EBME Expo
Leading medical engineering into new frontiers
The first gathering of the ‘EBME Expo Leaders Network’ brought together a select group of influential leaders from the healthcare technology (HealthTech) industry, at the Cinnamon Club, in Westminster, to drive innovation and to collaborate on achieving key objectives in the field of EBME. This Special Report outlines the key issues raised.
Opening the first session of the EBME Expo Leaders Network, EBME Expo Chair, Prof. John Sandham CEng explained that the aim of the group is to improve healthcare technology management and the impact of healthcare technology on patient care across private and public sector healthcare organisations. The afternoon encouraged a thought-provoking exchange of ideas on how the sector can navigate some of the key issues around: the increasing connectivity of HealthTech, the NHS drive towards more personalised care in patients’ homes, and the need for increased investment in strategic management of HealthTech and the EBME workforce. John Sandham pointed out that HealthTech
has moved away from single devices, towards increasing complexity and connectivity: “When I started in this profession in the 1980s, I was fixing individual items on a bench. As technicians in the workshop, we would do the repairs to the equipment, then take it back. Over the years, the role has gradually changed… We have moved from individual, ‘device-based management of
equipment’, to a ‘systems-based management’ process. Part of that is connectivity.” To address the evolving demands of the
profession, EBME Expo will be introducing a Connectivity Stage, this year, underscoring the importance of addressing the challenges of integrating HealthTech into hospital networks to provide clinicians with a centralised and real-time view of patient data within the hospital and beyond. John Sandham pointed out that Patient Administration Systems (PAS) are no longer separate from the technology, and this is a relatively new area for devices such as infusion pumps, for example. He highlighted the experience of Chase Farm, part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which has been assessed by HIMSS (the global Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) as having achieved stage 6 in the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM).1 “I went to visit Chase Farm Hospital two years ago and they have portable medical equipment reporting directly into the PAS. They have a
direct live feed, so that a doctor on another ward can look at a patient’s information – or even at home, via their mobile phone,” he explained.
Other hospitals are yet to catch up with this
level of connectivity and there is still much work to be done in this area, as John Sandham pointed out.
Alongside the drive for increasing
interoperability, there is increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare technologies. John Sandham pointed out that “we need to ensure connectivity works first”. Some exciting developments were highlighted
by the EBME Expo Leaders Network, including an AI solution that will enable medical devices to ‘talk to EBME systems’, in order to directly log the need for maintenance, when a fault arises, into the department’s database. This will reduce admin time and the time that nurses spend in phoning up the EBME department to report issues when they arise. It will also allow EBME departments to respond much quicker and reduce downtime.
Training Caroline Finlay, Joint Chief Operating Officer at MTS Health, commented that the workforce is one of the biggest issues facing the EBME sector, in terms of skills and capabilities – particularly around IT: “We cannot achieve what we need to achieve, without recognition that we need more training and development.” She highlighted the need for a workforce champion at a high level to drive this agenda forward. Iain Threlkeld, Vice President Engineering at the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) and Head of Clinical Engineering, at the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, highlighted recent efforts to address this. He pointed out that departments across the Yorkshire region were previously training engineers in very different ways. Hence, a need was identified for a more ‘standardised’ approach, that also reflected the changing skill
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