Biomedical Engineering at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery

Overview

The Biomedical Engineering section provides an equipment management service, develops and maintains clinical IT systems and provides scientific and technical supports to research and development activities at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Although based administratively and geographically in the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, the section provides technical and scientific services to departments throughout the National HospitaThe section provides an equipment management service for a wide range of medical equipment, ranging from single infusion devices to networked multi-PC data acquisition and analysis systems. There are roughly 2000 items of general medical equipment and 1000 items of specialist equipment at NHNN.

Equipment Management Service

This service encompasses the full range of medical device management activities, including: procurement, commissioning, acceptance testing, repair, planned servicing / calibration checks / electrical safety checks, device modification, risk management, service contracts, logging of assets and service histories on a computer-based equipment management system, decommissioning, incident investigation / MHRA Medical Device Alerts, and training. 

In addition, the section coordinates the medical equipment maintenance service provided by GOSH Biomedical Engineering under a Service Level Agreement, which covers general medical devices such as: pumps and patient monitors (electrical); ventilators and CPAPs (ventilator); flowmeters and regulators (mechanial). Nearly all devices passing to and from GOSH do so via the Biomedical Engineering section where this activity is logged and monitored. Some devices (feeding pumps, inflators) are supplied as part of a managed contract- the section coordinates the servicing of these devices

The section also develops and delivers training material for nurses, and develops and implements policies & standard operating procedures covering a wide range of activities - from ppm instructions for a specific devices to hospital-wide processes covering medical device usage. 

The section has recently recruited an additional member of staff who will assist in developing the equipment library which hosts the more commonly used devices.

Research and Development

The section provides scientific and technical support to a range of projects and services throughout the National Hospital. This involves software / hardware development, construction of systems using commercially-available devices and the associated risk management processes.

Examples include:

• development of monitoring systems for autonomic function (Autonomics Unit), 
• development of a video-EMG-EEG monitoring system for movement disorders (neurophysiology),
• VEMPS (neuro-otology),
• force measurement in myotonia (neurophysiology),
• collaboration with the UCL EEG/fMRI research group.

Clinical IT Systems

The section manages a wide range of computer-based monitoring systems, ranging from single PC-based devices such as Contact Heat EPs to large scale networked installations such as the 7-bed video-EEG Telemetry Unit.

The section also develops software for physiological signal monitoring and analysis, as well as a number of diagnostic reporting systems containing in excess of 100k patient reports integrated with Trust-wide clinical information systems.

In addition, the section works with the Trust's IT provider regarding the networking, virus protection and data backup of over 70 PC-based medical devices, as well as support for desk-top applications developed in-house.

The section also develops and implements data governance procedures to ensure the security of data (well over 10Tb) acquired via a wide range of medical devices.

Where are we?

Biomedical Engineering, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology

The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery

Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG

Location within NHNN:

3rd floor Albany Wing.