One of the many obstacles facing the biomed and clinical engineering community is a lack of visibility in the clinical setting. Despite biomeds’ wealth of knowledge regarding the medical devices that are utilized on a daily basis, much of their work is constrained to the basement of hospitals, where much of their information goes untapped. In a recent interview with Sun Valley, California-based Pronk Technologies president Karl Ruiter, the topic was broached with regards to the company’s product design. In essence, Pronk designs products to be mobile and assist biomeds in becoming a more visible entity.
Regardless of the vendor or products that you and your department use, do you focus on becoming a more visible member of the hospital staff and working more frequently in the clinical setting? Would you prefer to perform more of your repairs and inspections outside of the biomed shop—why or why not? And perhaps most importantly, have you found any resistance by the administration or clinical staff to your presence?
As biomeds continue to push for more recognition, these are questions that require answers, whether its through being a more proactive member of the staff or obtaining the tools to allow this kind of on-site work.
