John Zaleski, PhD, on Medical Device Connectivity at HIMSS15

John Zaleski, Ph.D., CAP, CPHIMS Chief Analytics Officer for Bernoulli discusses the contents of his new book on medical device connectivityConnected Medical Devices: Integrating Patient Care Data in Healthcare Systems.

He briefly discusses the importance of maintaining devices which fluently communicate between each other and allows a smooth mapping technology based standard. The importance of which ultimately affects the patient care and patient safety. The problems encountered, as Dr Zaleski describes, are vast in breadth and scope, are a result because manufacturers of medical device equipment far too often develop to standards or specs of their own, which may be not completely compatible with other similarly used devices by other manufacturers. The result being an intermediary device is needed to provide or bridge that gap of understanding.

A common standard among medical device manufacturers to the highest degree and commonality is needed to reduce problems in patient care, reduce cost overrun, and increase the generalities in efficiently performing devices.

Connected Medical Devices: Integrating Patient Care Data in Healthcare Systems is available in the HIMSS bookstore explains what is needed in medical care device technology to overcome the challenges faced in absolute patient care and safety.

Connectivity

During this interview Dr Zaleski pointed out that still to many some medical device  manufacturers are not building equipment that conforms with HL-7.   This lack of standardization creates a difficult problem of integration. It is important that medical devices are able to connect without issue to other life saving equipment by other vendors.

“…  it’s very important because clinically this matters in caring for patients and if you’re interpreting something incorrectly that can ultimately affect patient care and patient safety.”

Bernoulli

Bernoulli addresses the challenge of medical device connectivity with its Bernoulli One™ platform. The Bernoulli One™ platform is a clinical middleware platform that incorporates an integrated, end to end solution for device integration, alarm management, real-time clinical surveillance and Virtual ICU that can support respiratory workflow and provide a uniform approach to ventilator weaning and empower staff with the needed knowledge to improve clinical outcomes.