Frontlines: Finding Solutions On the Job

Abstract

Healthcare technology is about important, complex, and sometimes daunting subjects: interoperability, electronic health records, infusion systems, preventive maintenance strategies, the service and support of countless medical devices, and more.Healthcare technology is also about … people: the patients whose lives depend on the safe and effective use of medical technology, the clinicians who use it, the manufacturers who make it, the clinical engineers, biomedical equipment technicians, and others who maintain it.This issue's cover story is about the people, specifically those professionals on the frontlines of healthcare technology who face challenges on the job and find solutions – the problem solvers.We thought it was time to take a step back from the “big” themes and look at how things are playing out on a smaller scale and through the eyes of individuals who use healthcare technology in very practical ways every day.We wanted to hear from you about those professionals who are undeterred by the obstacles and are making a positive difference in the workplace. We sought nominations for problem solvers, and you delivered. We collected close to 100 nominations, each one of them worthy. The profiles here represent just a cross-section of the problem solvers we learned about.You'll read about two biomedical technicians who found a solution to a potentially deadly misconnection issue; a biomedical supervisor who came to the rescue of nurses who were frustrated and literally in pain because of the demands of one device; a nurse who tackled the problem of excessive alarms in the cardiology unit; a team of military biomeds who banded together for their certification exam; and more.There are certainly more of these problem solvers to highlight, and you can expect to read more of their stories in BI&T and other AAMI publications.