ROYAL OAK, Mich., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The Beaumont Technology Usability Center is assisting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in a national patient safety initiative to prevent tubing and catheter misconnection errors in pediatric intensive care units. The project, a part of the Medical Product Safety Network -- or MedSun -- program, is expected to conclude in April 2007.
"In the health care industry, many medical tubing connection devices are utilized to deliver medication, gases, and nutrition," says Izabella Gieras, BTUC's director of technology management. "These devices frequently have similar or even identical connectors, despite their different clinical applications (e.g., epidural, intravenous, intestinal, etc.). The similarity of these connectors in a busy health care environment presents a real risk of misconnection errors, with potentially lethal consequences. BTUC is pleased to have the opportunity to serve the FDA in this important patient safety initiative."
About Beaumont Technology Usability Center
BTUC's mission is to advance excellence in health care by improving medical technology and its use. The Technology Usability Center works with manufacturer design teams seeking product evaluations on usability testing, risk assessment/operations improvement, clinical trial protocols and prototype development services.
The BTUC is a multidisciplinary team of health care experts affiliated with Beaumont Hospitals. Beaumont is comprised of two hospitals -- including a 1,061-bed tertiary care, teaching, research and referral center in Royal Oak, Mich. and a 296-bed acute care community teaching hospital in Troy, Mich. Beaumont also includes eight community-based ambulatory medical centers, four nursing centers, home care and hospice. For more information, see http://www.beaumontusability.com
About MedSun
The Medical Product Safety Network is a project under the direction of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health of the FDA. It is designed to collect data on adverse events and situations indicating the potential for harm involving medical devices. The objective of the MedSun pilot program is to determine if its system helps CDRH obtain better data on problems with medical devices from the clinical community.
Steve Ebben 248-551-2667 steve.ebben@beaumontservices.com
Beaumont Technology Usability CenterCONTACT: Steve Ebben of Beaumont Technology Usability Center,+1-248-551-2667, steve.ebben@beaumontservices.com
Web site: http://www.beaumontusability.com/
