Remote Biomedical Services Support Program

Abstract

The Biomedical Engineering team at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) encountered challenges in seeking support from medical equipment vendors' service experts during the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily due to travel restrictions. Given that most vendors and their support teams are not based in Ottawa, the necessity for travel to address equipment issues at UOHI became a cumbersome, time-consuming, costly, and often impractical task, especially during pandemic conditions. The absence of the option for Remote Service Support resulted in decreased equipment uptime, limited collaboration between the Biomedical Engineering team and vendors, and escalated costs.

This paper outlines the creation of a novel Remote Service Support program for the Biomedical Engineering department at UOHI. The program aims to streamline and expedite the process of obtaining assistance from vendors by establishing a remote connection between Biomedical Engineering Technologists (BMETs) and the medical equipment's service experts through live, real-time calls. This innovative approach enables BMETs to conduct hands-free maintenance, while the remote expert can provide assistance and share documents or screenshots simultaneously. The implemented use cases in this project demonstrate the program's alignment with existing processes in the Biomedical Engineering department, presenting a pioneering strategy in the realm of Biomedical Services.