Spectrum 2018 Autumn

Spectrum 2018 Autumn
Publication date: 
14 Sep 2018

Table of contents

4. Notes from the Chair

4. BEAI Diary

6. News

16. Clinical Innovative engineering in a clinical environment

19. Rural Tropical Medicine Reality of rural medicine in the Democratic Republic of Congo

21. Industry Profile Picker Medical - a heritage not to be forgotten

26. Anaesthesia Focus A potted history of anaesthesia

29. Anaesthesia Focus Anaesthetic devices through the ages

34. Renal National renal information technology system

36. Renal AMACING Trial - an indepth overview

40. Roving Reporter Mixing engineering with archery

Foreword

With September synonymous with new beginnings, I hope everyone has enjoyed a rested summer and you are all remotivated again for another busy year.  As this is our pre-conference edition, we are looking forward to another informative and educational BEAI Annual Scientific Conference 2018.

Our 23rd conference will be held in a different location this year, at the Clayton Hotel in Galway on Friday, October 5, so we hope to see you all there. This year’s line-up for the conference includes Dr Leandro Pecchia, chair of the

clinical engineering division of the IFMBE and an associate professor of biomedical engineering in Warwick University and John Power, the CEO of Aerogen, a company based in the west of Ireland, who have pioneered aerosol-drug delivery systems. I would like to thank Damien Deehan and all his team at Aquilant for supporting the conference this year as our Gold Sponsor.

This year we are also teaming up with Engineers Ireland's biomedical engineering division to have our conference coincide with an event on 'process and operational excellence', which will take place in the same venue as our conference on Thursday, October 4.

We are delighted to be, once again, supporting the IMSTA Awards this year and are sponsoring the award for the Best Technical Services Company. The award will be presented to the successful applicant on September 27, in the Croke Park Conference Centre.

From an international perspective, Peter Grainger attended this year’s IUPESM World Congress on Biomedical and Clinical Engineering in Prague, and has been working tirelessly with the IFMBE and other colleagues to progress our professional registration/certification scheme, which they have fully supported. On a more poignant note, I would also like to offer my condolences to the family of Andy Fottrell, the father of our education officer and executive member Andrea Fottrell, who sadly passed away in early August. May he rest in peace.

Our cover focus in our Spectrum Journal autumn edition this month is on anaesthesia. Dr Joseph A Treacy, retired consultant anaesthetist, provides an historical overview of anaesthesia, while Niamh Byrne, senior clinical engineer, Coombe Womens Hospital, discusses anaesthetic devices throughout the ages, illustrating the article with images ranging from 1917 to today’s anaesthetic machines.

In our renal section, we feature an article from Cathal Collier, HSE senior project manager, on how the eMed renal information technology system is the best source of information when it comes to data about kidney patients; and also an article on the AMACING Trial from Dr John Holland, medical senior house officer working in the endocrinology service at Wexford General Hospital.

An excellent addition and something different in this issue of the Spectrum Journal is an article from Dr Graham Fry,  the Tropical Medicine Bureau, on the reality of rural tropical medicine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Dr Fry gives an eye-opening account on the completely different medical and hospital settings,

and the every-day trials that doctors and patients come up against. Ross Sherwood, clinical engineer at St

James’s Hospital provides a summary of the 3D-printing work and research carried out by the Medical Physics and Bioengineering Department at St James’s Hospital; and Gerry McElroy, diagnostic imaging product manager, RSL Medical, looks back at the Picker Company in the US, famous for its x-ray medical equipment and its rise to global success from its foundation in 1915. Our final article in this edition is an interview featuring in our Roving Reporter section, where Derek Dalton, facilities technician, Bon Secours Hospital Galway, speaks to Kieran Healy about his passion for both engineering and archery.

 

Brian Kearney

Chairperson, BEAI

 

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