by
Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | June 12, 2020
From the May 2020 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
We have also heard concerns from the health technology community about efforts to design, recommission, refurbish, or adapt technologies without the expertise of HTM professionals. While this may be well-intentioned work in response to the coronavirus pandemic, we have strongly encouraged those new to this arena to seek out health technology management experts.
HCB News: Can you talk about the AAMI coronavirus town halls?
RJ: Town halls are an important way to unite professionals from around the world to discuss the topics that they’re all facing. So far, we’ve held two HTM-based town halls (in our partnership with the Health Technology Alliance) and a sterilization-based town hall with IAHCSMM.
These meetings tackle many of the biggest questions facing our industry. For example, what steps should sterilization professionals take to protect themselves when processing reusable devices exposed to COVID-19? How does IT build out its infrastructure with so many healthcare personnel working remotely? What are the best practices for maintaining the massive amounts of new equipment? Those are all important topics of discussion.
We post the audio and transcript of each town hall online, and we hope it’ll be a useful resource going forward. You can register for future town halls on our website.
HCB News: When are the PPE standard PB70 and sterilization TIRs being released and where can they be accessed?
RJ: PB70 and TIRs 11 and 68 are available as free PDF downloads on AAMI’s coronavirus webpage, www.aami.org/coronavirus. We’re keeping that web page updated with the latest coronavirus news and resources.
The relevant ISO and IEC standards (most of which were developed under AAMI leadership) have been made freely available by ANSI and can be obtained at www.surveymonkey.com/r/62DZ6TD
HCB News: How far along are you in shifting to virtual training courses and how many are being offered?
RJ: All of our training courses have switched to a virtual format, and I’m pleased to say that we’re able to offer the same quality experience as before. We’ve been impressed by the extraordinary work of our education staff and our instructors, who built out the infrastructure to get this done and revised their plans. We’re pleased with the results and feedback from participants has been on par with our in-person courses.
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