Photo By Kathryn Ellis-Warfield | Robby Saunders, an electronics technician, works in the Test, Measurement and...... read more read more
TRACY, Calif. -- When using highly complex medical devices, proper calibration ensures U.S. Army medical personnel can quickly treat battlefield casualties and get Soldiers back into the fight.
In dire situations, it can even be a matter of life and death.
“If you are unable to calibrate your medical devices, you don’t know if they are functioning within their manufactured specified parameters,” said Ian McNesby, chief of operations at the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency’s Medical Maintenance Operations Division in Tracy, California, known as MMOD-CA.
“And there can be significant risk, depending on the device.”
To ensure that crucial calibration, the Army’s Test, Measurement and Diagnostic Equipment-Special Purpose, or TMDE-SP, program plays a pivotal role for operational medical readiness and safety.
While there are dozens of TMDE support activities worldwide, just two of them carry out the “Special Purpose” mission related specifically to medical devices.
Along with MMOD-CA, which covers the stateside mission plus Japan and Korea, the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center-Europe at Kaiserslautern Army Depot, Germany, supports the Africa, Europe and Southwest Asia regions.
USAMMA and USAMMC-E are both direct reporting units to Army Medical Logistics Command, the Army’s Life Cycle Management Command for medical materiel.
Together, they complete about 3,500 TMDE-SP work orders each year. The labs are staffed by teams of experienced medical maintenance experts who use advanced calibration technologies in close collaboration with device manufacturer specifications.
“What we do here is a little different than you’d see in other TMDE labs,” said Nicholas Brower, manager of MMOD-CA’s TMDE lab. “While your typical TMDE lab might do ground support, avionics and RADIAC… we specialize in nine types of medical equipment.”
Those systems include defibrillators, patient monitors and gas flow analyzers, which are used to measure pressure and flow for various patient-care devices, such as ventilators, suction apparatus and oxygen-generation machines.
Without proper calibration, medical devices must be “deadlined,” meaning they are taken out of service for patient use until calibrations can be completed, McNesby said, jeopardizing unit readiness.
He further explained the dangers of unknowingly using noncompliant devices, including the potential for over-radiation of a patient with imaging equipment or accidental shock with a patient monitor that has defibrillator capability.
Specifically for overseas customers in USAMMC-E’s coverage area, the time and cost savings for TMDE calibration can be significant, according to Chief Warrant Officer 2 Anthony Reyna, USAMMC-E’s chief of clinical engineering.
“If something has to go back to Tracy or a manufacturer in the U.S., for example, it can take months in shipping alone,” Reyna said. “We typically have a turnaround time of 30 days or less.”
When it comes to cost savings, Reyna said customers can save hundreds -- if not thousands in some instances -- by utilizing USAMMC-E’s lab for services compared to the manufacturer.
“No matter the mission or requirement, you can reach out to us here at USAMMC-E and we will make sure we take care of you as a customer,” Reyna said.
Brower shared a similar sentiment, agreeing that dedicated TMDE-SP labs lessen reliance on the manufacturer, saving time and money while increasing overall medical readiness.
With patient safety and readiness being the ultimate goals, TMDE-SP labs are routinely inspected and certified for use under the U.S. Army Test, Measurement and Diagnostic Equipment Activity.
USATA oversees calibration and repair support for the Army and other Department of Defense agencies, ensuring all measurements made with TMDE are traced to national or international standards -- from weaponry to vehicles to communication systems.
The MMOD-CA lab recently passed its most recent 18-month inspection, earning a “gold star” certificate from USATA signifying its outstanding performance with no negative findings.
“We have a really good team here, from production control to the technicians,” Brower said. “Everybody works really hard on the inspections, and it showed. We were very happy with the outcome.”
| Date Taken: | 03.26.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.26.2025 10:05 |
| Story ID: | 493769 |
| Location: | TRACY, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 46 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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