FDA/AAMI Home Healthcare Summit Focuses on Healthcare Technology
Written by Alyssa Clark
Forever trying to keep up with the intense demands of the healthcare field concerning healthcare technology, the home healthcare arena is in need of some attention, and frankly a little TLC.
As if directly responding to the healthcare market’s, and specifically the home healthcare’s, cries for attention, the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided to host a summit in October to directly address the needs and concerns of the home healthcare patients and industry professionals.
In the difficult world of dealing with families coping with loved ones suffering from chronic illnesses, and the emotionally draining support home health aides constantly provide, it is surely important to check in on the needs, wants, and concerns of these hardworking individuals. In order to be sure that these brave professionals are able to do their jobs in the best way possible, the AAMI and FDA want to ensure that all its “I’s” are dotted and” t’s” are crossed.
The summit on Healthcare technology in Nonclinical Settings (or home health), is set to be help from October 9th-10th in Herdon, Virginia. It will arrange a panel of experts whom will converse about the use of technology in nonclinical settings, and what those challenges mean to patients/their families and industry professionals. With the unfortunate rise in the number of chronic illnesses plaguing our country daily, families need to learn the “do’s and don’ts” of the home health world and how technology can help them in such a difficult time of transition.
Some of the topics that will be covered at the summit are: medical device manufactures, healthcare technology management professionals, information technology experts, design engineers, the role of clinicians, the role of regulators and more. It will commence at the Hyatt near Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport, and will submit questions to representatives from the FDA, the Joint Commission, academic, industry, hospitals, and others, all of which will interact with the audience in order to help conjure up potential solutions.
“The movement of healthcare technology into homes and other nonclinical settings is changing fundamentally how we deliver healthcare in this country and abroad,” says AAMI president Mary Logan. “This change has the potential to save scarce healthcare resources and make patients more comfortable. But there are also dangers if we don’t consider the different physical spaces in which medical devices will function and the unique needs and capabilities of users outside formal clinical care settings managed by highly trained experts. That’s what this summit is all about—finding solutions and setting us all on the right path forward.”
From the range of experts set to appear on the panel, one of the keynote speakers is Tejal Gandhi, MD, president of the National patient Safety Foundation, who will stage discussions and answer prompted questions. Another speaker will be Joseph Cafazzo, PhD, and leader of the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation and senior direction of Healthcare Human Factors at the University Health Network. He will be giving the keynote address to the attendees and panel members, as well as presenting some of his research from his work in congestive heart failure, diabetes and end-stage renal disease.
The AAMI wants to thank the following organizations for supporting the summit’s organization and purpose: the American College of Clinical Engineering, Ambulatory Surgery Center Association, BSI, Center for Aging Services Technologies, Continua Health Alliance, ECRI Institute, eHealth Initiative, Healthcare Technology Foundation, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Infusion Nurses Society, TJC, Medical Device Innovation, Safety and Security Consortium, NPSF, UL (Underwriters Laboratories), and the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance.
About the Author
Alyssa Clark is the Editor of Healthcare Global