Vanderbilt Anesthesiololgy

The Vanderbilt Medical Center Department of Anesthesiology had an outstanding showing at the recent Society for Technology in Anesthesia (STA) Annual Meeting, receiving several awards for technology innovations. STA is an international organization of physicians, engineers, students and others with an interest in anesthesia-related technologies. The society’s mission is to improve the quality of patient care by improving technology and its application.

Those from the department attending included Brian Rothman, MD; Paul St. Jacques, MD, Paul Reynolds, MD, Mary Jeskey, RN; and Elizabeth Card, RN. Awards received included: Best Innovation (VigiVU – Rothman/VPIMS Team); Best Clinical Application (VigVU – Rothman/VPIMS team); (3) Honorable Mention: Abstract (Paul St. Jacques/Mary Jeskey/TATRC team).Vanderbilt’s Anesthesiology Department also presented seven of the 45 abstracts, by far the dominant group participating at the meeting.

Response to VigiVU, an innovative mobile Perioperative Information Management System (PIMS) application developed for iPhones by our department was overwhelming. Dr. Brian Rothman, Perioperative Informatics associate director and a key developer of VigiVU, gave a live demonstration of the iPhone application which provides real-time, security-protected operating room information directly to mobile medical staff. VigiVU provides live OR room video views, patient history and physical information (including real-time vitals) and two-way communications capability. Integrated into the existing Vanderbilt Perioperative Information Management System (VPIMS), VigiVU is the next wave of patient information communication tools.

(TATRC) wireless patient monitoring study also generated a lot of excitement and questions from conference attendees. Anesthesiology Department research nurses and faculty members presented four posters on aspects of the study including: nursing acceptance of new technology, two patient case studies and an overview of undetected hypoxia. Patients at Vanderbilt Medical Center have been participating in the study funded by the Department of Defense (DOD) since August 2007 and the study will conclude in early 2010.

By proving that the patient population at Vanderbilt can be monitored effectively and that successful interventions can be initiated when needed, critical data has been collected through this study to support the use of this wireless monitoring technology in other important applications such as battlefield triage, emergency response to mass casualties, planning more flexible use of bed structures in hospitals, emergency room use and other applications. By performing this study, the Vanderbilt Department of Anesthesiology is serving as a leader in proving technology that has the potential to revolutionize patient care in multiple settings.