CIMIT Innovation Congress 2007 Draws Record Numbers, Showcases Innovative Technology

More than 500 physicians, engineers, scientists, business executives, government officials and students attended the CIMIT Innovation Congress 2007 at the Back Bay Events Center in Boston on Nov. 13-14. Excitement was high among visitors who were learning about new medical innovations, and the buzz was ongoing as it related to networking opportunities and discussions of technology.

The theme of the event was “Driving Change in Healthcare” and participants did a first-rate job of presenting both hands-on demonstrations and provocative presentations that generated discussion. Attendees learned about the rise of connected health and the prospects for treating traumatic brain injury; they got a look at the future of NOTES (gastrointestinal surgery without scarring) and the current success of digital innovation in operating rooms and ambulatory practices. At all times attendees were able to network with peers and learn from experts in innovation.

A hallmark of the annual event is the CIMIT Exploratorium, an exciting environment were attendees could experience replicated clinical-care settings such as a battlefield emergency room, a neonatal intensive-care unit, an operating room of the future and a presentation of the CIMIT Global Health Initiative. Here individuals could interact with the investigators and companies that are collaborating on the new innovations that are driving change in healthcare. The chance to see CIMIT-supported projects up close was a dazzling experience for visitors.

As reported by the Boston Globe (on Boston.com), after the Tuesday night opening, “Last night was a technophile’s dream at the Exploratorium, the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology’s name for a room full of displays hinting at the future of medicine as envisioned by its member hospitals and universities. There was a robotic assistant for performing lung biopsies. There were radio-frequency identification devices to monitor medications at the bedside and track surgical instruments in the operating room. There was a glove with sensors to show muscles’ recovering after stroke and a device to warn before an epileptic seizure. Then there was the incubator made out of car parts, intended for use in developing countries.”

Dr. Parrish lauds conference

New this year was an experimental laboratory called the “Power of Virtual Experience: Hands-on Exploration of Simulation and Gaming for Healthcare.” Virtual learning is a revolutionary approach to building skills and gaining knowledge by using serious games. (A serious game is a software application developed with game technology for principles to help develop skills that could be used in a medical setting). Intrepid participants enjoyed activities such as (video) golf, Super Monkey Ball and Guitar Hero as part of the unique learning process. Such exhibits welcomed waves of visitors.

“This was a great conference, and offered learning experiences for everyone,” said John Parrish, MD, director of CIMIT. “The Exploratorium provided an exciting hands-on opportunity to learn and speak with investigators, and the Power of Virtual Experience added to our lineup of active options.

“The keynote address was excellent, and the concurrent sessions enabled attendees a chance for in-depth learning on specific subjects. When you add the fact that we had successful pre-conference and post-conference workshops, I think we can say this was a truly remarkable event for those on the cutting edge of medicine.”

In addition to introducing the Power of Virtual Experience, this year’s Congress also offered both pre-conference and post-conference symposia. Capacity crowds attended each: Regulatory Impact on Commercialization Strategy, Cardiac Health Venture Summit, and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Victor Dzau, MD, provided the keynote speech and addressed, “Transforming Medicine: Seamless Integration of Discovery, Translation and Globalization.” He is James B. Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University, chancellor of Duke University and president and CEO of the Duke University Health System.

Dr. Dzau said that the U.S. leads the world in developing technology and advanced procedures for medical care, but is far down on the list in key metrics of actually delivering medical care for all.

He suggested that improvements can come from “a national mandate on reforming, delivering and financing” medical care; launching a campaign for preventive care and wellness; and developing an effective community health program that will assess and address weaknesses in delivering care to needy communities.

“The academic health centers must lead if we are to improve medical care in this country and overseas,” said Dr. Dzau, who held leadership positions at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Partners HealthCare before joining Duke.

“We must include the local communities in delivering healthcare, but we must also remember global responsibilities. Today we are operating in one single marketplace, and our marketplace is the world.”

Following Dr. Dzau’s address, three healthcare leaders offered “Perspectives on What’s Driving Change in Healthcare.”

 Community involvement is stressed

Wendy Everett, ScD, president of the New England Healthcare System, said that one answer to improving healthcare of Americans is through education and community outreach programs.

“One success story in the last generation is the campaign to cut down on smoking,” said Dr. Everett. “We have gone from 45 percent of adults smoking to 21 percent, and that means fewer people getting serious illnesses. Community programs were crucial in educating the public.

“But today we must confront unhealthy behavior that causes obesity, which can lead to diabetes, heart failure, hypertension and other conditions.”

Gregg S. Meyer, MD, MSc, senior vice president for quality and safety at Massachusetts General Hospital, urged that changes be made in hospitals to improve safety. He said that the empowerment of patients and improved technologies such as those designed into the Operating Room of the Future, are strong forces pushing medical centers to improve safety conditions.

The Congress offered 13 concurrent sessions on various topics that are driving change in healthcare through innovative medical technology.

In the session, “Connected Health: Disruptive Innovations in Connecting Caregivers and Patients,” some panelists suggested that it is necessary to speed use of remote technologies in healthcare. Kenneth L. Minaker, MD, chief, Geriatric Medicine Unit, and associate professor of medicine, MGH Senior Health, said the growing number of “older” patients in senior centers is bringing on a greater need for care.

“The average age in a nursing home three decades ago was 73,” Dr. Minaker said. “Now it is in the 80s. Our seniors are living longer and that is ushering in the need for new technologies and techniques.”

Kathy Duckett, BSN, RN, director of Clinical Programs, Partners Home Care, said that personal contact is still a priority for senior citizens.

“Remote monitoring and checking in by phone are good, but older patients still want personal contact,” she said. “A robot alone or an online system with no personal contact is not appealing. Patients want to know there is a real person taking an interest in their health.”

In the session “Traumatic Brain Injury,” Lee Schwamm, MD, director, Acute Stroke Services and vice chair, Department of Neurology at MGH, said that technology is aiding the treatment of brain injury but much still needs to be learned.

“Now that we can send images from a small hospital to a large medical center quickly and easily, more experienced doctors can be helpful to those clinicians who haven’t had as much training,” said Dr. Schwamm. “We are learning more but brain injury is still a very serious matter.”

Moderator of a session titled “Medical Device Plug-and-Play Interoperability: Improving Patient Safety and Healthcare Efficiency” was Julian M. Goldman, MD, principal anesthesiologist, MGH Operating Room of the Future, and director, CIMIT Program on Interoperability. Dr. Goldman’s national team of doctors and scientists won CIMIT’s Edward M. Kennedy Award for Healthcare Innovation.

Dr. Goldman said that lives can be saved by integrating medical devices into patient-centric networked systems that provide real-time data.

“Each year there are accidents and unnecessary deaths in operating rooms,” said Dr. Goldman. “An OR has many kinds of electronic systems, many of which don’t interact with each other. One of our key goals is to make sure all medical device systems communicate, and to create an international standard so that planners and administrators have guidelines that will enable them to create a failsafe hospital infrastructure.”

In the session on global health, Kristian Olson, MD, PhD, CIMIT program leader for its Global Health Initiative, said that more can be done with “low tech” devices to help preserve the lives of mothers and newborns in emerging countries.

“In some villages, parents don’t name their infants for several months until they determine whether they will live, so it’s clear that our work to save infants is important,” said Dr. Olson. His team is developing an incubator that would be constructed of spare auto parts. The units could be fixed by villagers.

Fellowships and Science Prizes Awarded

CIMIT awarded six fellowships to graduate students. These $55,000 packages are to support graduate engineering students to work in highly innovative yet underfunded areas of healthcare research.

The 2008 CIMIT-MIT Medical Engineering Fellows are Benjamin Rapoport, Faisal Kashif and Olumuyiwa Ogunnika, who will receive it for the second year.

The CIMIT/Boston University Medical Engineering Fellows are Birant Orten, Pui Leong and Jane Zhang.

CIMIT named four prize winners in its first annual Poster Competition in medical research:

Most innovative research: $2,000. Seemantini Nadkarni, PhD (Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard). Title: Development of laser speckle imaging: a new technique for the evaluation of unstable atherosclerotic plaque. He is an instructor at Harvard Medical School.

Potential impact on patient care, $1,500. Chong Wing Yung, PhD (Children’s Hospital Boston/Draper). Title: Microfluidic blood cleanser for sepsis therapy. He is a post-doctoral research fellow in surgery at CHB and Harvard Medical School.

Best student poster, $1,000 each. Christina Pacak, PhD (Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard). Title: Bioengineering conduction tissue for repair of pediatric heart block. She is in post-doctoral training at CHB; and Cameron Morland (Boston University). Title: An acoustic mobility aid for the visually impaired. He is a PhD student in the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems at BU.