There may be a shortage of well-rounded, jack-of-all-trade type clinical engineers in coming years, according to speakers at a roundtable discussion held at the 2011 Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) conference & expo on June 26.

SAN ANTONIOA clinical engineer (CEs) is a professional who supports and advances patient care by applying engineering and managerial skills to healthcare technology," according to the American College of Clinical Engineering While this definition doesnt change, the roles and responsibilities of CEs across the globe vary, according to international presenters at the Association for the Advancement Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) conference & expo, June 26.

SAN ANTONIOThe potential customer service value that a clinical engineering department brings to a provider is the most overlooked aspect of a healthcare technology management program, especially for the C-suite level, according to a presentation at the 2011 Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) conference & expo on June 25.

SAN ANTONIO--Clinical engineers from Univeristy of California, Davis Health System used the 2011 Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) conference & expo presented an overview of its large-scale, wireless infusion smart pump implementation process.

SAN ANTONIOBiomedical equipment technology (BMET) leaders from the U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy outlined the importance of developing joint education and training efforts in providing maintenance for more than 500,000 medical devices for the Department of Defense (DoD). The first-ever DoD BMET Symposium, conducted during the 2011 Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) conference & expo on June 25, discussed the common challenges in maintaining more than $3 billion worth of government equipment.

SAN ANTONIOClinical engineers (CE) often get too bogged down in the break/fix activities on a daily basis. If this consumes the life of the CE, then there will not be an opportunity to grow. We need to take control of what our profession will become 10 to 15 years down the line because its already in a state of evolution, said Alan Gresch, who made a presentation at the 2011 Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation annual meeting on June 25.

SAN ANTONIOThe future of healthcare may include mobile emergency hospitals with CTs, operating rooms and clinical labs that can communicate with globally available EMRs, predicted James P. Keller, Jr., vice president health technology evaluation and safety at the ECRI Institute. After initial treatment, he said, providers may one day access real-time data from the patients home bedside using telemedicine.

Google is dicontinuing its Google Health personal health record (PHR) service effective Jan. 1, 2012. Data will remain available for download through Jan. 1, 2013, said Aaron Brown, senior product manager of Google Health, in a blog posted June 24.