Paul H. Frisch, PhD, FHIMSS, has received the 2012 ACCE-HIMSS Excellence in Clinical Engineering and Information Technology Synergies Award, a joint award sponsored by the American College of Clinical Engineering (ACCE) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
The award recognizes individuals who have best demonstrated leadership in promoting or implementing significant synergies between the clinical engineering and information technology professions. Award recipients, selected by the board of directors of both organizations, also must be members in good standing of both organizations. Nominees for the award are honored for professional or technical contributions to the professions, such as research, development of a new process or product, a paper of significance, and “trailblazing” work in a new application of clinical engineering and IT.
“The American College of Clinical Engineering is very proud to support the selection of Dr. Frisch for this award,” said Jim Keller, president of ACCE. “His work is an excellent model for the new direction that practitioners of clinical engineering need to take as more and more of the technologies we work with incorporate computer-based functionality and integrate with health IT systems. Dr. Frisch is to be commended for his forward-thinking leadership in our profession. Dr. Frisch has over 30 years of professional experience and contributions to the field, and is a long-standing member of HIMSS and ACCE. He has educated clinical staff, administration, and hospital thought leaders about diverse technologies and the synergies required to develop, deploy, and manage complex systems in the health care setting.
As a faculty member and chief of biomedical engineering in the department of medical physics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and a visiting professor at Binghamton University, Frisch is also a researcher. One of his research interests has been the transition of clinical devices from stand alone to networked systems sharing and distributing information between clinical applications and devices. He has extensively researched how these devices have also moved to expand their functionality to use wireless technologies (Wi-Fi, etc) as a medium for conveying this critical information.
To further demonstrate this complex interaction, Frisch designed the Intelligent Hospital pavilion, an interactive exhibit first introduced at HIMSS11.This addition to the exhibit floor has helped raise awareness of, and educated the health care industry on, the many applications of RFID and RTLS technologies integrated within clinical scenarios, including the required cooperation between information technologies and biomedical/clinical engineering.
Frisch will receive his award at the 2013 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition awards recognition banquet on March 5 during the 2013 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition, March 3 through 7 in New Orleans.
