VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System 1 of 10 to research equipment

A new research center in Oakland soon will test a variety of medical devices that doctors could use in veterans hospitals across the country, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced last week.

The VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System on University Drive landed one of 10 Patient Safety Centers of Inquiry that the VA will finance for three years starting in October.

At least $900,000 in federal money will support the center, which will evaluate external defibrillators used in cardiac arrest, electrosurgical units used to cut wounds during operations and infusion pumps used to administer intravenous treatments, researcher and center director Jamie L. Estock said.

“The goal is to grow the work and to grow in terms of the people” contributing to the research, she said.

To start, Estock said the center might establish a job at the VA Pittsburgh. Much of the money will go toward employees who will try out the devices, although she wasn't sure how many models might be tested.

Medical workers will use simulations to run the evaluations, putting the devices to work on gelatin body simulators and advanced mannequins that produce human-like responses.

“They are treating this situation as though it's a real patient,” Estock said. “We want to have that device in an environment that looks and feels real to them, as opposed to having them plink and plunk on a keyboard or push a few buttons.”

She compared the process to work done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which tests cars as a public service. Workers at the VA Pittsburgh will log their findings in reports for more than 152 VA hospitals and health care providers.

The effort marks the first such safety center in the VA Pittsburgh system, said Peter Mills, director for the VA National Center for Patient Safety Field Office in Vermont. He said the VA safety program began in 1999, supplying critical guidance on medication safety, reusable medical equipment and other health care concerns through centers across the country.

Centers to be funded through the 2018 fiscal year include groups in Madison, Wis.; Tampa; and Boston, Mills said. One in White River Junction, Vermont, will focus on suicide prevention.

The centers allow “researchers to look at these areas and develop practical resources to improve care,” Mills said. “I don't know a lot of other funding sources that allow this to happen in quite this way.”

Adam Smeltz is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5676.