Vacation
I'm heading off to the desert for a few days. I will be back in the office (and posting will resume) next Monday, er make that Tuesday.
Two Mass Casualty Drills Held in San Diego
Last week two separate mass casualty exercises were held in San Diego county. At UC San Diego, police, firefighters,
paramedics, SWAT teams and others were called to a simulated terrorist
attack at an academic building. There were numerous injuries, a
chemical spill and a struggle to retake the building. Near Lindbergh Field, a simulated global pandemic was overtaking San Diego and
a cyber-attack had knocked out cell phone and Internet communications
across the United States.
This week's event, called Strong Angel III, is
being hosted by San Diego State University and includes a broad range
of corporate sponsors, humanitarian and relief agencies, government
groups and universities.
The office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense
contributed $200,000 to the event, but equipment and in-kind donations,
such as computers and wireless communications technology, are expected
to be valued between $30 million and $35 million, Rasmussen said.
Companies participating in Strong Angel III
include Microsoft, Bell Canada, Cisco Systems, Sprint, Nextel and
Google, among others. Other participants include the Naval Postgraduate
School, the U.S. Department of Defense and the humanitarian group Save
the Children.
The drills focused on proving communications and information to coordinate logistics and deliver care to victims. The communications technology tested was integrated in a program called WIISARD, the Wireless Internet Information System for Medical Response in Disasters (here's a link to the WIISARD Wiki. The system was developed as a collaboration between UCSD, police, firefighters, and paramedics in San Diego.
Electronic tags on patients in the disaster
zone that recorded their vital signs and continually broadcast their
conditions to paramedics in the disaster area, a command post nearby,
and area hospitals.
Hand-held computers that paramedics used in the
field to enter information about the conditions of patients and track
medications they received.
Tablet personal computers used by supervisors
in the field who acted as links between paramedics and officials at the
command center.
A computerized command center that tracked the
locations of all patients and emergency workers, steered first
responders away from hazardous sites in the disaster zone and directed
the transport of victims to area hospitals.
I'm disappointed (but not really surprised) that medical device vendors weren't more involved with WIISARD. According to the caption of a photo accompanying the story, wireless medical devices were used and integrated into WIISARD. In the photo firefighters check the monitor on a “patient” during an exercise last Tuesday. The
monitors record vital signs and continually broadcast patients'
conditions to paramedics in the disaster area and a command post nearby.
Pictured right is a DMAT area set up in a hanger for a previous WIISARD disaster drill.
FDA Seizes Alaris Pumps
For the past couple weeks, I've been seeing search terms in my server logs referring to variations of “Alaris recall.” Naturally curious, I did a few searches myself and found nothing on the web regarding any Alaris pump recalls. This morning things hit the proverbial fan with the following press release from the FDA.
District Court for the Southern District of California issued a warrant
for seizure of Alaris Signature Edition Gold infusion pumps, model
numbers 7130, 7131, 7230 and 7231. The pumps are manufactured by
Cardinal Health Care 303, Inc. and the seizure occurred August 25. The
seized infusion pumps have a design defect called “key bounce” that may
cause potential over-infusion of medications. This seizure was intended
to ensure that infusion pumps located at Alaris' manufacturing facility
are not distributed unless the problem is corrected.
The press release goes on to describe an August 15 recall letter in which Alaris told customers that it will provide a warning label for the
pumps and a permanent correction for the key bounce problem once it is
available. In the letter, Alaris also provided recommendations to pump
users on steps they can take to minimize key entry errors – which are also included in the FDA press release (linked above).
The U.S. Marshalls seized about 1,300 pumps in San Diego valued at more than $1.8 million. From a Reuters wire report:
account for less than 1 percent of revenue in the company's
Clinical Technology & Services business, which had quarterly
revenue of $649 million in fiscal fourth quarter reported on
Aug. 3, 2006.
The company said it currently is testing a modification of
the device that reduces sensitivity of the keypad. This
modification would need to be validated on the product and
approved by the FDA.
FDA said its inspections revealed that Alaris failed to
follow the agency's medical device manufacturing regulations.
No products were seized from health-care facilities or
individual users, and there are no plans to do so, the FDA
said.
The agency said Alaris was issued warning letters in August
1998 and October 1999 outlining the violations and was given
opportunities to correct the violations, but failed to take
appropriate actions.
Note that the pumps involved are the Alaris SE (Signature Edition) pumps, and not the newer Alaris System PC pumps.
Pictured right is the Alaris Signature Edition dual channel pump.
Hospitals Target Self-Pay Health and Wellness Market
This story in Health Facilities Management magazine profiles the One Nineteen Health and Wellness spa, a new
health care facility that opened in Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham,
Ala., in January 2005. Luminary Birmingham hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital decided to build the integrated health and wellness center 12 miles from the hospital, in a rapidly growning suburban area. Total project cost: $35 million.
During his time at the center, Cardwell has taken advantage of much After he was discharged from St. Vincent’s
of what the facility has to offer, including the rehabilitation and
education centers, the exercise equipment, pool and track. His wife
even gave him a spa treatment as a gift.
Hospital in Birmingham last year, Cardwell underwent six weeks of
physical therapy at One Nineteen Health and Wellness. The therapy was
so successful he signed on for a three-month trial membership at the
center, which he later extended to a full membership. “I decided that
this was for me,” he says.
St. Vincent's Hospital has squarely targeted the self-pay health and wellness market. At the recent Healthcare Unbound conference, there was lots of buzz about waiting for reimbursement (especially for chronic disease management). A number of folks (I love contrarians) suggested the real opportunity is the self-pay market. It seems St. Vincent's agrees.
Pictured right is the magazine cover photo of the new spa.
What Gets Posted Here and Why
A reader commented on a recent post by asking (tongue in cheek, I'm sure) what the vendor paid me to blog about their product. The short answer is nothing – I don't even have ads (yet). I generate no revenue directly from this web site. The site is the marketing vehicle for my consulting business, and presented to you as a public service to the industry. I put effort into conversing with you rather than printing fancy brochures, writing articles for magazines (although I do some of that), or calling you on the phone all the time to “network.”
Some people do send me press releases, which I treat like press
releases I see on the web – if I'm so moved I'll write a post about
it. I do appreciate getting press releases directly because I'm less likely to
miss something of interest, so thanks to those of you who have me on
your media list. Comments, emails or phone calls in response to a blog post – or just to chat – are always welcome. Topics we might discuss that are not clearly related to blog posts are assumed to be confidential, unless otherwise noted. Client work is always confidential. I have non disclosure agreements with all my clients, and many who are not clients.
I wish I could claim that some rigorous analytical framework is used to determine what topics get attention here. I can't. Over time I've developed public news sources that I scan most days. I also do a fair bit of poking around the web for client projects and the pro bono work I do for industry groups. From this stream of news and info I try to pick things that are on topic with the stated purpose of this blog (see About this site, top right hand column) or that interest me in some way. Between you and me, this site also serves as a notebook where I capture tidbits of information that I can use in future consulting engagements. (I probably use that Google search box in the left hand column more than all of you combined.)
In addition to blogging about items in the news, I sometimes can't help but spout off about things. I try to keep that to a manageable level because a) people who talk too much tend to sound stupid, and b) I don't want to drive off too many of my readers. Some consultants look at sharing some of what they know as a zero sum game. That would mean that every time I share something, I lose because theoretically I've given away something that I otherwise could have sold. Without getting deep into game theory, let me just say I don't look at it that way.
Now I could get paid to blog if you would like to start your own to engage your customers – I can help, from “soup to nuts” as they say. In that case I would be getting paid but it would be on your blog, not here.
So there you have it; there really is a method to my madness. Sort of. Pictured right, my alter ego Alfred E. Neuman.
