ECRI Institute

ECRI Institute (formerly the "Emergency Care Research Institute") is an independent nonprofit organization that researches approaches to improving patient care.

Contents

• Designations
• Services
• Education Outreach
• References

In the early 1960s, Joel J. Nobel founded ECRI Institute after a four-year-old boy died in his arms from a defibrillator failing to work. He focused his energy on improving resuscitation technology and organization, which led to ECRI Institute being founded. Joel also invented the MAX Cart, a mobile resuscitation system designed to save lives by enabling rapid medical action. The cart carries instruments for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other medical supplies while also functioning as a support litter for a patient. A prototype of the MAX medical emergency crash cart has been accepted into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Medicine and Science Division, as part of its historical collection of cardiology and emergency-medicine objects. Nobel, a surgeon and inventor, designed and patented MAX in 1965 while a resident at Pennsylvania Hospital, in order to speed the delivery of emergency cardiopulmonary care to patients. Life magazine profiled the invention in a 1966 feature called "MAX, the Lifesaver." In 2001, Dr. Jeffrey C. Lerner became ECRI Institute’s second President and Chief Executive Officer.

ECRI Institute is an international organization with offices in the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia. ECRI Institute’s headquarters is located in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania on a 12-acre research campus that features a modern 120,000-square-foot facility with offices, instrumented laboratories, and a medical library. ECRI Institute has nearly 450 full-time employees whose interdisciplinary backgrounds include medicine, nursing, epidemiology, biomedical science, research methodology, social science, clinical engineering, physics, health law, healthcare management, patient safety and risk management, information technology, medical informatics, clinical writing and editing, and many other areas.

The organization serves over 5,000 healthcare organizations worldwide, including hospitals, health systems, public and private payers, U.S. federal and state government agencies, ministries of health, voluntary sector organizations, associations, and accrediting agencies. With these groups, ECRI Institute shares its experience in patient safety improvement, comparative effectiveness, risk and quality management, evidence-based practice, healthcare processes, devices, procedures, and drug technology.

ECRI Institute employs strict rules to prevent conflict of interest, by not accepting gifts, grants, or contracts from the medical device or pharmaceutical industries.

ECRI Institute has been undertaking brand and model comparative evaluations of medical devices since 1971. Since its designation as an Evidence-based Practice Center with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in 1997, it has undertaken systematic reviews of clinical procedures using meta-analysis for the Medicare program, other federal and state agencies, and clinical specialty organizations.