Speakers

Nat Sims, M.D., is a clinician, teacher, cardiac anesthesiologist and physician advisor to Biomedical Engineering at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He is also an Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sims is a strategic and hands-on innovator who has developed numerous technologies that make patient care safer and more efficient. Working with interdisciplinary teams involving biomedical engineering, nursing and various hospital departments, Dr. Sims and colleagues have pioneered improvements in patient monitoring, patient transport and error-free intravenous drug delivery systems. The original concepts for “Smart Drug Infusion Pumps” were developed in 1992, by Dr. Sims at MGH and implemented clinically in 1997. His career focus has been in developing advanced systems technologies to improve safety and patient care while reducing cost. Dr. Sims holds numerous U.S. patents (rights assigned to MGH) and has used licensing revenues to create an Innovation Support Center and an Innovation Fund at MGH. Dr. Sims is the 2006 winner of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) Foundation Laufman/Greatbatch Prize for his significant contributions to the advancement of medical instrumentation through development of “smart drug infusion pump” technology and “flexible monitoring” systems. He is a 2011 recipient of the AAMI Standards Developer Award and is also Vice-Chair for Research and a Board Member of AAMI.