Atlantic Canada Clinical Engineering Society 

For Clinical Engineering Professionals

Volume 15 – August 2011

 In this Issue (a long one this time – sorry folks – lots going on!)

1. ACCESConference Newfoundland – It’s a wrap
2. Your new ACCES executive
3. New Website for a growing Society
4. October Leakage Current Seminar – Moncton
5. Fall Webinar Series Announced
6. 2012 Conference Announcement
7. Membership
8. Website Photos www.accesociety.org

Conference – Wrap Up

First off kudos go out to the organizing team for the 2011 conference. Steven Lockyer, Christina Whalen, Alana Bradbury, and Dee Hinson deserve an enormous round of applause from the societies members. The conference ran very smoothly, focused on timely topics presented by excellent speakers, showcased new technology, and attracted medical professionals from a broader range of professions than ever before.

The conference was also the largest yet, with more than 140 delegates. This evolution is the result of many hours of work and negotiation with a variety of groups. The conference team was challenged this year with the realities of the economic downturn in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. When other support service organizations in Atlantic Canada were cancelling their annual events, the ACCES exec and conference team went to extraordinary lengths to ensure Clinical Engineering professionals, representing the entire Atlantic region, made it to our conference. We are all very proud of their efforts!

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The professionals who make it all possible

For more conference photos and the vendor hall click here

 

These Vendors and Organizations were sponsors for the 2011 conference - Please be sure to say thank-you!

 

Abbott Diagnostics – www.abbott.ca AMT Endoscopy – www.amtendoscopy.com ARCOM Telecom – www.statussolutions.com Barco Inc. – www.barco.com Baxter – www.baxter.ca Bellwether Healthcare Solutions Inc. – www.bellwetherhealthcare.com BCL - www.bclx-raycanada.ca BD – www.bd.com Braemed Ltd. – www.braemed.ca CADTH – www.cadth.ca Canadian Medical Products Cardinal Health Canada – www.cardinalhealth.com Carestream Inc. – www.carestreamhealth.com Carl Zeiss Canada Ltd. – www.zeiss.ca Carsen Medical Inc. – www.carsenmedical.com Clear Power Solutions – www.clearpowersolutions.com College of the North Atlantic – www.cna.nl.ca ConMed Canada – www.conmed.ca ConMed Lincatec Canada – www.conmed.ca Covidien – www.covidien.com Domestic Medical Services – Draeger Medical Canada Inc. – www.draeger.com FiberTech Canada Inc. – www.fibertech.ca Fisher & Paykel – www.fphcare.com Fisher Scientific – www.fishersci.ca Fresenius Medical Care – www.fmcna.com Galaxy Battery – www.galaxybattery.ca Gambro Inc. – www.gambro.com

GE Healthcare – www.gehealthcare.com HealthPRO Procurement Services - www.healthprocanada.com Hill-Rom Canada – www.hill-rom.com Hospira Healthcare Corporation – www.hospira.ca Johnson & Johnson Medical Companies – www.jnj.com Karl Storz Endoscopy Canada Ltd. – www.karlstorz.com Maquet-Dynamed Inc. – www.maquet-dynamed.com Marsh – www.marsh.com Masimo – www.masimo.com Medset Specialties Ltd. – www.medset.ca Medtronic of Canada – www.medtronic.com Olympus Canada Inc. – www.olympuscanada.com PENTAX Canada – www.pentaxmedical.ca Philips Healthcare – www.philips.ca ProMed Technologies – www.promedtechnology.com Ricoh Canada – www.ricoh.ca Roxon Medi-Tech Ltd. – www.roxon.ca Siemens – www.siemens.com Sonosite Canada Inc. – www.sonosite.com Spacelabs Healthcare (Canada) Inc. – www.spacelabshealthcare.com STERIS – www.steris.com Stryker – www.stryker.ca Universal Power Solutions Inc. – www.upspower.ca VCS Canada – www.vcscanada.ca T.B. Clift Limited – www.tbclift.com Verathon Medical Inc. – www.verathon.com VitalSine Inc. – www.vitalsine.ca Zoll Medical Canada – www.zoll.com

Your New Executive

The conference brought with it elections and a new executive team. Fortunately many members are back which ensures continuity. We are also very pleased to welcome new members with fresh ideas that will take the society into the future. We will miss Steven Lockyer from the exec. Steven has been instrumental in both the development of the website and the NFLD conference. The 2011-2013 ACCES Executive team;

• Jeremy Dann (Nova Scotia) – President This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Paul Auffrey (New Brunswick) -  Director of Education This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• David Hancock (Nova Scotia)  – Director of Professional Affairs This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Dave Melnick (New Brunswick) – Director of Finance This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Paul Verboom (Nova Scotia)– Director of Publications This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Peter Butt (Newfoundland) – Director at Large  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Sean Nobles (New Brunswick) – Director at large  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Jason Symmonds (Nova Scotia) – Secretariat This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A New Website for a growing Society

Steven Lockyer’s effort to develop, and keep the site current have been outstanding and very much appreciated We have known now for a while that we would have to take another step forward and re-engineer the site to meet the evolving needs of the society. Paul Verboom has taken on the role of Publications director and is leading the charge on the redevelopment. A team has met and developed a rough draft for our new look and feel. We hope to have this online in the fall for your feedback. If you have suggestions or things that you would like to see please contact Paul directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Additionally, we have engaged Stellarlite to enhance our logo for publication and printing in a variety of media. They are also working to animate it for the website. The executive is reviewing the options provided by the company. You should see the results soon.

October Leakage Current Seminar– Moncton

Registration – Up soon on the ACCES website – stay tuned

Date:  October 27th, 2011

Location:  Dr. Georges-L Dumont Hospital, 330 rue University, Moncton N.-B.

Room: Amphitheatre

Time:  9h00 to 4h00

Registration:  coming soon to the website!

Fee:   None- this session is sponsored by ACCES, Health Technology vendors in Atlantic Canada, & Datrend System Inc.

For information please call Paul Auffrey at (506) 862- 4016

 

 

ALL ABOUT ELECTRICAL SAFETY AND LEAKAGE CURRENT

by Ron Evans, Datrend Systems Inc.

As a biomed technologist, are we performing excessive electrical leakage testing on medical equipment?  When is the last time you found medical equipment with high leakage?

1.       Standards, Regulations and Leakage Current

·       Standards versus Regulations

·       CSA versus Health Canada

·       Health Canada versus FDA versus IEC

·       Why do we do leakage current measurement (from a legal point of view)?

·       Perception versus reality

·       Canadian Electrical Code

·       Provincial Regulations – Department of Public Safety

·       Hospital Accreditation

2.       Safety Standards

·       What Standards are relevant

·       What Standard to use?

·       What are the differences?

·       Why are there so many Standards?

·       Canada versus USA versus EU and the rest of the world

Will discuss:

C22.2 No 125

·       Risk class 1, 2, 2G and 3

·       Leakage current limits for each risk class

CSA 601

Classification (protection against electrical shock)

·       Class I

·       Class II

·       Internally powered equipment(battery or battery packs)

Degree of protection against electrical shock

·       Type B Equipment

·       Type BF Equipment

·       Type CF Equipment

Clarify the difference between Medical Device Classification (Health Canada) and Degree of protection from electrical shock (CSA).

3.       Particular leakage Current Tests

·       Why do we do leakage current measurement (from a clinical point of view)?

·       What is a safe level of leakage current?

·       Types of leakage current: Earth leakage current, Touch/Chassis (Enclosure) leakage current, patient leakage current, patient auxiliary current

We will discuss:

·       Diagrammatic representations of the different leakage measurements

·       Leakage current measurement conditions (normal conditions and single -fault conditions)

·       What are internal leakage measurements and are they necessary? Is this just another name for ground wire or earth leakage? 

·       Is an open neutral leakage measurement necessary?  Why or why not?

4.       Group discussion

As a biomed technologist, are we performing excessive electrical leakage testing on medical equipment? 

5.       Open Q & A session

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Fall Webinar Series Announced

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, six new webinars in the fall.  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.

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

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1)    Effects of Electrode Placement on the 12-lead ECG presented by Robert M Farrell

Sponsored by GE Healthcare & ACCES

Date & Time:  September 28, 2010 from 2 to 3 p.m. (Atlantic Time)
Registration: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/281676354

When you received the ‘’Thank you for registering’’, don’t forget the option of «add to your outlook calendar».

The placement of electrodes can have significant effects on the interpretation of the ECG.  For diagnostic 12-lead ECGs, the recommended location of the limb lead electrodes is on the arms and legs.  However, these electrodes are often moved on to the torso for patient monitoring applications.  This presentation will describe the important differences between these two electrode configurations.  The frequency and effects of chest electrode misplacements will also be discussed.

2)    Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2011 presented by Eric Sacks

Sponsored by ECRI & ACCES

Date & Time:  October 24, 2011 from 2 to 3 p.m. (Atlantic Time)

Registration:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/955754763

When you received the ‘’Thank you for registering’’, don’t forget the option of «add to your outlook calendar».

Each year, ECRI Institute investigates hundreds of accidents, near misses, and complaints related to medical technology. Occasionally we identify product design or manufacturing defects. More often, we identify circumstances in which medical technology that is not defective is used in a manner that leads to a safety hazard. Some such use errors are one-time or rare events. Others we see repeatedly even after we have published and publicized a hazard report. The annual Top Ten Healthcare Technology Hazards article and presentation are designed to equip you as a patient safety leader, with the information to conduct a systematic awareness and educational campaign in specific clinical departments to reduce the likelihood that the mistakes of others are repeated at your hospital.

3)    Benchmarking & Best Practices in Clinical Engineering by Frank R. Painter

Sponsored by University of Connecticut & ACCES

Date & Time:  October 25, 2011 from 2 to 3 p.m. (Atlantic Time)

Registration:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/191715083

When you received the ‘’Thank you for registering’’, don’t forget the option of «add to your outlook calendar».

Tracking and trending clinical engineering performance and metrics is a proven method to improve performance and create an appropriate work environment to accomplish technology management goals and objectives.  This presentation will review the data collected from the AAMI Benchmarking Solution (ABS) web based CE benchmarking tool and review the lessons learned and best practices identified by the subject matter experts, commissioned to develop and manage the ABS program.

4)    Ceiling lifts Lessons Learned by Jeremy Dann

Sponsored by Health Association Nova Scotia & ACCES

Date & Time:  November 9, 2010 from 2 to 3p.m. (Atlantic Time)

Registration: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/397847226

When you received the ‘’Thank you for registering’’, don’t forget the option of «add to your outlook calendar».

There is a growing body of evidence that indicates ceiling lifts are high risk devices that require careful attention to detail in the development and delivery of a comprehensive preventative maintenance and periodic inspection program. Health Association Nova Scotia's Clinical Engineering staff members will take you through the development of their testing program and professionally engineered lift load. The Association's CE service is now testing more than 2000 lifting devices annually. Real world experience and evidence will be presented surrounding the importance of routine testing and incoming inspections.

If you are not currently looking after ceiling and floor lifts in your CE department you may rethink your approach after this presentation.

This presentation will focus in the following areas:

1. Lift testing - why should I care?

2. Standards and regulations

3. Lift loads and test equipment

4. Inspection results

5. How are tracks installed?

6. Why do we need better labels?

7. Why do tracks fail inspections?

8. Why do tracks and motors fall from the ceiling?

5)    Infection Control and how it pertains to Ventilators by Richard Kauc

Sponsored by Covidien & ACCES

Date & Time:  November 24, 2010 from 2 to 3p.m. (Atlantic Time)

Registration: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/311388979

When you received the ‘’Thank you for registering’’, don’t forget the option of «add to your outlook calendar».

In this webinar we will discuss the following:

• various ministry of health and respiratory guidelines
• why we need to filter patients exhaled breaths
• how filters work – what does N95, N99 or N100 mean?
• specific infection control issues to ventilators
• how we can protect ourselves at the bed side and when a vent is sent to biomed for service or PM’s.

6)    Monitor Alarm Management: Decreasing Nuisance Alarms and Preventing Alarm Fatigue by Lois Macpherson

Sponsored by Spacelabs Healthcare & ACCES

Date & Time:  December 14, 2010 from 2 to 3 p.m. (Atlantic Time)
Registration: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/262489954

When you received the ‘’Thank you for registering’’, don’t forget the option of «add to your outlook calendar».

Critical Care Physiological Monitors detect and notify clinicians of many types of alarms; from technical problems, changes in vital signs, to life threatening arrhythmias. Clinicians may become desensitized when they are overwhelmed with the number of alarms. This can lead to alarms being ignored or disabled. This presentation will discuss causes and prevention of false positive physiological monitor alarms and management of alarm settings for patient safety.

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2012 Conference Announcement

          It’s official ! The 2012 conference will take place in Halifax from June 19th to the 22nd. This will be a joint conference with the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society and held at the Westin hotel near Pier 21.  A joint ACCES/CMBES executive level conference support team is in place and we have agreements between all the parties involved for the management of the conference. We are pleased to announce Steve Smith, Director of Clinical Engineering at the Health Association Nova Scotia will be chairing the conference.  If you would like to participate in the planning and execution of the 2012 conference please contact Steve directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Signing the agreement between ACCES and CMBES for the 2012 Halifax Conference

Sarah Kelso, Jeremy Dann ,John Inch, Steve Smith, Murat Furat (taking the picture Martin Poulin)

Membership

Join the rapidly growing number of CE professionals ACCES members working in Atlantic Canada!  Tired of only getting bills in the mail? Membership kits continue to ship. Freebies and a low membership rate = Good news for you! Sign up now at the full member rate – still only 25 dollars.

You can download a membership form here or you can join on lineat http://www.accesociety.org.

Contact Jason Symmonds (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) for questions

Website Photos

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.

If anyone has any suggestions for the site go to the contact section for the site and e-mail Paul Verboom This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.