Strategic Health Technology Incorporation

Technology is essential to the delivery of health care but it is still only a tool that needs to be deployed wisely to ensure beneficial outcomes at reasonable costs. Among various categories of health technology, medical equipment has the unique distinction of requiring both high initial investments and costly maintenance during its entire useful life. This characteristic does not, however, imply that medical equipment is more costly than other categories, provided that it is managed properly. The foundation of a sound technology management process is the planning and acquisition of equipment, collectively called technology incorporation. This lecture presents a rational, strategic process for technology incorporation based on experience, some successful and many unsuccessful, accumulated in industrialized and developing countries over the last three decades. The planning step is focused on establishing a Technology Incorporation Plan (TIP) using data collected from an audit of existing technology, evaluating needs, impacts, costs, and benefits, and consolidating the information collected for decision making. The acquisition step implements TIP by selecting equipment based on technical, regulatory, financial, and supplier considerations, and procuring it using one of the multiple forms of purchasing or agreements with suppliers. This incorporation process is generic enough to be used, with suitable adaptations, for a wide variety of health organizations with different sizes and acuity levels, ranging from health clinics to community hospitals to major teaching hospitals and even to entire health systems. Such a broadly applicable process is possible because it is based on a conceptual framework composed of in-depth analysis of the basic principles that govern each stage of technology lifecycle. Using this incorporation process, successful TIPs have been created and implemented, thereby contributing to the improvement of healthcare services and limiting the associated expenses. Table of Contents: Introduction / Conceptual Framework / The Incorporation Process / Discussion / Conclusions

Autorentext

Binseng Wang, Sc.D., C.C.E., fAIMBE, fACCE earned Bachelor of Science degrees in both Physics and Electronics Engineering from the University of São Paulo, a Master of Engineering degree from the State University of Campinas, and a Doctor of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a Certified Quality Systems (ISO 9001) Auditor and a Certified Clinical Engineer. He started his career in Brazil as a faculty member at the State University of Campinas, where he created the Center for Biomedical Engineering. He also served as the Special Advisor on Equipment to the Secretary of Health of São Paulo state. In the U.S., he worked at the National Institutes of Health and served as Vice President of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs with MEDIQ/PRN Life Support Services, Inc. Currently he is Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Compliance for ARAMARK Healthcare Technologies, where he oversees the nationwide Medical Equipment Management Program that establishes the operating policies and procedures for equipment planning, acquisition, maintenance, retirement, replacement, supplier management, regulatory compliance, risk management, and quality monitoring and improvement. He also ensures the compliance of ARAMARK teams located at over 700 client sites with medical-equipment laws, regulations, and standards. He has traveled around the world providing consulting services to several national governments under the auspices of the Pan-American Health Organization, World Health Organization, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, and numerous non-government organizations. Dr. Wang is a fellow of the American College of Clinical Engineering (ACCE) and American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), a member of the Health Technology Technical Advisory Group of the World Health Organization (WHO). He received the 2010 AAMI Clinical/Biomedical Engineering Achievement Award.

Inhalt
Introduction.- Conceptual Framework.- The Incorporation Process.- Discussion.- Conclusions.