TRIANGLE NEWS
GREATER PITTSBURGH CHAPTER – AHDI
OCTOBER 2009
“President’s Message”
A couple of weeks ago I attended a meeting at North Allegheny Mountain Chapter in Pennsylvania and there was a person from AHDI who asked what “I am AHDI” meant to each one of us. Of course, many of us stated it meant that we were part of an organization. Very logical answer I thought. However, a simpler answer is that every MT, member and nonmember, is AHDI. Without us, there is no AHDI and without AHDI we would not be where we are today. The organization was developed because someone saw a need to improve our profession, to set standards in how we conducted ourselves and how our work was done. As the saying goes, and I have stated this before, united we stand and divided we fall. A united force is harder to defeat. The organization gives us a voice in government, medicine, and management. We should be part of it. Every MT should be part of national or local chapter to learn what is happening behind the scenes that pertain to us
We have seen change in our profession and it has been coming about for many years now, and still is in the process. In a few more years it will be different than when each of us started. Each of us now no long just transcribe a report, we also edit voice recognition. Good, bad, or indifferent it is our profession and it is changing. We must be prepared and willing to go along with the change. If you think about it, we already are used to change in that medicine is always changing what with new terms, new studies/tests, new surgeries and new drugs to name a few. We learn these because we must. The same will be for the changes that have and are coming. An example, my father was the best auto mechanic in the Pittsburgh region in the 60’s and early 70’s. There was no one better than him, but then the computer was put in cars. That scared the heck out of him, so he eventually dropped out because he could not deal with the change. The area lost the best mechanic they had due to fear of change. We cannot afford to lose any our best MTs due to fear of change. Embrace the changes as we would if it were just a new drug or instrument we have to look up to learn about how to correctly spell its name and what it does. The more we use it the easier it becomes.
Our symposium came and went with a very soft bang. Not a lot of people showed up, but we had a good meeting. Those of you did not attend missed a very good line up of speakers. Dr. Brandacher was excellent. He talked about the history of hand transplants, which was surprising on how long it has been done. It is a very simple surgery, but time consuming. The easy part is attaching the bones, arteries, veins and nerves. That part goes quite quickly. The tedious part is attaching all the ligaments, which can take up to 4+ hours to do. They lose very few hands due to rejection. It takes up to a year for nerves to mend so that feeling comes back to the digits. Did you know that they put an artificial limb on the deceased person so that the casket can remain open, and that they work hard to make it look like the original? The hands are also matched close to appearance of the person’s original so the cosmetic effect is less noticeable.
We will be having a business meeting in which the chapter needs to be discussed. I will set it up for the first or second Saturday of November. The location will be decided on soon. This is important as we need to go over the bylaws and submit them to national, there are chapter finances to go over, and do we need to restructure. I cannot make these decisions for you. I will also like to go over our website and our email address that is set up through GoDaddy. We also have to decide on initiatives such as the Power of 10, Military Spouses, and Certification issues.
A small reminder, our chapter’s membership dues are coming due for 2010. It is still $12.00 for members of AHDI and $15.00 for nonmembers, and $5.00 for students.
I do want to thank the membership of GPC on making this a good year for us, and keeping this chapter going. Without you there will be no chapter.
Sincerely,
Deborah Purse, CMT
GPC-AHD President
412-431-8845
2010 Meetings
PA-AHDI is holding their annual meeting in October 9, 10, 11, 2010, at the Embassy Suites and the GPC is hosting it.
The GPC chapter will be holding 3 meetings, March, May and September. I need 3 volunteers to help set up these meetings and pick the dates. Topics can be on new HIPAA regulations, risk management, new technologies, lab values and what is considered normal or not, a disease, or any topic that interests you.
North Allegheny Mountain Chapter (NAM) will hold its 2 big meetings, May 22, 2010, in Buffalo, NY, area and September 25, 2010, in the Warren, PA, area.
Ohio Valley Chapter will hold its next symposium in Deep Creek, Maryland. They hold great meetings and well worth the trip. That will held in April next year.
Transcription Corner
If you do voice recognition do you know that instead of following with your cursor every word, place the cursor in the middle of the line and just move it line to line, then move it left to right to make a change in that line of dictation that it increases your line count? I was just taught that and it does speed up the job. Try it a day and see what it does.
EEG wave normal ranges:
Most brain waves range from 0.5-500 Hz. Awake adult frequencies are 8 Hz or higher are normal findings, but children or asleep adults have frequencies of 7 Hz or less and are considered normal. The following are considered to be clinically relevant:
Alpha waves – 8 to 13 Hz
Beta waves – Greater than 13 Hz
Theta waves – 3.5-7.5 Hz.
Delta waves – 3 Hz or less
New words:
StomaphX device – used in gastric surgery
LifeNet – used with allograft in orthopedic surgery
VG-2 – used with allograft in orthopedic surgery
SkyLine plate – used in orthopedic surgery
FasT-Fix sutures – used in meniscal surgery
Force-X – now this was spelled 9 times by the surgeon and difficult to find, so if you know of this term I would appreciate knowing where you found it.
Terms from a permanent pacemaker parameters report:
Modes:
mode mode switch
detection rate detection duration
blanked flutter search
Rates:
lower rate upper tracking rate
upper sensor rate ADL rate
Intrinsic/AV
paced AV sensed AV
search AV+ rate adaptive AV
Refractory/Blanking:
PVARP minimum PVARP
PVAB ventricular refractory
ventricular blanking (after A. Pace)
PMT intervention PVC response
ventricular safety pacing
Rate Response:
optimization ADL response
exertion response ADLR percent
activity threshold activity acceleration
activity deceleration high rate percent
ADL rate set point upper sensor rate setpoint
Atrial and Ventricular Leads:
amplitude Pulse width
sensitivity sensing assurance
pace polarity sense polarity
lead monitor maximum impedance
minimum impedance monitor sensitivity
capture management amplitude margin
minimum adapted amplitude
capture test frequency acute phase
ventricular sensing during search
Rate Episodes:
Atrial: Ventricular:
episode trigger detection rate
detection rate detection beats
detection duration termination beats
collection delay SVT filter
episode collection method episode collection method
Of note, if a word has a trademark that is the way it supposed to be spelled even though it looks wrong. Words such as VESIcare, FasT-Fix., AcipHex. I have heard it said that it is not important if you capitalize every letter, but it is. This is the correct way.
According to BOS III, page 232, “Do not use hyphens with numeric expressions in the following instances: To form a compound modifier between a number and a metric unit, or to form a compound expression where the number is the second element in the expression.” In other words, 4-cm incision is wrong, 4 cm incision is correct. 1-inch incision is correct and 1 inch incision is wrong.
Alright is wrong and all right is correct.
that, which, who - Use that for animals, things, and sometimes collective or anonymous people. Use which for animales and things. Who is used for people and animales with names. Examples: the rocket that failed cost millions. The river, which flows south, divides 2 countries. Dorothis is the girl who visits Oz. Her dog, Toto, who accompanies her, gives her courage.
hanged, hung - both are past tense of hang, but hanged is an execution and hung is what we did to a picture.
