Clinical engineering

Clinical engineering is a specialty within biomedical engineering responsible for using medical technology to optimize healthcare delivery. Clinical engineers train and supervise biomedical equipment technicians (BMETs), working with governmental regulators on hospital inspections and audits, and serve as technological consultants for other hospital staff (i.e., Physicians, Administrators, IT). Clinical engineers also assist manufacturers in improving the design of medical equipment and maintain state-of-the-art hospital supply chains. With training in both product design and point-of-use experience, clinical engineers bridge the gap between product developers and end-users. The focus on practical implementations tends to keep clinical engineers oriented towards incremental redesigns, as opposed to revolutionary or cutting-edge ideas far-off of implementation for clinical use. However, there is an effort to expand this time horizon, over which clinical engineers can influence the trajectory of biomedical innovation. Clinical engineering departments at large hospitals will sometimes hire not only biomedical engineers, but also industrial and systems engineers to address topics such as operations research, human factors, cost analysis, and safety. The term clinical engineering was first used in a 1969 paper by Landoll and Caceres. Caceres, a cardiologist, is generally credited with coining the term. The broader field of biomedical engineering also has a relatively recent history, with the first inter-society engineering meeting focused on engineering in medicine probably held in 1948. However, the general notion of applying engineering to medicine can be traced back to centuries. For example, Stephen Hales' work in the early 18th century, which led to the invention of the ventilator and the discovery of blood pressure, involved applying engineering techniques to medicine. In the early 1970s, clinical engineering was thought to require many new professionals. Estimates of the time for the US ranged as high as 5,000 to 8,000 clinical engineers, or 1 per 250 hospital beds.