Midterm presentation

Today was my midterm presentation, which went relatively well. I had sustained a couple of problems in the last few weeks when I found out that my assumption that the use of electronics on oxygen carrying devices is prohibited by the Food and Drug Administration, was based on a misinterpretation, and when some of the concepts that I had thought of at a closer inspection turned out to get too expensive. The feedback I received last week about my ‘brilliant’ concept was not overly positive either, and I had to discard this concept. The hospital context is an ever-changing beehive in which the concept of a ‘perfectly secure’ system is a dangerous misconception, that can lead to false certainties. Multiple intelligent information feedback systems need to be in place and it should be clear both how accurate and how reliable their information really is.

Fortunately last Thursday I had a meeting with Mr. Stephen DiGoia, who is involved in a very interesting project at the Innovation center of UPMC Magee hospital. They have implemented a localization system that makes use of IR and RFID in two of their outpatient units, and have received very positive results with that. At one point it seemed that Mr. DiGoia was explaining my own project to me, since I am now also looking at intelligent tracking of people and equipment.

The midterm presentation (downloadable here) actually went pretty well. Although there were some very useful comments on practical implementation problems of varying magnitude, the general direction that I chose seemed to appeal to the audience at the Center for Quality Improvement and Innovation and my thorough way of researching the possibilities was received well. It was decided that I should investigate the most suitable way to present tank information further. A date for the final presentation at CQI2 still has to be set (will be somewhere between June 19th and July 3rd). The Green Light meeting, which is a required presentation in front of a committee of my home faculty, also has to be planned still.

Minutes