MD PnP: Getting connected for patient safety (TM)

Medical Device "Plug-and-Play" Interoperability Program

The MD PnP program is leading the adoption
of open
standards and technology to integrate
medical devices for improving patient safety
and healthcare efficiency
  Change Expectations -> Change
Technology -> Change HealthCare

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The Challenge: How can we better use medical devices to improve the safety of medical care?

Medical devices are essential to the practice of modern medicine. Clinical measurements such as blood pressure and temperature, x-ray and ultrasound imaging, administration of intravenous medications, and support of critical life functions all require medical devices. However, despite our reliance on sophisticated medical equipment, each device is not designed to interconnect with other devices. Therefore, it is difficult to connect individual devices into integrated medical systems to improve patient care and avoid unnecessary accidents.

The MD PnP Program


The Medical Device "Plug-and-Play" (or MD PnP) interoperability program is an inter-disciplinary, multi-institutional medical device informatics research program. We are improving patient safety and clinical efficiency by enabling standards-based integration of medical devices in order to:
  • create error-resistant medical systems,
  • support the widespread use of data obtained from medical devices,
  • improve clinical workflow to enhance patient safety and reduce healthcare costs, and
  • produce complete and accurate electronic health records for clinical care and research
  • enable the development of a medical grade network for high-acuity health care

The MD PnP program is based at CIMIT and the Massachusetts General Hospital (part of the Partners HealthCare System). Read our white paper here. 
We welcome your participation.


MORE ABOUT THE MD PnP Program >>
PROGRAM NEWS
January 2010 - FDA Workshop on Medical Device Interoperability January 25-26-27.

December 2009 - ICE Part I "Essential safety requirements for equipment comprising the patient-centric integrated clinical environment (ICE) — Part 1: General requirements and conceptual model"
has been published as ASTM F2761-2009 and can be obtained from ASTM International.

July 9, 2009 - Capitol Hill presentation sponsored by NSF program on Cyber-Physical Systems

September 18, 2009 - MIT Technology Review "Plug-and-Play Medicine"

September 2009 -  ASTM Standardization News article on the new ASTM F2761 standard on the "Patient-centric Integrated Clinical Environment", or ICE

June 2009 -  Dr. J. Goldman received AAMI Foundation/ Institute for Technology in Health Care Clinical Application Award for work on medical device interoperability.

June 2009 - The American Medical Association (AMA) endorses medical device interoperability.

Nov 2008 - The Massachusetts Medical Society endorses medical device interoperability. Details on "Interoperability Endorsements" page.