XIMEDICA LAUNCHES HUMAN CENTERED HEALTHCARE SERVICES TO ADDRESS HOSPTAL SERVICES FOR DEVICE MAKERS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

XIMEDICA® LAUNCHES HUMAN CENTERED HEALTHCARE SERVICES TO ADDRESS HOSPTAL SYSTEMS IMPROVEMENT

NEW GROUP TO FOCUS ON PATIENT SAFETY, QUALITY, AND EFFICIENCY CHALLENGES OF COMPLEX PROVIDER SYSTEMS; KRISTIN SIMOENS NAMED TO LEAD NEW INITIATIVE.

June 8, 2010, Providence, RI:  Building on its collaborative work with several hospitals over the past year, Ximedica has announced the formation of its Human Centered Healthcare Services group, which will focus on using a human centered design approach to help healthcare providers overcome complex challenges affecting the safety, efficiency, and quality of care delivery.  Ximedica’s entry into the provider side of healthcare is a natural extension of the company’s years of experience working in clinical environments to assist its medical device clients in innovating and developing new products. Drawing on many of the same disciplines used in product development—namely, observational research, human factors, systems design, and quality engineering—the company sees a tremendous opportunity to positively impact healthcare delivery in a way that complements to its core business in medical device development and manufacturing.

“Our years of firsthand experience on the frontlines of care, observing clinical procedures  in all kinds of situations, has given us insights into the many challenges facing hospitals today,” remarked Aidan Petrie, Ximedica co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer. “As we constantly seek ways to help our device clients design and deliver products to better serve clinicians and patients, we also see opportunities to use our skills and expertise to help make improvements to delivery systems as well. These are dynamic and complex environments, where variation is often the norm and there are many risks for everything from miscommunications to injury. A human centered design approach is one that embraces that variation and uses human factors disciplines to provide solutions based on how people want, and need, to work in order to accomplish their tasks safely and effectively.”

Hired to lead this new initiative is Kristin Simoens, formerly a Director of Marketing for Advanced Wound Care at Covidien.  Simoens leads a diverse team of researchers, designers, quality and clinical professionals who bring together design, social science, medical, and business perspectives. In related news, Ximedica has announced the appointment of Dr. Anita Kestin, MD, MPH, to the role of staff Medical Director. Dr. Kestin is an experienced clinician and researcher with experience in hospital quality and patient safety. She will play an integral role in Ximedica’s work with hospitals.

Ximedica’s work to date in the area of healthcare systems has ranged from redesigning emergency room and trauma bay workflow and systems, to finding new ways to reduce surgical site identification errors. A common theme is that both patient safety and operational flow improves when previously overlooked chances for system breakdown and conflict are minimized or removed.  On all projects, the team collaborates and co-creates new processes with the actual users of the system to ensure practical implementation that can provide measureable outcomes.

To learn more about this new initiative, please visit: www.ximedica.com/healthcare-systems

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About Ximedica

Ximedica provides contract research, product development, regulatory, and manufacturing services to leading medical device and healthcare companies. We help clients create and sustain profitable new business by developing user-focused new products and getting them to market successfully.

Ximedica is ISO 13485:2003 certified and FDA registered. Our facilities include an 80,000 square foot integrated R&D and manufacturing center in Providence, RI, as well as a satellite office in Hong Kong. For more information, visit www.ximedica.com.  

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