Why you should get amped up for this year’s virtual event

By Melanie Hamilton-Basich

When the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) was unable to hold its AAMI eXchange event in person for the second year in a row, instead of canceling, the organization opted to go all in online. The result is AAMI eXchange REWIRED. This wholly reimagined, fully virtual, interactive experience for the HTM community will take place from June 7 to 11.

“‘REWIRED’ is a sort of play on words since many of our stakeholders are involved in repairing and maintaining medical equipment. And we thought it was a fun way to say, ‘Look, this isn’t just AAMI eXchange online.’ That’s the key,” explains Robert Burroughs, senior vice president of AAMI Education. “We didn’t want to just add the words ‘online’ or ‘virtual,’ because we haven’t just thrown the eXchange online. We’ve created a new experience.”

Stellar Interactive Sessions

Taking full advantage of what the internet has to offer, AAMI will provide varied streaming content that will encompass many of the live aspects of the event attendees have come to expect, all without traveling far from home.

“The most obvious benefit is attendees can interact with us and each other—whether that’s asking questions of panelists in education sessions or interacting with guests on the livestream via chat,” says Burroughs.

AAMI eXchange REWIRED will also seek to reinvent the interactions that usually occur while walking the expo floor as a built-in part of the livestream experience. That includes seeing the latest technologies and speaking with vendors. “There will be product showcases, live demos, interviews with thought leaders from the vendor community, and more,” says Burroughs. “That is all in addition to the opportunity to schedule time with vendors for one-on-one meetings throughout the event.”

Attendees will also have access to a livestream with Burroughs and AAMI’s Vice President of HTM Danielle McGeary from AAMI’s headquarters in Arlington, Va. “We’ll be ‘on the air’ Monday to Friday, 11 a.m.to 5 p.m. every day, starting with ‘Good Morning HTM’ every morning,” says Burroughs. “We’ll be doing interviews, shoutouts from the field, product demos, panels, special features—it’s going to be really informative, interactive, and fun.”

Educational Opportunities Abound

Just because this event will be virtual doesn’t mean attendees will miss out on the more traditional elements of AAMI eXchange. All this content will be available in addition to networking opportunities and educational content providing up to 25 ACI CEUs.

There will be two half-hour educational tracks every morning and four educational tracks Monday through Thursday from 2 pm to 5 pm, for a total of more than 50 hours of educational sessions. Topics being covered include timely discussions about the impact of COVID-19, the latest trends in HTM, patient safety, cybersecurity, regulatory issues, and home health. Details surrounding AAMI’s new national BMET apprenticeship program, recently approved by the U.S. Department of Labor, will also be shared.

“Of course, attending live, you would never be able to get all that great content because you can’t be in two places at once! Now that AAMI eXchange is REWIRED, you can,” says Burroughs. “We’ll be recording the educational sessions so you can attend the ones you want to participate in live during the event and watch the other sessions later.”

Can’t-Miss Keynotes

Attendees can also expect three keynotes, starting Monday, June 7, with motivational speaker Brad Montgomery’s “Embrace Your Awesomeness: It’s All About the People.” Wednesday, author and speaker Jim Knight, the former senior director of training and development at Hard Rock International, will share tactics for how to create a positive “rock-star” culture at work.

Speaking of rock stars—particularly in the HTM community— Herman McKenzie, director of the Department of Engineering in the Standards Interpretation Group at the Joint Commission, will wrap up AAMI eXchange REWIRED on Friday, June 11, with an interactive keynote session. “This session will be a chance for folks to not only hear from the Joint Commission, but to participate in a Q&A session with Herman,” says Burroughs. “This session folks will definitely want to attend live!”

For more information and to view the full AAMI eXchange REWIRED schedule, visit https://www.aami.org/exchange. The session recordings will be available on demand to registered attendees or teams for the rest of 2021.


Melanie Hamilton-Basich is associate editor of
 24×7 Magazine. Questions and comments can be directed to [email protected].