New Patient Safety Center at VA Pittsburgh Evaluates Medical Products for National Use

The Department of Veterans Affairs has established the new Center for Medical Product End-user Testing at VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. This center, based at the healthcare system’s University Drive campus, is responsible for evaluating medical products before they are purchased and used to treat Veterans at VA medical facilities across the country.

“Patient care involves thousands of medical products—many of them similar—from multiple manufacturers. Our center will independently analyze comparable products in situations that mirror the complexity of the real-world clinical environment,” says Jamie Estock, a VA Pittsburgh researcher leading the center’s evaluation team. “Our goal is threefold: To advise the purchase of safe, top-quality products; to identify and mitigate safety issues before VA healthcare providers use products on Veterans; and to help manufacturers design and develop safer products and product updates.”

The science of analyzing the impact of product design on user performance is known as human factors. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends—but does not require—manufacturers to conduct human factors evaluations of their products. As a result, hazards related to medical product use commonly surface only after health care providers are already using the product in direct patient care.   

“Our number one priority is patient safety,” Estock explains. “By applying human factors evaluations early, we can greatly reduce the likelihood of hazards in patient care.”

Over the next three years, the center will evaluate three high-priority medical devices commonly used in treating Veterans: external defibrillators, electrosurgical units and smart infusion pumps. Once these evaluations are complete, an internal VA website will provide a head-to-head comparison of each product in order to help personnel across the VA system make better acquisition and implementation decisions.