Health 2.0 and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) have announced the winner of the Investing in Innovation initiative’s (i2) Reporting Device Adverse Events Challenge.

By Susan Carr

As I prepare each year for the National Patient Safety Foundation’s (NPSF) Patient Safety Congress, I look forward to the panel discussion that features members of the Lucian Leape Institute (LLI) discussing a current topic in a “town hall” format. The Congress was held last week (May 23–25) at the National Harbor complex near Washington, DC.

The Healthcare Technology Safety Institute (HTSI)—part of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) Foundation—has been awarded a $328,660 grant by the CareFusion Foundation to fund a three-year national study on key issues surrounding the administration of intravenous (IV) medication using smart pumps. The goal of this first-ever study, to be coordinated by Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, is to evaluate the types of errors that may occur when using smart pumps to administer IV medications, and what can be done about them.

UHC, an alliance of 116 academic medical centers with 264 affiliated hospitals in the U.S., and Datix, a U.K.-based provider of patient safety technology solutions, today announced a strategic collaboration to deliver new patient safety software and improve quality in U.S. hospitals.

B. Braun Medical Inc. will be attending APIC  2012 from June 4 through 6 in San Antonio, Texas displaying a range of safety-engineered devices designed to advance protection from infection in the healthcare setting for both patients and healthcare workers. The company’s new Introcan Safety^® 3 Closed IV Catheter will be in the spotlight, directly addressing issues pertaining to exposure to blood borne pathogens and catheter related complications.

Dräger has announced the availability of its breakthrough Infinity Acute Care System monitoring solution in the United States and Canada*. This system pairs a handheld device for monitoring at the bedside and in-hospital transport with a widescreen medical workstation at the point of care. The system provides continuous surveillance, interoperability with Dräger’s ventilation systems, comprehensive patient information at the bedside, and the full suite of Masimo’s rainbow^® SET noninvasive Pulse CO-Oximetry measurements, which can help hospitals increase patient safety and reduce costs. The Infinity Acute Care System has been in commercial use in European hospitals since 2010.

By Susan Carr

Working with two patient advocates, the Reliability Center has released a webcast that analyzes the sudden, unexpected death in January 2001 of 11-year-old Justin Micalizzi immediately following surgery for an infected ankle. For 10 years, the Micalizzi family—especially his mother, Dale, now a well known patient safety advocate—sought unsuccessfully and without the cooperation of the hospital to discover what caused Justin’s death or at least to elicit a clear and honest pledge that the hospital would commit sincerely to understanding what had happened.

Phytel, the leader in automated physician-led population health improvement, recently announced that Northeast Georgia Physicians Group has selected Phytel and its Atmosphere platform to help transform all of its 30-plus ambulatory-care clinics into patient-centered medical homes by the end of the year.

Established by the academic teaching institutions and Harvard Medical School (HMS), the HMS Fellowship in Patient Safety and Quality is proud to present its first four recipients representing the Class of 2012.