AAMI announced in February that Pamela Arora would be stepping in as the health technology management (HTM) association’s president. Before joining Children’s Health in 2007, Arora served as SVP and CIO at UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, Massachusetts, CEO of LiquidAgents Healthcare, and CIO of Perot Systems in Dallas, TX. She holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Wayne State University and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

HCB News: AAMI announced you were selected as the new president and CEO in February. When will you / did you officially assumed that role? What has the transition been like?
Pamela Arora: I started my first days in the AAMI offices just this March and it’s amazing to know I’m joining an organization that so positively impacts healthcare delivery across the globe. I had been with the AAMI board for about five years, so it has been less of a sudden shift than you might think. I’ve watched how the scope of AAMI’s influence is broadening with the evolution of medical devices and technology, and the organization needs to strongly capitalize on its wins. I have ideas of what those are, but it’s important that I take the next several months to listen to our members and stakeholders to hear their perspectives. I’ll be at the AAMI eXchange in San Antonio, TX this June to get to know our community. Come and say, “hello!”

HCB News: Tell us a bit about your background in healthcare and with AAMI. How did your role at Children’s Health System of Texas help prepare you for this new role?
PA: It was the evolution of medical devices that initially brought my attention to the IT aspects of healthcare delivery. For fourteen years, I served as chief information officer at Children’s Health System of Texas and eventually as their senior vice president of strategic technology. It was there that I discovered that AAMI was helping the biomeds I worked with stay on top of technology evolution, and so I decided to get involved with the association.

HCB News: Can you share some of the key initiatives AAMI will be focusing on over the next year?
PA: Getting to know AAMI’s members is important to me. We are launching a comprehensive membership survey in late April. Over the last few years, the needs of our stakeholders have been changing dramatically. This survey will serve as an environmental scan of the healthcare industry so AAMI can effectively meet our membership’s expectations.

On the education side, we’re continuing to expand our service offerings to meet member needs. Along those lines, we’ve partnered with two amazing companies, Amplifier and Ambifi. Amplifier leverages advances in brain science to accelerate training in a way that’s quite unique, and Ambifi transforms the way organizations deploy and support tasks like equipment maintenance. We’re excited about bringing these capabilities to our stakeholders and will be continuing to expand our training capabilities.

As for standards, that’s really at the root of AAMI’s mission — guiding the development, management, and use of safe and effective health technology. Many of our volunteer standards developers (amazingly passionate experts, all) have their eyes on new technologies. There’s a lot going on, but I’ll give two examples. A first-of-its-kind technical information report (TIR) on cloud computing for medical devices is currently in the works. Another new TIR is being completed as a joint project with the British Standards Institution to address considerations for the risk management of machine learning and artificial intelligence in medical devices. It’s incredibly exciting to glean these first best practices from the cutting edge of medical device technology!

And that also brings up cybersecurity. There’s a clear consensus that how we use and protect data are key for the proper use of evolving healthcare technologies. That’s something that we are capitalizing on, educating professionals and standardizing best practices for anywhere medical devices and other healthcare technologies are developed, utilized, or maintained.

HCB News: How are things going with the AAMI BMET Apprenticeship program?
PA: There’s a need for new HTM talent in the U.S. We estimate that more than half of the professionals currently working in the HTM field are of retirement age and AAMI’s Technology Management Council recently determined that 19 U.S. states don’t have a single HTM academic program. Where are we going to find fresh talent as the number and importance of these roles increases? AAMI’s new national BMET Apprenticeship Program is helping to address this problem, having acquired well over a dozen new employer partners since its 2021 launch. However, that’s only a first step toward giving the whole of the U.S. the apprenticeship opportunities the industry needs. More employer partners are needed.

Then there’s the Right to Repair. AAMI is a neutral convener. We support further conversation and collaboration on Right to Repair for the sake of patient safety. Even between differing parties, there are a lot of brilliant ideas all aimed at the same goals. If they work together, you know there is going to be a better result.

And for other important topics like cybersecurity, it’s more like “motherhood and apple pie” in the sense that everyone is on board. The industry knows it’s something that everyone needs to do better in and inaccurate information can drive professionals to confidently go forward in the wrong direction. With cybersecurity, it’s all about sharing the right information between stakeholders. We’re on it!

HCB News: This year's eXchange will take place in San Antonio, Texas. Why was that location chosen?
PA: AAMI members hail from every part of the country, and eXchange is moved around each year so that our attendees, many of whom might not have the opportunity to travel across the country to attend a conference, can participate easily. It was time to go back to Texas, where eXchange has historically done very well, and San Antonio is a wonderful city for a conference. It has a great convention center and great hotels, amazing food and attractions — including the River Walk which we are taking full advantage of. We’ll be hosting the first ever AAMI Party on a private grotto on the River Walk and our Appreciation Reception will take place at the Hard Rock Cafe overlooking the River Walk. It’s going to be a fun year to get the community back together!

HCB News: Will there be a virtual component this year?
PA: Across AAMI we’ve created numerous opportunities for folks to engage virtually, whether in virtual meetings or participating in our virtual training, but being together in person at AAMI eXchange is our focus for this year. We’re really pulling out the stops to make it a great experience for live attendees in San Antonio.

Much like we did with the all-virtual eXchange REWIRED, we will be offering some livestreamed content. Our network-style programming was incredibly popular last year and so we’ll be doing a scheduled show from the Expo floor one hour each day along with some impromptu livestreams throughout the event. That’ll be freely available to anyone who can’t make it, but it won’t cover everything. It’ll be a great movie trailer but not the whole film!

HCB News: For those who are unfamiliar, what type of equipment stakeholders should consider membership in AAMI?
PA: AAMI encourages any organization consuming or developing healthcare products to join. In the healthcare industry, AAMI is the bridge between HDO leadership, HTM departments, service providers, and medical device manufactures. AAMI’s community advances industry-wide consensus standards on critical issues such as sterilization, electrical safety, combination products, wireless, cybersecurity, and much more. We need folks from the health systems thinking about “who should I be taking from my technology team to participate in these important discussions?”

HCB News: What are you most looking forward to at the conference?
PA: There’s going to be this heartwarming feeling, almost like a “family reunion,” that you don’t want to miss out on. We’ve all been missing that in-person factor, and I’m looking forward to seeing our member base having that ability to pick one another’s brains, laugh together, and share in the joy of seeing old friends face-to-face after such a long time.