Atlantic Canada Clinical Engineering Society
For Clinical Engineering Professionals
Volume 7– August 2009
In this Issue
- Conference – It’s a wrap!
- Education webinars – we are a go !!
- Conference 2010 – 15 year anniversary
- Membership
- Website Photos and Forums
Conference Wrap Up
Halifax ACCEC 2009 feedback has been excellent. H1N1, the economy, and healthcare reform combined were not enough to keep folks away from Halifax for the 14th Annual Clinical Engineering conference. Organizers took a risk this year moving into a conference hotel format. The budget for the event has more than doubled. The vision and hard work paid off and have moved both the event and the society onto firmer ground. One of the big changes this year was the engagement of a conference facilitation company. Special thanks go to Carla Anglehart, Carol Ann MacAdams, and Dee Hinson of NSAHO for bringing their expertise and tremendous effort to the event.
Lots of photos coming soon to the website ! We’ll let you know when they are posted.
Conference team members at wrap up meeting.
Seated (L-R) Gary Slauenwhite IWK, Dee Hinson NSAHO, Phil Bradfield NSAHO, Rick Stewart IWK, Ross Smith NSAHO, Mike Barton CBDHA
Standing (L-R) Paul Auffrey Moncton, Carol Ann MacAdams NSAHO, Dave Hancock IWK, Jeremy Dann NSAHO, Ken George IWK
Plenary Session Speakers and Event Leaders
Seated (L-R) Sandra Cascadden NS DoH, Chris Power CEO Capital District, Jaques Lirette Domica Consulting
Standing (L-R) Ken George Co Chair ACCEC 14, Jeremy Dann President ACCES, Mike Barton Co Chair ACCEC 14
Education Webinars – Continuing education for CE professionals
Our mission at the Atlantic Canada Clinical Engineering Society (ACCES) is to support clinical engineering professionals working in the Atlantic Provinces and developing educational opportunities is central to that mission. As you know, continuous education and professional development is key to our profession and helps us foster the adoption of new and innovated technologies in healthcare.
The Atlantic Canada Clinical Engineering Society (ACCES) is pleased to offer, as a pilot project, four Webinars. We at ACCES realize that in these current economic times we all have to find ways to be frugal and a webinar is a very low cost method of connecting people and presenting relevant content. The webinar is an internet based technology that allows both the presenter and the audience to be anywhere that has access to the PC and the internet. Therefore, no travel is required, no hotels and it also gives the opportunity for a larger audience to participate.
Each presentation is approximately one hour. There is no cost to CE professionals for these 4 trial webinars
System requirements to attend webinar:
- Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer, Mozilla Firefox 2.0 or newer (JavaScript and Java enabled)
- Window 2000, XP, 2003 Server or Vista
- Cable modem, DSL or better internet connection
- Minimum of Pentium class 1GHz with 512 MB of RAM (Recommended) (2GB of RAM for Windows Vista)
Participants wishing to connect to audio using VoIP will need a fast internet connection, a microphone and speakers or we would strongly recommended a USB headset.
If you have any question, send me an email at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Paul Auffrey
ACCES Education Director
The Pathway to Electrosurgical Patient Safety presented by David Wood
Sponsored by Conmed Canada & ACCES
Date & Time: September 9, 2009 from 2 to 3 p.m. (Atlantic Time)
Registration: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/541370067
When you received the ‘’Thank you for registering’’, don’t forget the option of «add to your outlook calendar».
The purpose of this seminar is to provide biomed, nurses and other surgical team members information on patient safety during electrosurgical procedures. Fundamental principles of electricity and electrosurgery are addressed and guide the discussion towards the significance of creating a safe surgical environment and how to prevent potential hazards. Learning objectives include:
- Describe the basics of electricity
- Define scientific terminology that governs the use of electricity in surgery
- Discuss principles of electrosurgery
- Compare and contrast active electrodes, dispersive pads, and electrosurgical generators
- Describe imperative safety measures when providing patient care during electrosurgical procedures
- Identify key factors to be considered when using electrosurgical medical devices
Update on Hemodynamic Monitoring Technology presented by Paul Ouellet
Sponsored by Regional Health Authority A & ACCES
Date & Time: October 7, 2009 from 2 to 3 p.m. (Atlantic Time)
Registration: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/468589283
When you received the ‘’Thank you for registering’’, don’t forget the option of «add to your outlook calendar».
Hemodynamic monitoring is a corner stone in critical care. Traditionally, hemodynamic monitoring is carried through a pulmonary artery catheter commonly known as Swan Ganz catheter and cardiac output is obtained by thermodilution. This technology, besides being quite invasive, displays mostly snapshots of hemodynamic monitoring. Since the last decade technology has evolved toward a less invasive approach and a real time display of hemodynamic functions.
This presentation will describe two new technologies: transpulmonary thermodilution and arterial waveform contour analysis. An emphasis will be made on a technology that is drawing attention lately, the Vigileo technology from Edwards.
Surgical Smoke: Avoiding the Risks presented by David Wood
Sponsored by Conmed Canada & ACCES
Date & Time: October 28, 2009 from 2 to 3p.m. (Atlantic Time)
Registration: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/602700794
When you received the ‘’Thank you for registering’’, don’t forget the option of «add to your outlook calendar».
The purpose of this seminar is to acquaint biomed, nurses and other members of the surgical team with the risks associated with surgical smoke plume. Research has demonstrated that, annually, some 500,000 surgical team members are exposed to airborne contamination from surgical smoke. Frequently, patients are exposed to these same potential contaminants. Learning objectives include:
- Describe the content of surgical smoke plume
- Identify the hazardous components of plume
- Compare surgical smoke to cigarette smoke
- Discuss potential diseases that can occur from plume transmission
- Describe symptoms of plume exposure
- Differentiate the various safety techniques for reducing exposure to plume
- Compare and contrast the various surgical smoke evacuation systems
- Describe the importance of suction tubing size to evacuation rates
- Discuss recommended practices related to surgical smoke plume
Argon Beam Coagulation: Patient Benefits and Safety presented by David Wood
Sponsored by Conmed Canada & ACCES
Date & Time: December 2, 2009 from 2 to 3 p.m. (Atlantic Time)
Registration: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/950328651
When you received the ‘’Thank you for registering’’, don’t forget the option of «add to your outlook calendar».
The purpose of this seminar is to provide biomed, nurses and other healthcare team members information regarding patient care issues during the application of argon beam coagulation. In order to properly apply this technology, a basic knowledge of electricity and its application to patient care procedures is necessary. Combining argon gas and electrosurgical energy to accomplish desired tissue responses require an awareness of specific patient safety considerations. The patient benefits and procedural advantages are presented and the standard safety practices are reviewed. Learning objectives include:
- Explain scientific principles of argon beam coagulation
- Identify the properties of argon gas
- Describe the tissue effects related to argon beam coagulation
- Differentiate the benefits of argon beam coagulation to conventional electrosurgery
- Discuss patient care safety principles
2010 Conference Update
No rest for the wicked they say – Conference planning for our 15th anniversary event has been underway for months. The conference will be hosted at the Delta Beauséjour April 27 to 30 in Moncton. You heard it here first!
Vendor Displays and Delegates Halifax 2009 ACCEC
Website Photos and Forums
We are always looking for more photos to display on the home page in the header animation – your team at work - photo should be in a 1200x400 pixels format. Also, we are in the final steps of setting up a video section on the site for users to publish educational materials and other related items!
If anyone has any suggestions for the site go to the contact section for the site and e-mail Steven Lockyer This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Membership
The annual conference allowed for our very first annual meeting of the society. Those in attendance enjoyed a health debate surrounding the membership fees and in the end $25 dollars a year was decided on. Jason Symmonds (society secretariat) and Jeremy Dann (President) are working to put a membership package together for you. We will have giveaways and freebees featuring our name and new logo.