July 7, 2006

Sims wins AAMI's top honor

The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) recently awarded Nathaniel M. Sims, MD, of the MGH Department of Anesthesia
and Critical Care, the prestigious AAMI Foundation Laufman-Greatbach Prize, the society's highest honor.

The award recognizes an individual or group who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of medical instrumentation. Among his many accomplishments, Sims and his colleagues developed technologies to improve patient care and safety. These include flexible monitoring — a system of portable monitors that can be moved between patient floors and track a patient's condition at all times — as well as smart infusion pumps, which contain a pre-programmed drug dosing library to reduce medication errors.

Robert Stiefel, MS, CCE, chairman of the Board of Directors of the AAMI and director of Clinical Engineering at the University of Maryland Medical Center, presented the award to Sims at a ceremony held June 25 in Washington, DC.