I hope all members enjoyed the holiday season! With this new year, we look back at another MDR week celebrated across Canada. I hope all MDR departments had a chance to celebrate and recognize the important work being done to keep patients safe. I was able to attend the CAMDR conference with many other MDRAO members and promote our group’s leadership in education and advocacy in MDR as well as see what is new in our profession.

The CAMDR Conference seems to have been a great success! Overall, we had a lot of members from the MDRAO supporting the event, and the booth was a success, with clarification given to supporters regarding the differences between the two organizations. A lot of text books and educational information was also handed out to conference attendees at our MDRAO booth.

We included our final chapter meeting with the Christmas festivities of 2016. We had approximately eighteen people attend our meeting and dinner out at Kelsey’s in Brantford, Ontario on Wednesday, December 7, 2016. Before the meeting, our executive met to discuss the topic for consideration for our upcoming education day in 2017.

The ETA Chapter had its first meeting on September 3, 2016 at the Keir/Mobile Repair facilities. The meeting was very well attended, with close to 30 members. We were treated to a tour of the Repair Facility and members got first-hand information on the delicate repair processes of many general surgical instruments. Certificates of attendance were handed out for the first time at the meeting. These certificate hours can be used towards individuals MDR certification in the future.

Welcome all to a brand new year. Theta Chapter continues to grow in membership and is planning an education session and meeting on February 8th and again on April 12th. Unfortunately, we will not be holding an Education day this year as per our agreement with the Provincial Conference planners.

Sigma Chapter will have an annual meeting in March. The date will be communicated the first week in February.

Happy New Year Everyone! Education has been very busy before and after the Holidays and our Distance Education courses and Refresher courses are very active again this year.

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Upcoming educational conferences

With an extensive selection of educational programs for endoscopy, Olympus University Canada is a convenient way for nurses, technicians, biomedical engineers, administrators and materials managers to further their knowledge of GI and surgical instrument procedures.

The Certified Medical Device Reprocessing Technician (CMDRT) Certification has been developed by CSA Group in conjunction with industry stakeholders to provide assurance that an individual possesses the competencies deemed necessary to perform the job function of a Medical Device Reprocessing Technician.

Welcome to STERIS University! For more than a century, STERIS Corporation has recognized and valued the daily commitment of the health care professional toward quality patient care.

GI Scope Handling and Reprocessing - Essentials is the first in a series of customized courses presented by PENTAX as part of our educational offering.

"Harnessing Our Power" (Scotiabank Convention Center - Niagara Falls, ON)

From knowledge-building hands-on labs and workshops to timely management and technical updates taught by some of the profession's most renowned and respected experts, plus poster sessions, discussion groups, and the largest vendor exposition for the CS profession...

Registration is now open for our 2017 National Education Conference in legendary Charlottetown, PEI! http://ipac-canada.org/ipac-canada-annual-conference.php

Mark your calendars to join us September 10-12, 2017 at the International Plaza Hotel & Conference Center Toronto Airport for the 2017 MDRAO Conference.

The ECRI Institute is providing its 2017 Top 10 list of health technology hazards to inform healthcare facilities about important safety issues involving the use of medical devices and systems. The List for 2017 includes two categories related to medical device reprocessing: #2 - Inadequate Cleaning of Complex Reusable Instruments Can Lead to Infections and #10 -Device Failures Caused by Cleaning Products and Practices. The safe use of health technology—from basic infusion pumps to large, complex imaging systems—requires identifying possible sources of danger or difficulty with those technologies and taking steps to minimize the likelihood that adverse events will occur. Produced each year by ECRI Institute’s Health Devices Group, the Top 10 Health Technology Hazards list identifies the potential sources of danger that they believe warrant the greatest attention for the coming year. All the items on the list represent problems that can be avoided or risks that can be minimized through the careful management of technologies. In this way, the list serves as a tool that healthcare facilities can use to prioritize their patient safety efforts.

FDA has received testimony from several industry, hospital, and patient advocates who weighed in on the possible regulation of medical device maintenance. Though some argue that unregulated, third-party device repair can reduce waste and cut costs, OEMs — who would prefer to repair or replace equipment themselves — expressed concern that unregulated maintenance could compromise patient safety.