A record-breaking 2,032 people turned out for the 2015 AAMI Annual Conference & Expo at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Tonight many of those health care professionals are returning to Denver International Airport, armed with a wealth of new ideas and experiences, and DOTmed News is among them.

This year's event featured some decidedly buzz-worthy industry topics. Including cybersecurity, alarm management, preventive maintenance strategies, risk management, device supportability, and endoscope reprocessing. Here are a few of the things you may have missed.

Cybersecurity

On Saturday, Billy Rios, co-founder of Laconicly, warned a crowd of listeners that cybercriminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated. The industry's growing dependence on computers and information technology networks highlight the importance of keeping data secure.

Rios explained that to conduct a massive cyberattack, a hacker only needs a single point of entry, such as an employee’s unsecured computer. From there they can tap into not only medical records, but medical devices themselves, such as infusion pumps which have been shown to be both vulnerable and deadly if mismanaged.

Rios stressed that the industry can help by getting rid of backdoor passwords, which only vendors and service or repair technicians should know. He also called for closer relationships between health care facilities, regulators, and the medical device industry to design a safer model of network security. Part of that relationship, according to Rios, means manufacturers must be transparent about what has caused a security issue so that damage can be best mitigated and future infiltrations prevented.

Addressing operational, financial, and productivity needs

On average, 58 percent of a hospital’s assets are idle, according to GE Healthcare. At the conference, GE showcased new technologies and solutions to help health care providers with operational and productivity challenges.

One of those solutions is a new computerized maintenance management system called AssetPlus to help hospitals better manage and prioritize equipment use and maintenance activities. It provides instant access to inventory data for every asset, preventive and corrective maintenance history from all departments, and spare part inventory.

GE partnered with Ascom and AirStrip to bring data from bedside monitors to the caregiver through GE’s mobility solution, enabling them to have access to near real-time patient data from anywhere in the hospital. GE is also offering a new comprehensive service solution designed to be one contract for all equipment service needs for rigid and flexible endoscopes, camera and couplers, power equipment, and surgical instrumentation.

EHR data interoperability

EHR data interoperability is gaining more popularity as the industry continues to discuss its benefits. Many EHR manufacturers are now starting to bring interoperable products to market.

Smiths Medical showcased its new PharmGuard Infusion Management Software with Interoperability Platform at the conference. The PharmGuard software wirelessly receives infusion therapy data from the Medfusion 4000 syringe infusion pump.

The interoperability software works by allowing the infusion data from the server to be wirelessly sent to the hospital’s EHR so clinicians can review and validate the information from one location. The software can also forward alerts generated from the syringe pump to alarm management applications using the IHE Alert Communication Management profile.

New risk management paradigm

Stephen L. Grimes, chief technology officer at ABM Healthcare Support Services, gave a talk that stressed the need for the health care technology management field and health care delivery organizations to embrace risk management more.

Organizations are continually implementing new health care technologies, and risk management is needed to identify, analyze, and control the risks associated with it. But Grimes said the new risk management paradigm must be relatively simple and effective in order for facilities to implement it.

In order to apply a risk matrix to medical devices like defibrillators or ophthalmoscopes, risk must be assigned by the device category and then the differences in risk between manufacturers, models, locations and devices must be assessed.

“Clinicians most often are in the best position to make the best judgment in terms of severity of levels or potential consequences of failure,” said Grimes. “Clinical engineers or HTM professionals are best at assessing probability.”