Plymouth Meeting, Pa. - ECRI calls for submissions for the second annual Health Devices Achievement Award that honors a healthcare facility for achieving excellence in health technology management. The Health Devices Achievement Award, sponsored by ECRI (www.ecri.org), will be presented to an ECRI member or team of members that describes the most exceptional example of an initiative at their healthcare facility to improve patient safety, reduce costs, or otherwise facilitate better strategic management of healthcare technology.

"We would like to honor our member hospitals' commitment to achieving high standards of safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness in healthcare," says James P. Keller, Jr., vice president, health technology evaluation and safety.

The winner of ECRI's 2007 Health Devices Achievement Award will be announced at the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) conference, which will be held in Boston, MA, June 16-18, 2007. The winner will receive a plaque honoring the accomplishment and will receive:

-A feature article in ECRI's Health Devices journal and on ECRI's Web site
-Mention in ECRI's press announcements
-Signage displayed in ECRI trade show booth at AAMI 2007
-Promotional art work
-A complete press kit

The 2006 award-winning application was an exceptional example of how well-focused technology management can lead to better patient care. Beaumont Hospital's Technology Usability Center application described the deployment of a new communication system, improving the clinical alarm response time from 9.5 minutes to 39 seconds-a 93% improvement.

"Our telemetry team is honored to be recognized by ECRI. It was truly the collaborative effort between clinical and human factors engineers, biomedical technicians, nurses and cardiology staff that impacted patient care," says Kim Bonzheim, Beaumont, Royal Oak, MI, director of noninvasive cardiology and team leader. "Our project demonstrates Beaumont Hospital's on-going commitment to enhancing patient safety through the appropriate use of technology."

Applications are now being accepted for ECRI's 2007 Health Devices Achievement Award. Candidates must be current members of ECRI's Health Devices System, Health Devices Online, Health Devices Gold, and SELECTplus™ programs. For more details on submission criteria and essay instructions, go to ECRI's Health Devices Achievement Award Web site. The deadline for submissions is Monday, April 16, 2007. Essays can be submitted to ECRI either electronically or in hard copy by completing the online submission form, e-mailing at communications@ecri.org, faxing it to (610) 834-1275, or mailing it to ECRI, 5200 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462, USA. For further information, please call ECRI at (610) 825-6000, ext. 5346. Beaumont Hospital's award-winning submission, along with other notable applications for the 2006 Health Devices Achievement Award were highlighted in a best practices issue of the December 2006 Health Devices journal.

Health Devices is provided to members of ECRI's Health Devices System, Health Devices Gold, and SELECTplus™ programs. For nearly 40 years, Health Devices has featured comparative, brand-name evaluations of medical devices and systems based on extensive laboratory testing and clinical studies. ECRI's evaluations focus on the safety, performance, efficacy, and human factors design of specific medical devices and technologies.

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