Editor's Note Researchers in the departments of anesthesia and biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University have created a device that removes alarm sounds while preserving an ICU patient’s ability to hear human and environmental stimuli, notably speech. The in-ear device, which is worn by the patient, eliminates alarm sounds from the…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 15 issued a Safety Alert for frameless stereotaxic navigation systems because of navigational accuracy errors during surgical procedures. Some of these errors have led to patient deaths, serious or life-threatening injuries, and inaccurate, aborted, or prolonged surgical procedures. The FDA…

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Editor's Note The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has started converting older, inactive paper healthcare records to electronic health records (EHRs) in an effort to reduce the amount of office space used for storage of patient records and to streamline the claims processes, the April 24 EHR intelligence reports. This…

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Editor's Note The Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety, a multi-stakeholder collaborative convened and operated by ECRI Institute, has issued new safe practice recommendations for the use of health IT in improving the accuracy of patient identification. Mistaken identifications can lead to wrong patient care, improper care, or no care…

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Editor's Note In this study, Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers created an automated system to identify diabetic patients, detect insulin administration, check for glucose measurement, and remind anesthesiologists to check intraoperative glucose. Implementation of the automated reminder system: improved glucose monitoring from 61.6% to 87.3% of cases reduced PACU hyperglycemia…

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Information technology (IT) has been a lifesaver and a timesaver in healthcare, bringing speed and precision to medical-surgical procedures and replacing paperwork with electronic computation, storage, and communication. But there is a dark side. Systems can be sabotaged, files can be opened, and devices used in surgery can fail at…

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The interactive hybrid OR, which debuted at the annual OR Manager Conference in 2014, grows larger and more comprehensive each year. For 2016, representatives from more than 10 different companies will be on hand to answer questions, and product demonstrations will create a dynamic learning environment. The 2015 town hall…

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Personal wearable technology, which covers the gamut from activity trackers such as Fitbit to e-textiles that monitor vital signs, have the potential to revolutionize healthcare. Like most innovations, however, the technology comes with risks. For OR leaders, those risks include possible security breaches, distractions, and violation of patient privacy and…

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Editor's Note An Independent Security Evaluators study of 12 hospitals found that all had vulnerabilites that could lead to patient deaths or harm, according to a May 9 report from WUSA 9. During the study, cybersecurity experts were able to remotely control respirators and patient monitors, trigger false alarms, and…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 8 issued a warning about magnetic interference between breast tissue expanders with magnetic ports and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) or pacemakers in patients. The breast expanders can interfere with the functioning of these cardiac devices, causing them to go into "magnet…

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