Tools of the Trade

The AlluraClarity live image guidance system, manufactured by Philips Healthcare, Andover, Mass, uses ClarityIQ technology to provide imaging for a comprehensive range of clinical procedures at low x-ray dose levels for patients of all sizes. The ClarityIQ tech-nology will also be available as an upgrade for most of Philips’ installed base of monoplane and biplane interventional x-ray systems. Electrophysiology, Cardiology, Neuroradiology, and Endovascular use less x-ray dose on the ClarityIQ-equipped AlluraClarity compared to traditional systems. (800) 229-6417; www.healthcare.philips.com.

Tripp Lite, Chicago, has introduced PDU Plug-lock Inserts for preventing accidental disconnection of C20 and C14 plugs. Often loose-fitting, IEC plugs can be accidentally disconnected by even the slightest nudge or vibration, a likely event during routine network maintenance. The plug-lock inserts fit over the input plug, ensuring a secure connection between the plug and the outlet, with up to 10 times more retention force than standard connections. Offered in black, blue, and red for color-coding, the inserts are compatible with any manufacturer’s cord. (773) 869-1234; www.tripplite.com.

Electrical Safety Analyzer with Android Interface

Live Image Guidance System

Vital Signs Simulators

IEC Plug Insert

The vPad series of electrical safety testing devices from Datrend, Richmond, BC, Canada, combines an Android tablet with a measurement platform. The device tests the standard assortment of electrical measurements, including voltage, current, and resistance, and adds to that the functionality of a tablet device. The Android tablet comes with a 10.1-inch color screen on which the workflow appears on an app-type interface. The basic manual safety analyzer comes in two versions: vPad-ES for the AAMI/IEC60601 Standard and vPad-353 for the IEC 62353 Standard. Users can input comments to results as needed. When testing is complete on a device, the test results can be saved as a report. Users can also create automated sequences for multiple testing scenarios. (800) 667-6557; www.datrend.com.

Fluke Biomedical, Everett, Wash, has launched the ProSim 3 and 2 vital signs simulators. The lightweight ProSims are built to be portable—ideal for conducting preventive maintenance and repairs in the field. Designed with four IBP channels, the ProSim 3 ensures multichannel moni-

tors are performing correctly, especially in high-acuity situations. The battery provides enough power for a full workday. Other notable features include: stay-connected ECG posts for secure lead connections, upgraded DIN connectors for cable and ProSim compatibility, and field upgradability for easy pairing with other devices. The ProSim 3 tests ECG, respiration, invasive blood pressure, temperature, cardiac output, and fetal/maternal. The ProSim 2 patient simulator tests two less parameters (cardiac output and fetal/maternal) and has two fewer inva-sive blood pressure channels. (425) 347-6100; www.flukebiomedical.com.

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Focus On

W hen asked about how he feels to have been named AAMI and GE Healthcare’s BMET of the Year for 2013 this past June, Richard Swim’s answer is straightforward: “It means a lot to me,” he says. But when asked to identify what qualities or achievements led to his being awarded the title, the answer becomes less clear. “I don’t think you can point to one thing,” he says. “Even I have a hard time describing what I do.”

That summary captures well the trajectory of Swim’s career. It’s complicated, but it’s not haphazard. Swim’s hard-to-define job description is a reflection of his choosing to take on a variety of challenges throughout his career. As those experiences and resultant new skills piled up, Swim outgrew the narrow definition of the tra-ditional BMET role. In doing so, he didn’t so much veer away from the BMET field as help blaze the trail onto which many others have since ventured—the bridge that connects the traditional biomed world to IT.

New Career, New FieldSwim is the team leader of clinical technology at Baylor Health Care System, Dallas. When in college in the late 1970s, he chose to study electrical engineering. But, he says he was more interested in applying those skills in a hands-on way instead of using them to design new products. The impetus to consider the biomed field came from his then-future mother-in-law, who worked in the health care arena. She “suggested there was this field that was just coming about—people who fixed medical equipment,” Swim says.

Her forecast proved both correct in a macro sense and influential on the individual level, as Swim decided to enroll in Texas State Technical Institute’s biomedical equipment technology program. The field was a natural fit for Swim, who has had a lifelong fascina-tion with the way things work. “I used to drive my dad crazy when I would take things apart—radios, voltmeters—and not always be able to put them back together,” he says.

After graduation, Swim took a position with the Baylor Health Care System, which at the time was a single hospital. While Swim’s entire career has taken place at Baylor, that was not what he intended when he began. “I thought I could be exposed to a lot of things [at Baylor],” he says. “I grew up in Abilene, Texas. I thought I would go to the big city and then move back to my small town.” Swim was indeed exposed to many new skills and technologies, but he never went back to Abilene. Just as Swim’s skills multiplied, so too did Baylor itself, expanding from a single hospital to 13, along with a number of clinics, during Swim’s 34 years there.

The first role Swim had at Baylor was in the clinical laboratory department. “I was specifically supposed to reduce service costs,” he says. “We brought a service group in-house.” Over the years, Swim

also worked in many aspects of medical equipment support, manage-ment, process improvement, and CMMS system administration.

Shaped By ChangeThe period leading up to the year 2000 was transformational. The IT concerns surrounding the Y2K issue highlighted just how deeply embedded computers were becoming in everyday life, even then. Swim says the approach to medical device connectivity was shifting, too. “The industry started shifting toward industry-standard net-worked equipment for patient monitoring systems, whereas before each manufacturer had their own propriety network,” he says.

To keep Baylor at the forefront of these developments, Swim’s department attempted to hire someone with computer network experience, something Swim says was “very difficult to find around that time.” The decision was made to train the biomed staff in com-puter and network support. Swim helped launch a program to train biomeds in Comp TIA A+ and Network+ certification courses. Swim says his ability to work with computer networks grew a lot during this time, and he realized that, in the future, everyone would need at least a baseline level of know-how. “Our field needs to understand clinical systems, not just serving medical devices,” he says. “That’s the role I grew into—a clinical systems specialist.”

Today, the team Swim works on is tasked with understanding system architecture—a big difference compared to his first days on the job. In a system as large as Baylor’s, Swim says identifying the skills various staff members should possess is key. “You might not be able to have everyone on your team trained to the architecture level, but you should have at least one or two people on staff,” he says. “We train our technicians how to troubleshoot patient moni-tors, to make sure that the vitals are flowing all the way through the patient’s flow sheet in the electronic health record.”

About a decade ago, Swim took on another role, a result of Baylor’s continued growth. While the biomeds at Baylor might have shared an employer, there was a time when that was the extent of their unity. “We noticed, over time, that we had these little pockets of medical service groups, even inside of one hospital,” Swim says. “And as we acquired new hospitals, we acquired new biomed groups.” To address this, a group was formed in 2003 to combine six biomed groups that were functioning separately into one group. “That’s where I gained a lot of database and equipment-management experience,” Swim says. “We had to bring everyone’s inventory together into one CMMS.”

Although the six groups shared similar goals, they did not take similar paths to get there. “It was interesting seeing what different groups thought was important to track,” he says. “The different groups would have varied views on what should be included in the medical device inventory and how it should be serviced.” Swim’s goal was to standardize the practices across groups. To this day, Swim is Baylor’s medical device management system administrator.

The shift to an IT-centric model at Baylor has continued. A few years ago, the entire biomed group at Baylor was reassigned to report to the Information Services group. The merger of IT and biomed departments

BMET of the Year Richard Swim

By Kurt WoockKurt Woock

Richard Swim

August 2013 24x7mag.com36

continues to be a topic of great interest, and occasional concern, to almost every biomed. Swim says the trend helps reinforce the concept that biomeds are working with clinical systems, not just individual devices: “You’re not only carrying a voltmeter around, you’re also car-rying knowledge to make sure that device is functioning correctly within the system.”

Swim says that explaining network archi-tecture to both sides—IT and biomed—has helped open communication channels. When everyone first understands the reasons behind policies and what everybody is trying to accom-plish, it’s easier to solve problems. As that rela-tionship develops, Swim says the two teams readily trade best practices back and forth, to everyone’s benefit.

Reflecting on the Past, Looking to the FutureRichard Swim’s career has in many ways been defined by change. The field has changed. He has changed. He has even been a catalyst to change. His familiarity with change is in itself a skill, one that anyone in the field should develop. “I think the only

barrier you might have to change is the fear of the unknown,” he says.

As someone who has built a career learn-ing and implementing new ideas, being given the BMET of the Year designation might be a bit of a misnomer, he says. “I feel like it’s not for one particular thing—someone called this a lifetime achievement award.”

His career path has been nontraditional in some ways, but in many ways, it’s one that anyone can follow. The way to do so is summed up best by Swim’s big-picture view of the biomed discipline: “I believe in learn-ing new skills rather than continuing to fix the same problem over and over again, learning to move and change with the field as it changes.” 24x7

Kurt Woock is the associate editor of 24x7. Contact him at kwoock@allied360.com.

Focus On

READ IT ON THE WEBRead an expanded version of this article online at 24x7mag.com

24x7mag.com August 2013 37

Industry Insider

Advanced Ultrasound Electronics

By Kurt Woock

Kurt Woock

INTERACTIVE EXTRASRead the full version of this interview online at 24x7mag.com

George Hryshchuk is the director of sales for Advanced Ultrasound Electronics (AUE), a company in Tulsa, Okla, that repairs and sells ultrasound parts. Fifteen years ago, when he was directing training at Denny’s restaurants, he wouldn’t have guessed that ultrasound was in his future. But when his brother John founded the company in 2001, George came aboard, doing everything from answer-ing phones to repairing equipment to tracking company finances. Now the two brothers, along with another brother, Greg, all work together and continue to grow the business—they are looking to double the size of their shop space in the near future. 24x7 sat down with George and discussed how the business has grown so quickly, and how they balance competitiveness with helpfulness.

24x7: When was Advanced Ultrasound Electronics founded, and what was the differentiator that set you apart from similar companies?Hryshchuk: We were founded in 2001 as an exclusive ultrasound repair company. At that time, we were one of the first compa-nies to do the repairs and then run tests for physical functionality on an actual system. That’s different from sending the board to an electronics repair place; they can’t put that particular board under a load. They can run it and test it, but they can’t put an actual load on it as a machine would do.

24x7: What’s the benefit to the customer?Hryshchuk: How do you know if your board is working properly? You can put

the board under regular diagnostics and it passes, but some probes put a heavier load on the power supply, which can cause parts to pop or capacitors to blow, or you’ll get noise on the screen, or you’ll get double image, or the probe won’t ID. We find these things out from QA and through the customers.

24x7: Why weren’t more companies doing that?Hryshchuk: Not everyone wants to invest in systems for every board. That’s what set us apart from other companies. Now, there are other companies that do similar work—others now have actual test beds—but we were one of the first companies to do this test on the component level and put the boards under an actual load.

24x7: How have the company’s offerings grown and changed since those early days?Hryshchuk: We started doing exchanges on boards and probes. Then we added peripherals sales and repair—VCRs, printers. We’ve actu-ally backed off offering some of the peripherals because everything is going digital now. We now do everything from system service, sales, board repairs and exchanges, and probes. We do minor probe repair, but we really don’t do full probe repair—we’re not set up for that. 24x7: What areas of the country do you service?Hryshchuk: We do service up to 8 hours outside of Tulsa. We also have a foothold in Dallas. We can reach Arkansas and Kansas. We are just starting service in the Southwest.

We added a regional salesperson in Phoenix. He’ll work with people in Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.

Our original building was 3,000 square feet with 750 square feet of shop. We grew to 6,000 square feet and then moved to a 9,000-square-foot building. Now we are look-ing to double in size to about 20,000 square feet or more, to accommodate the growth. We’re going to bring more people on for infra-structure and repairs. We ship and receive 600 to 800 shipments per month. We currently have about 15 people working at AUE.

24x7: What are you doing to stay ahead of the curve and ahead of the field?Hryshchuk: It’s important to stay up to date with the newer systems: the Vivid and Logiq E9s; back-end processors; all of the new Philips equipment, including the CX50 portables.

As far as other companies, we work together and compete against each other. It’s like a fam-ily. We can’t have every part every time, so we try to work together. When other dealers ask me for parts and I don’t have it, I don’t quote it—I try to send them to someone who does.

24x7: When considering a service contract, what would you recommend people pay extra attention to?Hryshchuk: Availability of parts. When your system breaks down, how easy would it be to get a part for that system? Even if it’s under warranty, you might not get a part for a while—then your system is going to be down either way. One advantage we provide to people who buy systems from us is that we offer loaner systems.

In the end, I believe it’s a combination of having the parts available, getting it to the customer by the next day, providing quality technical support, and, of course, offering all that for a fair price. 24x7

Kurt Woock is the associate editor of 24x7. Contact him at kwoock@allied360.com.

A Quick Take24x7: How did you get started in this line of work?

Hryshchuk: I had been with Denny’s since 1983—I started as a busboy and worked my way up to area training manager for a Denny’s restaurant franchise. When my brother John founded AUE in 2001, he gave me the opportunity to start working with him. (Greg, another brother, came along in 2006. He works with office management and accounts payable and

receivable.) I started by answering phones, setting up our accounts payable and receivable. I set up our database. From there I went on to help doing some of the repairs as a repair technician.

George Hryshchuk

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