Best Commentary
This honor went to a team from the MedStar Health National Center for Human Factors in Washington, DC, for “EHR Usability: Get It Right from the Start.” In this article published in the May/June 2017 issue of BI&T, Kathryn M. Kellogg, associate medical director; Rollin J. Fairbanks, founding director; and Raj M. Ratwani, scientific director of the center, focused on the importance of supporting the cognitive needs of clinicians—as well as considering workflow issues and the clinical environment—during the initial design of EHR systems. “However difficult, this undertaking is an essential step toward EHR excellence, ensuring patient safety, and finally getting rid of those paper sticky notes,” they wrote.

Bright Ideas Award

In each issue of BI&T, AAMI highlights how one healthcare facility or system implemented a novel approach to tackling a specific healthcare technology-related problem or established a new process that contributed to improved patient care. The “bright ideas” featured in this section are selected by AAMI’s Technology Management Council (TMC). The TMC then chooses one program to receive its annual Bright Ideas Award.

This year’s award went to the Biomedical Services Department at Lexington Medical Center based in West Columbia, SC, for its simple solution for keeping track of the facility’s 540 physiologic monitoring command modules. By developing the color-coded system detailed in the September/October 2017 issue of BI&T, each department in the hospital could easily identify its modules, ensuring that the equipment was programmed with the correct settings and alarm parameters.

AAMI is a nonprofit organization founded in 1967. It is a diverse community of approximately 7,000 healthcare technology professionals united by one important mission—supporting the healthcare community in the development, management, and use of safe and effective healthcare technology.

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