule. As PMs are required, request a no-charge loaner to maintain your customer’s uptime. Innovatus will send the loaner, you use the existing box and shipping label provided to return your probe, and we’ll return it in a matter of a few days. Complement this by partnering with echo-techs and central processing staff to perform visual inspections, leakage testing, and proper care and handling and you’re set for success.

Innovatus Imaging publishes a TEE visual inspection guide that can be used educationally and even posted to keep the concept of visual inspections top-of-mind.

The guide can be downloaded from the resources section of our website and printed, or we can send high-quality hard copies to your facility. Our team is also available to hold training sessions and assist with assessing the quality of TEE care and handling at your facility. We welcome setting up a TEE PM program designed to meet your particular facility’s needs.

If you don’t schedule time for preventive maintenance, your device will schedule it for you … and usually at the most inopportune time.

For more information, email customercare@innovatusimagaing.com or call 844-687-5100 to arrange for your solution today.

Ted Lucidi, CBET, is a clinical marketing and commercialization specialist at Innovatus Imaging.

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EXPERT ADVICE

THE FUTURE A Need for Teachers, Too

BY ROGER A. BOWLES, MS, EDD, CBET

A

s I write this, we are closing out the fall semester and the year at Texas State Technical College-Waco. The semester wasn’t nearly as bad in attendance as I had previously mentioned in this column. In fact, we are up in students with a starting class of 67 (normal fall starts are around 65 students) and a total number of about 150. Spring 2022 looks good also.

Our program is soon to benefit from a large influx of cash from the state of Texas that will mean more equipment and modifying facilities to better suit us in the future. I am positive that we will continue to grow. Everyone is aware of the need for future HTM professionals, and we hope to keep providing a steady supply.

In addition to the need for graduates, there is a need for teachers. Our program is looking for an imaging instructor as of this writing. Many of you reading this are more than aware that no one becomes a teacher for the money. That is certainly the case here also. The pay for instructors has not kept up with the pay in the HTM career field. In fact, most of our graduates make more than our instructors in just a couple of years. There are times when I wonder why I have stayed with this so long.

So, why teach? In my opinion, there are a couple of reasons. First, for me anyway, it is a way to give back. My associate degree in biomedical equipment technology had the greatest return of investment for me of any degree I have earned. It literally turned my life around. We see this time after time with

Roger A. Bowles Texas State Technical College-Waco

graduates also. It means a lot to me to be able to give back to this career field.

Second, it is a growing experience. You can’t help but to learn more and more about your subject when you teach it.

You learn it on a deeper level when you have to explain it to someone else. And another reason? It is fun.

A lot of people have asked me, “Don’t I need to know how to teach before I become an instructor?” No. Every one of our instructors came to us as technicians. We train you how to become instructors. This is one reason I feel our program has been so successful.

Technicians training technicians. Most importantly, you must have a “teacher’s heart.” You must want to teach and want what is best for the student.

Sometimes, especially these days, this may mean stepping out of your comfort zone and learning different methods of delivery and accommodating different learning styles.

This year is my 25th year at Texas State Technical College as an instructor.

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I would never have believed I would stay here this long. I hated speaking in front of people and even to this day, I get a little jittery on the first day of class. I showed up at TSTC with dress pants, a short-sleeved white button-down shirt with a pocket protector, short hair and a briefcase. I could have sold ice cream if the teaching thing didn’t work out.

Things have changed a bit. My hair is longer, the briefcase is long gone and long-sleeved dark shirts have been my go to for a while because they cover up tattoos. I teach people how to ride motorcycles or dirt bikes on the weekends. And one day, I hope to get paid to write about it.

I didn’t know how to teach when I came here as an instructor. However, every new instructor goes through training in their first couple of semesters as they are teaching. And fellow instructors are always helping each other out when questions arise. Those jitters from standing in front of students becomes excitement as you see their “light bulbs” come on. And most of our courses are lab based anyway so you will be doing a lot more “showing” than telling.

So, are you ready? I hope sometime in your career that you will consider becoming an instructor should the opportunity arise. Whether it is at a college, a company, or a hospital, teaching is a rewarding experience.

Please consider it!

Roger A. Bowles, MS, EdD, CBET, is a biomedical equipment technology/medical imaging technology instructor at Texas State Technical College-Waco.

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EXPERT ADVICE

WITT’S END HTM Remains Strong

BY DAVID WITT

I

n my 43 years in this field, I have seen the evolution of our industry.

No matter how long you are in what is now known as the healthcare technology management (HTM) field one thing is constant – our knowledge and understanding must evolve if we are to remain a viable, supportive entity to the medical industry and, ultimately, to the patient.

When I entered this field through the United States Army Medical Equipment and Optical School, (USAMEOS) in 1978, we were still working on “real” Bovie electrosurgical units which operated using what is called a sparkgap (Google that one). I worked on devices that employed vacuum tubes made in Russia, performed actual repairs using schematics that sometimes took up several feet of the department floor as they were unfolded to begin the troubleshooting process and tested conductive flooring in operating rooms while wearing shoe covers with carbon impregnated straps. I remember the transition from tubes to transistors and semiconductors. I remember making our own circuit boards using skill sets now long gone, as wave flow soldering became the standard. I remember the first school I attended that taught “And, Or, Nan, Nor gates” and the “Not” symbol as new logic components. I recall troubleshooting techniques that required a lesson in binary math, “hi and lo” signal tracing and the new electronic symbols that came with them.

I saw technical skill sets eventually fall into disuse as component-level troubleshooting and replacement

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became what was called “in the day” as board swapping. I remember when there were great attempts to distinguish ourselves as biomed technicians as we pulled further from (what I saw as the parental influence) of what was then called maintenance, a.k.a. engineering, facilities or plant operations. I saw the rise of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) as our strongest advocate in the representation and recognition of our ever-evolving discipline of which information technology (IT) has acquired prominence in the medical device industry.

There was a time when our field appeared to fragment as we attempted to distinguish evolving disciplines such as imaging, lab, respiratory therapy, anesthesia, lasers, information systems and a broad spectrum of other specialty technologies. Even within the imaging field, distinctions were made as technology introduced C-arm, CT, PET, MRI and ultrasound specialties. It happened again as each of those went digital, largely relegating wet film processing to history with the arrival of detector plates and the transmission of images to remote offices to be viewed by radiologist who were also found in distinct specialties. Yet through the many changes leading up to HTM, there remains a common core of management, training and best practices without which no organization can endure the tempest of change alone.

A major indicator of the importance of our field can be found in the interests of the many corporations recognizing the opportunities of sustained financial growth in HTM and buying up as many

David Witt smaller businesses as they can in their quest for industry dominance.

There is, however, a kind of symbiotic relationship between HTM and our otherwise “non-technical” counterparts which have become the think-tanks in our field regarding finances, human resources, legal matters and even better best practices. How many “PI’s” have we gone through to get to our key performance indicators (KPIs), for example? Who would have ever thought of competing using ISO13485 and 5S? I assure you it is usually not in the technician’s interest to keep the place clean and organized, but it is now a mandatory KPI; a necessary tool in the competitive strategies of the “big guns” in our industry. If you are adept at looking at the “big picture” then these otherwise foreign concepts to many technicians can be seen as increasingly essential to the development, progress and financial strength of the aggregate of companies which now define our field, benefit from it and we from them.

During my career, I have often

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EXPERT ADVICE

lamented about hospitals outsourcing their HTM support base; paying other companies to provide a service no longer found within the hospital’s infrastructure. For a time, one could predict the cyclic change from in-house to outsource and back to in-house again. For a long time, the cycle of transition was 5 years but I have not really noticed a return to hospital-owned HTM teams for at least 15 years. There are hospitals that have their own HTM employee base, but usually because the medical facilities are themselves a corporation of hospitals.

However, the medical facilities which outsource for technical support usually retain this support for several years. By being imbedded into the client institution, an outsourced HTM team actually receives the sensation and, yes, benefit of being part of the in-house family. The

only difference is where their salaries come from.

The merging of client and vendor policies and best practices have a strengthening effect to an in-house style program. I would think that imbedding technicians fosters the sharpening of skills, an increase in knowledge and the constant improvement of service delivery in order to remain competitive.

Imbedded staffs then can arguably keep more abreast of the changes in technology management; an advantage to the service vendor and the hospital client.

This is due, in part, to the diversity of skill sets, education, administrative abilities and shared knowledge that service providers are becoming well known for.

How do I see our future? I now see HTM as the collaboration between multiple disciplines and their associated technologies applied to the still

changing health care environment. We who are biomedical technicians, clinical engineers, information systems. Cybersecurity, imaging service engineers, administrators, lawyers, accountants … the list goes on; we have become fused together through the collaborative drive to keep up with technology and the demands of patient care.

We are Healthcare Technology Management. We are diverse and we are strong in that diversity.

Well done!

David Witt has more than 40 years of experience in the international field as a technician, instructor and advisor. He is currently the director of clinical engineering at a major Las Vegas hospital.

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CYBERSECURITY

Medical Device Cybersecurity Incident Response – Part 2 of 2

BY STEVEN HUGHES

Editor’s Note: This is part two of a two-part cybersecurity column. Last month’s column is available at 1TechNation.com.

I

n October 2018, the FDA supported the development of the MITRE Corporation’s Medical Device Cybersecurity Regional Incident Preparedness and Response Playbook .

The playbook describes the types of readiness activities that will enable health delivery organizations (HDOs) to be better prepared for a cybersecurity incident involving their medical devices and gives product developers more opportunity to address the potential for large scale, multi-patient impacts that may raise patient safety concerns. In the case of an event, one should follow their Medical Device Cybersecurity Incident Response (MDCIR) standard operating procedure (SOP) which should have the following 4 main steps of: Identification, Containment, Eradication and finally the Recovery of the medical device or system.

IDENTIFICATION Identifying what happened and verifying that an incident occurred requires many steps. Reporting an incident through proper defined chains of communication (both internally and externally) as well as “out of band” communication in case email, phones, etc. are not available and containment to prevent patient harm should be top of mind in first responding to an incident.

When a medical device cybersecurity incident is identified as an adverse event, suspicious activity, compromise, or loss of functionality it must be removed from providing patient care services as

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soon as possible. Also everyone’s role in an incident must be enacted efficiently and quickly to provide a rapid response to a cybersecurity event. A rapid response can prevent the spread of malicious code or viruses to other devices on your hospital network as well as losing Protected Health Information (PHI). This should be done in the first 24 hours of an incident. During the identification process staff should document medical device information including: Number of host(s) affected; System function; OS(s); Vendor; Model #; IP address; Host name; Anti-virus version; Virus/malware name; suspected cause of infection; activity detected on the infected device (scanning, communications, etc.) pertaining to the incident for all affected devices.

CONTAINMENT Before dealing with an incident, research of the malware and providing information on threat vectors and propagation methods of the malware as well as the reviewing of network segmentation in place assists in root cause analysis of the incident as well as for planning mitigating measures. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Medical Device Manufacturer (MDM) websites are a great place to start to help in the identification and mitigation of an incident. Staff will need to identify steps to assess the impacted device and provide an Incident Recovery Plan to restore the affected medical devices back to a secure operational state. Staff need to provide a clear communication to clinical staff, hospital administration and any key stakeholders and regularly update them with this

Steven Hughes VA Sierra Pacific Healthcare System information and document their plan of action and timeline.

The first action of healthcare technology management (HTM) staff is to remove an infected medical device from the hospital network as soon as possible (without directly impacting patient safety – this must be a coordinated effort between HTM and the clinical staff and may involve weigh in from the medical center director and C-suite). Consulting with all stakeholders so as not to interrupt patient care and accepting risk if there is continued use of a compromised medical device in important. This accepted risk should be documented with a plan of action to remove the device from the network when it is safe to do so.

When there is no direct impact to patient care, the HTM staff should remove the infected medical device or system from the hospital network by either physically removing the devices connection or disabling any wireless connections, putting a restriction in the router configuration to prevent network

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EXPERT ADVICE

traffic or any method deemed for isolating all network traffic to and from the medical device. If further investigation is needed, the system should not be powered down or run any remediation tools which could potentially destroy evidence in root cause analysis. HTM staff will also contact the MDM to inform them of the incident and ask for assistance in coordinated recovery of the medical device to a secure operational state. Ensure that no other devices on your network are also affected through continuous monitoring of network traffic and the running of antivirus scans to identify if any infection remains.

ERADICATION The HTM staff shall work with the MDM to eradicate malware and restore the medical device back to MDM specifications – this may involve an entire reimage, hardware replacement or even full replacement of the medical device depending on the severity. HTM staff will also have to ensure the passwords for any local users of the affected device are changed; in the event the malware has key logging capabilities. Before placing the device back on the network, HTM staff will also ensure all the latest patches and updates have been applied (system OS updates, antivirus updates, Java, Adobe, Office, etc.) and configured to operate the same as before the incident. If storage media is replaced be sure all data, configurations and settings can be safely retrieved before following proper sanitization and disposal processes.

RECOVERY The final role is to confirm that the incident is resolved, and that all information (if possible) has been fully restored from backups and the medical device system has been fully restored to the prior condition before the event happened. This also allows for a review

of your backup and disaster recovery procedures, which should also be tested and verified on a routine basis and automated if possible. Ensure you also have several offsite backups as well just in case your onsite backups do get compromised. If possible, create “snapshot” images of your critical systems to allow for quicker recovery.

Make sure that some of the devices containing your backup are not permanently connected to your network, because advanced attackers generally will target connected backup devices and solutions first to make recovery more difficult. If you are using a cloud service for your backup and recovery – Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), ensure that your provider protects previous versions of the backup from being immediately deleted and allows you to restore to them as part of your agreement.

It is recommended that prior to introducing the medical device back into service that you ensure no further infection of malware remains. Ensure that backups are connected to known clean medical devices before starting the recovery process. Before restoring, it is recommended that the device is also connected to a known “clean network” for testing and monitoring of the medical device in a “sandbox” to prevent and monitor any further infection. Once this is done, verify with clinical staff that the system is operating properly. Your disaster recovery process should also be tested along with your annual tabletop exercise following your established MDCIR procedures, so staff are familiar with the processes and time needed to restore, configure, rebuild virtual and physical environments, know what to do if backups are unusable, and enact your contingency plans so you know how everyone would continue to operate critical services if they don’t come back online. These should be practiced on a regular basis

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akin to a modern-day fire drill.

Notifying authorities and regulatory bodies about a security breach of your organization is a key step of responding to a cyber-attack. Please be sure to follow your organizations guidelines in proper communication and transparency of the breach, especially if PHI is involved, and follow proper HHS HIPAA Breach Notification requirements. The U.S. Secret Service provides guidance for how and where to report a cyber incident at Preparing for a Cyber Incident. Likewise, CISA has a new website concerning ransomware that is a great resource as well at stopransomware.gov LESSONS LEARNED At the close of an incident a final report should be made to all stakeholders and reporting agencies and used for review, education and improvement. Continuous improvement is important in the maturation of any MDCIR and helps to prepare for the next unknown incident as well as documenting and adapting from lessons learned not only inside your organization, but also from incidents that have affected other organizations. Organizations must minimally review contingency and data recovery plans annually to make sure they are up to date and can be utilized during and after an incident. If you do experience an incident, please share your experience with others so they may learn and benefit from your best practices and lessons learned.

At the time of this writing, CISA released Cybersecurity Incident & Vulnerability Response Playbooks that are a great reference for incident and vulnerability response.

Steven Hughes is a VISN 21 Biomedical Engineer with the VA Sierra Pacific Healthcare System at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

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BREAKROOM

DID YOU KNOW? Science Matters

The exploding ‘-omics’ sciences

The word “genome” became widely heard in 2001 when researchers decoded the nearly complete human DNA code. New studies are decoding more and more of life’s “omics.”

‘Genomics’

‘Transcriptomics’

bases (units) in an organism’s DNA. More genomes are constantly being sequenced (decoded); over 250 animal species’ alone have been completed.

genetic code-carrying messenger RNA molecules in a single cell, tissue or organism

Genome Complete sequence of

Transcriptome All the

‘Proteomics’

ORGANIC MOLECULE

‘Metabolomics’

Proteome The total

complement of proteins in a cell, tissue or organism; proteins have many chemical and structural functions

Metabolome All of a cell, tissue or organism’s metabolites, the products of its biological processes; these are the chemical “fingerprints” of those processes

DNA

CHROMOSOMES CELL NUCLEUS

Epigenomics Study of the epigenome – the proteins, RNA and chemical modifications – affecting DNA as it works Lipidomics Study

of an organism’s lipids, such as fats, and their operations

Nucleomics Study of the genetic elements that make up a cell’s nucleus Glycomics Study of an organism’s total glycome, its sugars and carbohydrates

Viromics Broad study of virus genomes, genes and proteins (virome) to aid diagnosis and treatment of viral disease Source: US National Human Genome Research Institute; What Are Omics Sciences?; Virus Diseases journal Graphic: Helen Lee McComas, Tribune News Service © 2021 TNS

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he Florida Biomedical Society returned to Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort for its annual symposium in 2021. The event was a huge success for attendees and exhibitors. Networking events, educational opportunities and a busy exhibit hall all added up to a memorable experience. For more information about FBS, visit FBSonline.net.

1.

The TechNation booth is seen just before a successful visit to the FBS Symposium.

2.

The USOC Medical team smiles for a picture.

3.

TechNation and MedWrench co-hosted a happy hour for attendees and exhibitors to enjoy complimentary drinks.

5.

BC Group’s Tim Welby and Ken O’Day were among the many vendors in the exhibit hall.

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MultiMedical Systems’ Chyrill Sandrini

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The winners of the TechNation prize pack

networks with an attendee.

and HTM Jobs gift card pose for a picture.

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REGISTRATION NOW OPEN JANUARY 27-28

2022

HTMA-OH CONFERENCE AND EXPO OPTIMIZING THE BASICS SESSIONS 45 minute breakout sessions will be focused on the basics, as we invite new and seasoned professionals to learn more about the fundamentals of our industry.

HTMA-OH is excited to be hosting the 2022 Conference & Expo for members of the Biomedical and Imaging Engineering profession.

LOCATION The Ohio State University Fawcett Event Center 2400 Olentangy River Road Columbus, OH 43210

TOP GOLF MIXER TOP GOLF OF COLUMBUS Thursday, January 27, 2022 Make sure you choose the addon for the Top Golf mixer! Talk with collogues and vendors in a casual, but possibly competitive environment.

Food, Beverages and Tee Fees are Sponsored by reLink and PartsSource.

Topics to look forward to are: • Test Equipment • PM Scheduling and Frequencies • AAMI Certification • Device Life Cycle Management • Networking and Cybersecurity • Batteries and UPS Maintenance • Career and Succession Planning

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A

n online resource where medical equipment professionals can find all the information needed to help them be more successful! The easy to navigate Bulletin Board gives you access to informative blogs, expos and events, continuing education opportunities, and a job board. Visit www.MedWrench.com/BulletinBoard to find out more about this resource.

Follow MedWrench on twitter @medwrench, facebook.com/medwrench & linkedin.com/company/medwrench!

Career Opportunities CONTINUING EDUCA TION

Visit www.MedWrench.c om/BulletinBoard for m ore details and to register for these upcoming classes .

February 7-11, 2022 - RS TI: Servicing the Philips BV-Pulsera C-Arm s

February 8-10 Contrast In , 2022 - Althea jector Tra ining

CTS ROSPE A L MePdical Imaging C I N H S emens TEC O N Si I LU rtTs in Ope SEx

2h24-, 202 AS st 1a3rc-2 n u2g8u-M io s ry A it a n e fi ru e m b D e ie F pegc-tsS: in s g a ro P m l -I a ri ic TechnT n AS CT Definitio

76

TECHNATION

JANUARY 2022

Reference the career section: https://www.medwrench.com/bulletin-board/careers

Company: Edge Biomedical Cadex Title: Position Title: Edge Biomedical Senior Hardware Engineer is hiring a BMET II in the Edison NJ Territory Description:

Cadex is currently recruiting for Intermediate or Description: Edge Biomedical is Senior Hardware Design looking Engineers for a highly to motivated join our Biomedical growing organization.

Equipment Reporting Technician to the BMET Hardware for Field Service Manager, thework successful in the NJ/NY/Philly candidate orarea . candidates We work will are looking on newforproduct a person designs, that enjoys and be different projects and expected to provide workingsupport with a nationwide for existingteam products. of Technicians. The ideal candidate has hands on experience with medical equipment repair and Morecalibration. info: https://bit.ly/cadexengineer More info on how to apply here: http://bit.ly/Edge_jobpost

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

BREAKROOM

librating! a C n e B w o ll Fo ow where Want to kn Follow us Ben C. is? ok on Facebo nch, @MedWre edWrench Twitter @M in.com/ and linked h! medwrenc company/

MEDWRENCH HAD A SUCCESSFUL SHOW IN VIVA LAS VEGAS!

MD Expo, MD Publishings signature healthcare techn ology management (HTM) event, welcomed more than 700 HTM professionals in Las Vegas at the M Resort Casino & Spa.

Read more- https://bit.ly/mw-mdexpo-recap

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31

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

JANUARY 2022

TECHNATION

77

WONDERING WHERE YOU CAN SEE TECHNATION NEXT? see the next page

78

TECHNATION

JANUARY 2022

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

January 22, 2022

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JANUARY 2022

TECHNATION

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X-Ray Service Engineer

Biomedical Technician I, II, III, or IV

Clinical Engineer

Qualifications:

• The candidate will require a minimum of five years’ experience in imaging field service. Experience must include troubleshooting and repair of Cardiovascular, Interventional, Fluoroscopy & Radiography systems.

• Ideal Candidate will have additional factory training and field service experience with CT and MRI systems • The candidate should have a working knowledge of Multi-meters, Oscilloscopes, Luminance meters, Dose meters, Phase meters, Line resistance meters, Electrical safety analyzers.

• The individual shall be able to read wiring diagrams and follow technical documentation.

Under relatively close supervision, repair, calibrate and maintain all types of basic biomedical technologies, devices, instruments and systems. Inspect, install and perform preventive maintenance service on general medical equipment.

The Clinical Engineer will support and advance patient care by applying engineering skills to healthcare technology. This will be accomplished by performing capital equipment evaluations, project management, planning and installation for major Health System projects. As well as performing technical investigations of clinical problems and incidents when necessary, managing recalls, and identifying and instituting continuous improvement opportunities.

VIEW FULL DETAILS www.htmjobs.com

VIEW FULL DETAILS www.htmjobs.com

VIEW FULL DETAILS www.htmjobs.com

Biomedical Equipment Technician

Traveling Technical Specialist

Electronics Device Assistant

Our company is entering its fifth year in business and is poised for rapid growth. The company has expanded their services to include in-house repair and refurbishment of medical equipment, namely infusion IV pumps.

We are looking for individuals who fit our culture of making the customer our number one priority. The Biomedical Equipment Technician performs operational verification, preventive maintenance and corrective repair service, and completes all associated documentation and communication in a timely manner.

The Traveling Technical Service Specialist will be required to travel to customer sites to test and evaluate medical equipment. This position requires strong customer service skills to negotiate and work with hospital staff to locate devices and perform preventative maintenance on the products.

Medical device experience and electronics familiarity is preferred, but not required, we will provide training on maintenance and repairs of the devices. You must be willing to travel anywhere within the United States for 2-6 weeks continuously, including weekends.

VIEW FULL DETAILS www.htmjobs.com

VIEW FULL DETAILS www.htmjobs.com

VIEW FULL DETAILS www.htmjobs.com

Electronics Device Repair Tech

Electronics Device Technician

Biomedical Technician III

The Electronics Device Repair Tech is responsible for testing, evaluating and performing routine repairs on medical equipment. They will accurately document service actions in a digital work order and demonstrate our customer is 1st” culture by taking ownership, doing the right thing and solving their problems.

VIEW FULL DETAILS www.htmjobs.com

The Electronic Device Technician is responsible for testing, evaluating and performing routine repairs on medical equipment. They will accurately document service actions in a digital work order and demonstrate our customer is 1st” culture by taking ownership, doing the right thing and solving their problems.

VIEW FULL DETAILS www.htmjobs.com

The Electronics Device Assistant is responsible for programing, testing, and evaluating medical equipment. They will accurately document service actions in a digital work order, update device status and identifiers in the company systems, and demonstrate our “customer is 1st” culture by taking ownership and doing the right thing.

You will work in a faced-paced, and rewarding environment with state-of-the-art technology that directly impacts the patient experience. We provide a robust orientation program to set you up for success. Opportunities for employee development include project and time management, temperament training, leadership academy topics, and vendor-provided technical training. Some travel may be required depending on the facilities you support. Future career growth includes opportunities in medical imaging, planning, security, integration and quality areas.

VIEW FULL DETAILS www.htmjobs.com

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

46

Healthmark Industries………………

17

Medigate………………………………… 5

AIV……………………………………

71

HTM Jobs……………………………

80

Multimedical Systems………………

46

ALCO Sales & Service Co.……………

74

HTMA-OH……………………………

75

Nuvolo…………………………………

41

Avante Health Solutions………………

53

Indiana Biomedical Society…………

16

Pronk Technologies, Inc. ………… 2, 74

BC Group International, Inc…………

88

Infusion Pump Repair…………………

44

RepairMED……………………………

27

BETA Biomed Services………………… 4

Injector Support and Service…………

73

SakoMED……………………………

38

Cadmet………………………………

71

Innovatus Imaging……………………… 8

Soma Technology, Inc………………

65

College of Biomedical Equipment Technology……………………………

11

Integrity Biomedical Services…………

59

Southeastern Biomedical, Inc………

61

Cox Communications…………………

33

Interpower……………………………

87

SPBS, Inc……………………………

62

Cure Biomedical………………………

22

Lexicon………………………………

Elite Biomedical Solutions……………

47

Engineering Services, KCS Inc………… 7 Health Tech Talent Management, Inc.… 59

31

Tri-Imaging Solutions…………………

69

Mammo.com…………………………… 6

TruAsset, LLC…………………………

29

Maull Biomedical Training……………

62

USOC Bio-Medical Services…………… 3

Medical Equipment Doctor, INC.……

23

Webinar Wednesday…………………

85

SERVICE INDEX P

Multimedical Systems www.multimedicalsystems.com • 888-532-8056

RepairMED www.repairmed.net • 855-813-8100

Soma Technology, Inc www.somatechnology.com • 1-800-438-7662

SPBS, Inc www.spbs.com/ • (800) 713-2396

USOC Bio-Medical Services www.usocmedical.com • 855-888-8762

27 65

P

62 3

P

P P

coxprosight.com •

www.repairmed.net • 855-813-8100

SPBS, Inc www.spbs.com/ • (800) 713-2396

33

Association

Southeastern Biomedical, Inc sebiomedical.com/ • 828-396-6010

Nuvolo nuvolo.com • 844-468-8656 www.truasset.com • 214-276-1280

75

www.htma-oh.org •

Indiana Biomedical Society indianabiomedical.wildapricot.org •

16

Biomedical www.alcosales.com • 800-323-4282

BC Group International, Inc www.BCGroupStore.com • 314-638-3800

Cure Biomedical www.cure-us.com • 775.750.7070

Health Tech Talent Management, Inc. www.HealthTechTM.com • 757-563-0448

Injector Support and Service www.injectorsupport.com • 888-667-1062 www.triimaging.com • 855-401-4888

74

TECHNATION

JANUARY 2022

P P

62

P

61

P P

88 22

P

59

41 29

73

P

69

P P P

73

P P

Contrast Media Injectors Injector Support and Service www.injectorsupport.com • 888-667-1062

Maull Biomedical Training www.maullbiomedicaltraining.com • 440-724-7511

62

P

Defibrillator SakoMED sakomed.com • 949-529-8505

82

27

P

Computed Tomography

Tri-Imaging Solutions

ALCO Sales & Service Co.

46

Cardiology

TruAsset, LLC

HTMA-OH

P P

CMMS

Asset Management Cox Communications

RepairMED

23

TRAINING

www.ambickford.com • 800-795-3062

46

www.medicalequipdoc.com • 800-285-9918

SERVICE

Medical Equipment Doctor, INC.

A.M. Bickford

PARTS

Anesthesia

Company Info

AD PAGE

TRAINING

SERVICE

PARTS

AD PAGE

Company Info

38

P P

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

SERVICE INDEX CONTINUED

Lexicon lexiconmedparts.com • 615-545-8587

Mammo.com mammo.com •

IV Pumps 53

P P

31 6

P P

Endoscopy Cadmet www.cadmet.com • 800-543-7282

Healthmark Industries hmark.com • 800-521-6224

Multimedical Systems www.multimedicalsystems.com • 888-532-8056

www.multimedicalsystems.com • 888-532-8056

71

P

17 46

P

www.alcosales.com • 800-323-4282

Lexicon lexiconmedparts.com • 615-545-8587

46

P

www.HealthTechTM.com • 757-563-0448

hmark.com • 800-521-6224

aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755

Elite Biomedical Solutions elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6701

Infusion Pump Repair www.infusionpumprepair.com • 855-477-8866

Multimedical Systems www.multimedicalsystems.com • 888-532-8056

aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755

Elite Biomedical Solutions elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6702

Infusion Pump Repair www.infusionpumprepair.com • 855-477-8866

RepairMED www.repairmed.net • 855-813-8100

Soma Technology, Inc www.somatechnology.com • 1-800-438-7662

USOC Bio-Medical Services www.usocmedical.com • 855-888-8762

www.spbs.com/ • (800) 713-2396

62

P

Mammography 6

mammo.com •

P P

Monitors Soma Technology, Inc www.somatechnology.com • 1-800-438-7662

65

Monitors/CRTs Integrity Biomedical Services USOC Bio-Medical Services www.usocmedical.com • 855-888-8762

31

Online Resource

www.innovatusimaging.com • 844-687-5100

HTM Jobs

59

P P

3

P P

59

8

80

www.htmjobs.com •

Webinar Wednesday www.1technation.com/webinars • 800-906-3373

85

P

Patient Monitoring 17

AIV aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755

Avante Health Solutions 71

P P

47

P P

44 46

P

Infusion Therapy AIV

SPBS, Inc

Innovatus Imaging

Infusion Pumps AIV

P

Labratory

74

Infection Control Healthmark Industries

62

MRI

Imaging Health Tech Talent Management, Inc.

www.spbs.com/ • (800) 713-2396

www.integritybiomed.com • 877-789-9903

General ALCO Sales & Service Co.

SPBS, Inc

Mammo.com

Fetal Monitoring Multimedical Systems

TRAINING

avantehs.com •

SERVICE

Avante Health Solutions

Company Info

PARTS

Diagnostic Imaging

AD PAGE

TRAINING

SERVICE

PARTS

AD PAGE

Company Info

avantehs.com •

BETA Biomed Services www.betabiomed.com/ • 800-315-7551

Integrity Biomedical Services www.integritybiomed.com • 877-789-9903

RepairMED www.repairmed.net • 855-813-8100

SakoMED sakomed.com • 949-529-8505

71

P P

47

P P

44 27

Southeastern Biomedical, Inc sebiomedical.com/ • 828-396-6010

USOC Bio-Medical Services www.usocmedical.com • 855-888-8762

P P

53

P P

4

P P

59

P P

27

P P

38

P P

61

P P

3

P P

87

P

Power System Components Interpower www.interpower.com • 800-662-2290

Radiology

65

P

Cure Biomedical

3

P P

Soma Technology, Inc

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

71

22

www.cure-us.com • 775.750.7070 www.somatechnology.com • 1-800-438-7662

65

JANUARY 2022

P

P TECHNATION

83

SERVICE INDEX CONTINUED TRAINING

www.cure-us.com • 775.750.7070

Health Tech Talent Management, Inc. www.HealthTechTM.com • 757-563-0448

HTM Jobs

22 59 80

www.htmjobs.com •

Refurbish

AIV aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755

Elite Biomedical Solutions elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6701

Integrity Biomedical Services www.integritybiomed.com • 877-789-9903

Multimedical Systems www.multimedicalsystems.com • 888-532-8056

AIV aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755

71

RepairMED www.repairmed.net • 855-813-8100

Rental/Leasing Avante Health Solutions avantehs.com •

Elite Biomedical Solutions elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6703

USOC Bio-Medical Services 53 47

P

www.usocmedical.com • 855-888-8762

ALCO Sales & Service Co.

A.M. Bickford

www.alcosales.com • 800-323-4282

Elite Biomedical Solutions elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6701

BC Group International, Inc 74 47

P P

Replacement Parts Engineering Services, KCS Inc www.eng-services.com • 888-364-7782x11

Elite Biomedical Solutions elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6701

www.BCGroupStore.com • 314-638-3800

Pronk Technologies, Inc. www.pronktech.com • 800-609-9802

Southeastern Biomedical, Inc sebiomedical.com/ • 828-396-6010

7

P

Training

47

P P

www.cbet.edu • 866-866-9027

Respiratory

College of Biomedical Equipment Technology Tri-Imaging Solutions www.triimaging.com • 855-401-4888

A.M. Bickford www.ambickford.com • 800-795-3062

46

P

RTLS Cox Communications coxprosight.com •

Software Cox Communications coxprosight.com •

Medigate www.medigate.io •

Nuvolo nuvolo.com • 844-468-8656

TruAsset, LLC www.truasset.com • 214-276-1280

Cadmet Tri-Imaging Solutions www.triimaging.com • 855-401-4888

33

Avante Health Solutions

5

Innovatus Imaging

41

Ventilators

29

sakomed.com • 949-529-8505

avantehs.com • www.innovatusimaging.com • 844-687-5100

SakoMED SPBS, Inc www.spbs.com/ • (800) 713-2396

www.spbs.com/ • (800) 713-2396

62

P

Surgical www.cure-us.com • 775.750.7070

Healthmark Industries hmark.com • 800-521-6224

JANUARY 2022

P P

59

P P

46

P

27

P P

3

P P

46 88

P P

2, 74 61

P P

11

P

69

P

71

P

69

P P

53

P P

22

P

17

8

38

P P

62

P

X-Ray Engineering Services, KCS Inc www.eng-services.com • 888-364-7782x11

Cure Biomedical

47

Ultrasound

Sterilizers SPBS, Inc

P P

Tubes/Bulbs www.cadmet.com • 800-543-7282

33

71

Test Equipment www.ambickford.com • 800-795-3062

Repair

TECHNATION

SERVICE

Telemetry

Cure Biomedical

84

Info

PARTS

Recruiting

Com p a n y

AD PAGE

TRAINING

SERVICE

PARTS

Info

AD PAGE

Com p a n y

Innovatus Imaging www.innovatusimaging.com • 844-687-5100

Tri-Imaging Solutions www.triimaging.com • 855-401-4888

7

P

8 69

P P P

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED. TechNation has the resources you need to sharpen your skills and stay in the know, no matter where

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ach month, TechNation magazine will feature photos from throughout the industry on this page. Be sure to tag your posts with #HTMStrong and check the magazine each month to see which photos are included and what is happening in the HTM community.

Curtis Wheelhouse, CRES, Medical Imaging En gineer

S, lhouse, CRE Curtis Whee ing Engineer Medical Imag

Augustine I Idehen, A sst. Service Manager a t Swiss Bio stadt (Siem Healthinee ens rs’ Advanc e Partner), Nigeria

The Everight D iagnostics and Laboratory Se Limited instal rvices led a Siemens Magnetom Se 1.5T MRI, the mpra first of it’s kind there!

Nestor Baride, Biomedical Technologist at Sudabelt Medical, Nigeria

“The most important part of the job is to ensure reduced downtime of client’s equipment. Successfully carried out PM on an AK98 Dialysis Machines.”

h Keynote ndees wit e tt A o p x MD E y Davis gt. Samm Speaker S

t the a service call, bu elhouse A long drive for is for it. Curt Whe up e ad m n io at injured destin d running so that an up it un r ei th had ent onsite n receive treatm park visitors ca ive out. without a long dr

FOLLOW TECHNATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA! @TechNationMag @TechNationMag /company/technation-magazine

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TECHNATION

JANUARY 2022

dees had Vegas, atten s a L in o xp s as the t #MDE Sammy Davi llege of At the recen t. g S to g in Co f listen en with the the honor o Here he is se y, representatives r. e k a e sp keynote Technolog Equipment Biomedical ssionals. dustry profe and other in WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

Interpower® North American Hospital-Grade Cords All Interpower Hospital-Grade cords are manufactured to the highest standards. Interpower NEMA 5-15, 5-20, 6-15, and 6-20 Hospital-Grade cord sets provide the correct amperages and voltages for high-powered medical devices such as portable CT Scanners and X-ray machines, medical-grade treadmills, and ECMO machines—essential diagnostic machines that need essential electric power.

NEMA 5-15, 5-20, 6-15, and 6-20 Hospital-Grade cord sets bear the green dot, signifying rigorous testing in meeting UL 817 (18.2.4.1) and C22.2 No. 21-14 requirements for Hospital-Grade power cords. All Interpower Hospital-Grade cords are tested in design and production phases and ready to use right out of the box.

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NIBP-1040 NIBP-1040 NIBP-1040 NON-INVASIVE NON-INVASIVE BLOOD BLOOD PRESSURE SIMULATOR SIMULATOR NON-INVASIVE BLOOD PRESSURE NON-INVASIVE BLOOD PRESSURE SIMULATOR

with ECG ECGwith WAVEFORMS ECG WAVEFO with WAVEFORMS with ECG WAVEFORMS • •Selectable Selectable5/40 IBPμv/v/mmHg sensitivity 5/40•• Synchronized μv/v/mmHg • Synchronized Blood Pressure Invasive Output Blood Pressure Static Output IBPSimulation Simulation • Static mmHg Simulation 400mmHg -mmHg 10 mmHg Selectable IBP IBP•sensitivity sensitivity 5/40 μv/v/mmHg Synchronized Invasive Output •• Static IBP --1010IBP mmHg toto400 • Selectable IBP sensitivity 5/40 μv/v/mmHg

• Synchronized Invasive Blood Pressure Output

The Thealong NIBP-1040 with along other with NIBP our other NIBP TheNIBP-1040 NIBP-1040 along with our our other NIBP The NIBP-1040 along with our other NIBP SeriesDevices Devices areMicroprocessor Microprocessor based, Series Series are Devices are Microprocessor based, based, Series Devices are Microprocessor based, HighPrecision Precision NonInvasive High High NonPrecision Invasive Non- Invasive High Precision NonInvasive BloodPressure Pressure (NIBP) Simulators.

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NIBP-1040-BE Simulator Kit Kit shown Kit shown NIBP-1040-BE NIBP-1040-BE Simulator Simulator shown NIBP-1040-BE Simulator Kit shown with 5 Adaptors and MCO-2100 Breakout Box. with 5 5Adaptors withand 5 Adaptors MCO-2100 and Breakout MCO-2100 Box. Breakout Box. with Adaptors and MCO-2100 Breakout Box. NIBP 1000-1040 Series $1255-$3670.

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