Patient Safety:  Improved Respiratory Monitoring

George T. Blike, MD , Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon NH

ARLINGTON, VA—The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) has selected George T. Blike, MD, quality and patient safety officer, medical director for patient safety training, staff anesthesiologist, and professor of anesthesiology for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH, and James P. Welch, vice president of patient safety initiatives for Masimo Corp. in Irvine, CA, as winners of the AAMI Foundation/Institute for Technology in Health Care Clinical Application Award.

Blike and Welch created physiological monitoring systems that improved the accuracy and capability of monitoring respiration in non-operating room settings, such as general care floors and post-anesthesia care units.

Blike and Welch also designed innovative pulse oximetry where “false alarms were reduced so that nuisance calls were minimized,” says Michael Ramsay, MD, chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, TX. “The alarm signal was sent directly to the caregiver via a pager system directing them to go immediately to the patient’s room.”

AAMI recognized Blike and Welch for their achievement at the Dwight E. Harkin, MD, Memorial Lecture and AAMI Awards Luncheon in June, during AAMI’s Annual Conference & Expo in San Antonio, TX. For more about the AAMI Foundation/Institute for Technology in Health Care Award, visit http://www.aami.org/awards/ith.html.

James P. Welch, Vice President of Patient Safety Initiatives Masimo Corp, Irvine CA.