The Mexican Hospital Consortium (CMH), TINC, and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) have inked a deal to create a new alliance for healthcare technology management (HTM) in Mexico.

“Healthcare professionals, processes, and medical devices are the three great pillars of healthcare. This agreement will help us develop technology management and assessment models that will increase safety and efficiency in our service delivery for all patients,” says Javier Potes, chief executive officer at CMH.

The alliance’s main objective is the development of six projects related to HTM within 2023, which will be implemented in the 52 hospitals affiliated to CMH:

  1. Standardization of medical device nomenclatures and identification codes
  2. Development of a HTM Body of Knowledge / Body of Practice
  3. Development of a HTM Levels Guide for CMH Hospitals
  4. Development and implementation of a HTM Maturity Model Assessment Tool
  5. Development and implementation of a HTM Maturity Model Training Program
  6. Development and implementation of a HTM Benchmarking Model for CMH Hospitals

The results of these projects aim to provide an operational framework for CMH to generate high-impact health technology initiatives, which include the standardization of regional service providers, medical equipment mass procurement, professional certification programs, and more.

“Biomedical/clinical engineering is key towards successful and safe healthcare delivery,” says Luis E. Fernández, chief executive officer and co-founder at TINC. “For many years, the Mexican healthcare sector and industry have struggled due to the lack of HTM-related guidance, especially during the H1N1 and COVID-19 Pandemics. We’re very excited to place many of these lessons learned into action within these Minimum Viable Projects/Products, which will serve as a basis for many other projects to emerge. Hopefully, this will result in a much-needed framework for Mexican Clinical Engineering. We congratulate CMH for their willingness to improve and thank AAMI for supporting this project as a mentor organization.”

Similar health technology resources created by AAMI have helped guide the betterment of HTM practices in North America. Now, through the alliance for Healthcare Technology Management, new resources shall be developed to account for Mexico’s unique health technology needs.

“AAMI is very excited to bring our HTM Maturity Model to Mexico,” says Danielle McGeary, vice president of HTM at AAMI. “Through this joint project with CMH and TINC, together we will be able to create a mechanism to elevate and standardize the important work of biomedical / clinical engineers across the country. This will lead to better operational efficiencies and increased patient safety via the use and management of health technology for all the patients CMH serves.”