The AAMI Foundation is accepting applications for a fresh round of grants and will award up to $80,000 in 2018 to support research directed at enhancing the safe adoption and safe use of healthcare technology.

The objective of the Mary K. Logan Research Awards program, named in honor of AAMI’s former president and CEO, is to encourage and fund studies that promote positive patient and healthcare provider outcomes through healthcare technology.

“Making sure that healthcare technology delivers on its promise and does not unintentionally lead to patient harm requires well-designed scientific studies, but finding funding for this type of research is getting harder and harder,” says Marilyn Neder Flack, senior vice president of patient safety initiatives at AAMI and executive director of the AAMI Foundation.

“Through the Mary K. Logan Research Awards program, the AAMI Foundation is dedicated to providing the necessary resources to advance the safe use of healthcare technology,” Flack adds.

The AAMI Foundation is particularly interested in funding projects that address its main areas of focus: the continuous electronic monitoring of patients on opioids, clinical alarm management, infusion therapy safety in hospitals and nonclinical environments, and the training of clinicians in the use of complex healthcare technology.

“Although projects that offer a defined and direct path to implementation, with clear and positive results, are encouraged, studies of problems for which deeper understanding is needed before effective solutions can be developed are also important,” Flack says.

In 2017, the Foundation awarded grants to researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, which is part of the Trinity Health System.

Awards are restricted to 501(c)(3) organizations in the United States and tax-exempt charitable organizations in Canada. Grants will be made to the sponsoring organization (hospital, university, clinic, etc.), not to individuals or departments. Applications should be submitted to Flack at [email protected] by December 31. Awards will be made in June 2018.