ECRI Reveals Top 10 Technological Advances to Watch in 2016

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. –Hospital leaders demand that new technologies and care processes bring higher value, better outcomes and lower costs to their organizations. To help them sift through the latest healthcare innovationsmolding the landscape of healthcare in 2016 and beyond, ECRI Institute released its annual Top 10 Hospital C-suite Watch List.

Available as a free public service, the report highlights important new and emerging drugs, devices, procedures and care processes intended to provide new ways to deliver safe and cost-effective patient care. Each entry includes actionable recommendations in a quick-glance “What to Do” section.

“Taking an evidence-based, ‘just the facts’ approach to assessing new healthcare innovations—from gadgets to drugs to infrastructure issues—that have been on our radar for the last year, we present hospital leaders with unbiased guidance to support informed decision-making and help them understand how new innovations will affect care delivery,” says Diane C. Robertson, director, health technology assessment, ECRI Institute.

In its 2016 list, ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit that researches the best approaches to improving patient care, examines 10 topics poised to affect care delivery over the next 12-18 months, including:

1. Mobile Stroke Units: Are They More than a Concierge Ambulance Ride?
2. Medical Device Cybersecurity: When Will Your Pacemaker be Hacked?
3. Wireless Wearable Sensors: Data Sense or Data Chaos?
4. Miniature Leadless Pacemakers: Will Potential Benefits Make a Difference?
5. Blue-violet LED Light Fixtures: Can the Flip of a Switch Help Prevent Healthcare-acquired Infections?
6. New High-cost Cardiovascular Drugs: Will They Help Your Readmission Rates?
7. Changing Landscape of Robotic Surgery: Is a Mainframe to Tablet-type Paradigm Change Coming?
8. Spectral Computed Tomography: What’s the New Hype About?
9. Injected Bioabsorbable Hydrogel (SpaceOAR): An End to Some Radiation Therapy Complications?
10. Warm Donor Organ Perfusion Systems: Will they Ease the Organ Supply Shortage?

Professionals are also encouraged to join ECRI Institute’s new LinkedIn Group, “Emerging Healthcare Technologies in Patient Care,” for further discussion of these topics.

The Watch List draws upon ECRI Institute’s nearly 50 years of experience evaluating and providing technical assistance on the safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of health technologies. It reflects the unbiased, independent judgment of the institute’s multidisciplinary staff of clinical and technical researchers, engineers, risk management specialists and healthcare planners and consultants. It is also informed by the work that ECRI Institute performs as a contractor to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for the National Healthcare Horizon Scanning System.

ECRI Institute’s 2016 Top 10 Hospital C-Suite Watch List is available for download at www.ecri.org/2016watchlist (registration required). For additional information about the Watch List or ECRI Institute’s patient safety and technology support services, contact ECRI Institute by phone at 610-825-6000, ext. 5655; by e-mail at consultants@ecri.org or by mail at 5200 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462.