Preparing Biomeds For the Future

Abstract

This past April, a diverse group of 30 industry professionals met at AAMI headquarters in Arlington, VA., to discuss the future of the profession. Among their recommendations: “Healthcare Technology Management” should be the official name of the field responsible for managing the selection, maintenance, and safe and effective use of medical equipment and of systems. That recommendation speaks volumes about the changes happening within the applied biomedical engineering profession.This landmark forum was important for both clinical engineering (CE) and information technology (IT) professionals, as participants concluded that the skills traditionally held by either group are not enough to succeed in the world of technology-driven healthcare. Undoubtedly, the race to meet the requirements of “meaningful use”—standards that the federal government wants doctors and hospitals to meet in the move toward electronic health records— has acted as one of the catalysts for expanding our professional skill set. Although there are many initiatives aimed at the education, training, and credentialing of the new healthcare technology management worker, their findings are remarkably similar. Certainly, it is a blended CE-IT role, but it goes farther than that. The synergies of combining CE and IT have created a role that is extremely powerful.To be successful, an organization needs to promote training and encourage its people to pursue their professional development. A survey on the professional education challenges in clinical engineering published in 20081 shows that only 22% of the survey responders felt that they “always” or “usually” have adequate opportunity for professional development. As technical knowledge half-life is getting shorter, the survey results underscore the critical issue of timely education.Lifelong learning is the norm in IT, and it is generally regarded as the responsibility of the employee to keep current with technology. As convergence of CE and IT continues, we are likely to see biomeds taking more initiative in keeping current with technology. It is important to ask yourself, “If not now, when? If not me, who?” Through a commitment to training and education CE and IT stakeholders will have the skills to achieve their organizational goals. Many new educational opportunities are available to assist CE and IT, and this article will summarize the current activities shaping the training and education of the healthcare technology manager and the similarities between the initiatives.Healthcare technology managers are shaping the vision for the future of the profession. The vision includes, but is not limited to, a continued focus on safety, risk management, technical support of medical devices and clinical technologies, teamwork, and financial stewardship. The vision also includes management of healthcare technologies that are highly integrated and interoperable. Healthcare technology management professionals will be fully integrated members within the healthcare delivery team, and will have significant influence in the management of all healthcare technology. In addition, the career path will be better defined, with a supportive educational infrastructure.Several organizations and groups including the National Science Foundation, the Clinical Engineering Division2 of the International Federation of Biological and Medical Engineering (IFMBE), and the Healthcare Technology Foundation (HTF) recognized the need to expand and refocus the skills of practitioners in the clinical engineering field and are developing educational programs. This is taking place both domestically and globally. The increasing dependence of the management of patient conditions on technology places critical importance on the ability of technology managers to understand systems performance in addition to device operation. The newly adopted standard IEC 80001 is a good example of the interaction between network management, medical device support and risk control. You cannot effectively separate the components; rather, you can manage the system.In the near future, professionals in our field will be expected to be able to identify opportunities for work-process improvement using technology integration across healthcare settings, aligned with the strategic objectives of the healthcare organization. Therefore, there is a need to add general knowledge of information technology principles as applied to healthcare, effective interpersonal communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. This professional will have a general understanding of the core systems and types of technology used in the delivery of healthcare services. Knowledge domains include the organizational environment of healthcare, the technology environment of healthcare, team leadership, and technology administration.The impact of education on one's career was illustrated in an article this past summer in The New York Times3 which found that the greater your education, the lesser your chances of unemployment. In healthcare, there are even higher expectations that workers are adequately prepared for their job and that they will continuously maintain their skills. In the healthcare technology management field, we still have a way to go to determine basic uniform education requirements. There are several degree programs for biomedical equipment technicians in the United States and only limited offerings of clinical engineering programs, but no “core curriculum” has been standardized or published for these programs.AAMI's Educators' Roundtable is comprised of experts in the field of education and has engaged a group of academicians that lead and/or teach in BMET programs to help develop a closer relationship between core curriculum taught and the fast-changing practice. The group's goal and focus is to retain the essential aspects of biomedical equipment technology and IT skills that historically have served both professions well, while keeping pace with the evolving roles and responsibilities of the healthcare technology manager over the next decade.Certifications and certificates are commonplace within the IT world, but until very recently, no certificate focused on the networking needs of the healthcare community. CompTIA's Healthcare IT Technician fills that void. CompTIA creates and manages IT certifications across a broad range of subspecialties. In 2010, CompTIA announced its intention to create certifications and certificates for the expanding healthcare IT space and formed a healthcare IT community. The output of that effort is the CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician certificate. It covers the knowledge and skills required to implement, deploy, and support healthcare IT systems in various clinical settings.Launched in May 2010, the certificate covers five knowledge domains: regulatory requirements within healthcare, organizational behaviors within healthcare, IT skills, medical business operations and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and security. Topics in the medical business operation domain include the purpose and function of medical devices and healthcare IT protocols like HL7. CompTIA is accepting new members into the Healthcare IT Community, providing an easy way for CE and IT to stay current with changes in technology.The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has released a set of 20 curriculum components to the public at no cost. Funded by the $10 million ONC Curriculum Development Centers Program, these teaching materials have been in use for the past year by the 82 member colleges of the ONC Community College Consortia Program. It is expected that these materials will fill an urgent need in the educational marketplace.Designed around the six mobile workforce roles identified by ONC, the components are intended to become the building blocks of health IT courses at community colleges and universities. In-service training and continuing education programs at healthcare institutions and regional extension centers may also benefit from the use of the components. Each component is made up of several units that can be modified and combined to meet the needs of instructors as they design their courses. The components include slide-based lectures with audio narration and transcripts, learning activities, self-assessment questions with answer keys, and instructor manuals.The components cover topics such as workflow process redesign, technical support, networking, usability, and project management, among others. Three of the components offer a hands-on lab experience for students supported by the VistA for Education electronic health record software package, also available at no cost. To obtain the materials, go to www.onc-ntdc.org.Workers in this role provide onsite user support for the period of time before and during implementation of health IT systems in clinical and public health settings. These individuals will provide support services, above and beyond what is provided by the vendor, to be sure the technology functions properly and is configured to meet the needs of the redesigned practice workflow. Knowledge domains for this certificate include Networking and Health Information Exchange, Configuring EHRs, Vendor-Specific Systems, Working with Health IT Systems, Installation and Maintenance of Health IT Systems, Information and Computer Science and Terminology in Health Care, and Public Health Settings.Workers in this role will support on an ongoing basis the technology deployed in clinical and public health settings. Workers in this role maintain systems in clinical and public health settings, including patching and upgrading of software. They also provide one-on-one support, in a traditional “help desk” model, to individual users with questions or problems. Knowledge domains for this certificate include Networking and Health Information Exchange, Special Topics Course on Vendor-Specific Systems, Information and Computer Science, Working with Health IT Systems, Installation and Maintenance of Health IT Systems, Configuring EHRs, and Professionalism/Customer Service in the Health Environment.Clinical engineering and biomedical equipment technician (BMET) practices must be supported by offering updated professional development programs that expand and prepare practitioners for new career challenges. These programs should also promote lifelong participation. CEs and BMETs need to commit to participate in such development programs and understand the need for gaining new competencies. Educators should strive to maintain their training program in pace with pending needs of a changing market. Immediate commencement of such learning and overcoming the lack of specific CE/IT competency benchmarking will place practitioners in a better position to have an interesting and rewarding career.