Role Of Clinical Engineering Research Articles

The digitization process and the evolution of Clinical Risk Management concept: The role of Clinical Engineering in the operational management of biomedical technologies.

Digital transformation and technological innovation which have influenced several areas of social and productive life in recent years, are now also a tangible and concrete reality in the vast and strategic sector of public healthcare. The progressive introduction of digital technologies and their widespread diffusion in many segments of the population undoubtedly represent a driving force both for the evolution of care delivery methods and for the introduction of new organizational and management methods within clinical structures. The CS Clinical Engineering of the "Spedali Civili Hospital in Brescia" decided to design a path that would lead to the development of a software for the management of biomedical technologies within its competence inside the hospital. The ultimate aim of this path stems from the need of Clinical Engineering Department to have up-to-date, realistic, and systematic control of all biomedical technologies present in the company. "Spedali Civili Hospital in Brescia" is not just one of the most important corporate realities in the city, but it is also the largest hospital in Lombardy and one of the largest in Italy. System development has followed the well-established phases: requirement analysis phase, development phase, release phase and evaluating and updating phase. Finally, cooperation between the various figures involved in the multidisciplinary working group led to the development of an innovative management software called "SIC Brescia". The contribution of the present paper is to illustrate the development of a complex implementation model for the digitization of processes, information relating to biomedical technologies and their management throughout the entire life cycle. The purpose of sharing this path is to highlight the methodologies followed for its realization, the results obtained and possible future developments. This may enable other realities in the healthcare context to undertake the same type of pathway inspired by an accomplished model. Furthermore, future implementation and data collection related to the proposed Key Performance Indicators, as well as the consequent development of new operational management models for biomedical technologies and maintenance processes will be possible. In this way, the Clinical Risk Management concept will also be able to evolve into a more controlled, safe, and efficient system for the patient and the user.

The role of clinical engineers in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

The duties of a clinical engineer (CE) during the coronavirus infection 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic were diverse. The original duties of a CE included operation and maintenance of life support equipment used for respiratory therapy, hemodialysis, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The management of life support equipment is critical. The PB-840 ventilator is equipped with a heat sink system that dissipates internal heat through thermal conduction. Therefore, internal contamination is less likely to occur. The exhalation filter used in the PB- 840 can be used for up to 15 days. It can be used for long periods of time without maintenance, reducing the risk of infection. The PB-840 is a suitable device for patients with COVID-19. Its use in critically ill patients was determined to be a priority. Thus, use of an appropriate device for infection control requires a proper understanding of and familiarity with the device in question.

Role of Clinical Engineering in Hospitals

Clinical engineering is mainly facilitated with the advanced technological effects that can adopt safety process in hospitals. This engineering is considered as the logical process to maintain the procedure of health services. The engineers should form proper culture and regular check up of different instruments to form easy access at the time of operation. Health technology creates a positive impact on clinical engineering in hospitals for providing better treatments to patients. Modern equipment and services are used by clinical engineers for better services. Wellness programs play an indispensable role for maintaining a healthy lifestyle on a daily basis. Cancer, malaria and dengue viruses create a negative impact on the health and mental conditions of a person. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are used to provide better treatments for cancer patients. Biomedical engineering is used as a segment of clinical engineering within hospital premises. Healthy behaviours are managed by every person with help of this clinical engineering. Chloroquine phosphate and artemisinin-based combination therapies are used for malaria viruses. These treatments can from betterment in healthcare activity to human being Keyword : Clinical engineering, technology, hospitals, healthcare

The Growing Role of Clinical Engineering: Merging Technology at the Point of Care

Re-publication of the article published in National Academy of Engineering Perspectives, May 27, 2022, The Growing Role of Clinical Engineering - Merging Technology at the Point of Care | National Academies
 Copyright and Credit belong to National Academy of Sciences (all rights reserved).

Clinical Engineering Role in the Development of Emergency Use Medical Devices

Clinical Engineering professionals have a key role in healthcare institutions during the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 disease, mainly by supporting the front line by allowing the proper and timely access of the medical equipment required to diagnose and treat patients affected. But another one of their roles, probably one not so expected, has been their contributions for the development of emergency use medical devices, especially those for respiratory and oxygen therapy. By using the case of critical care use ventilators, and as presented during an IFMBE-CED webinar on the topic, this paper mentions the role of Clinical Engineers for the rapid response manufacturing of such vital care devices, in three main aspects: development, regulation and education. The results from such efforts have paid off by having safe and efficient support equipment while the shortage from commercial products have been receding, by establishing international guidelines for future innovators to take into consideration and by leaving valuable knowledge in the form of educational and training videos for future generations to consult from.

The current status and issues of medical equipment safety managers 10 years after deployment and the role of clinical engineers

We conducted a questionnaire survey of 4,000 hospitals in Japan to investigate the current status and issues of medical equipment safety managers (MESMs) who have been required to be assigned to medical institutions for 10 years.

Distribution and Utilisation of Radiotherapy Units in Greece

Biomedical Engineering is playing a leading role in the development of medical technology which is one of the pillars of Modern medicine, or as differently expressed at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) opinion paper: “Biomedical Engineering is not simply a subset of modern medicine. Modern medicine predominantly secures important advances through the use of the products of biomedical engineering”1. Health technology, according to World Health Organization (WHO), refers to the application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures and systems developed to solve a health problem and improve quality of lives. Therefore, Medical Devices (MDs) belong to the Health Technologies, and Radiotherapy (RT) is an important subgroup of them.
 Radiotherapy refers to high-tech medical devices that are of high capital value both in terms of initial investment and operation, requiring specially trained personnel for its use and needs regular quality control, preventive maintenance and management procedures, to function properly and safely. Clinical Engineering plays a major role in facing of the afore mentioned challenges.
 The present paper provides an overview of the results of a study under the WHO action on Strengthening Capacity for Universal Coverage Greece/Phase 2 (SCUC2)2aiming to:
 
 Assess the sufficiency and equity in the distribution of RT and its use in Greece
 Identify eventual inequalities in terms of geographical coverage, specific needs and lack of RT
 Asses the current status of staffing in RT units
 Estimate the costs for the use of High Value Capital Medical Equipment (HVCME)
 
 Since a country-wide medical equipment inventory for Greece does not exist, various sources were used to obtain a clear picture of the installed units in public Greek hospitals and private clinics.
 As a result, it came out that, in terms of number of units the per million population the number of RT units rose by 23% from 4.3 in 2009 to 5.3 in 2017. In terms of number of acts, a general increasing trend is noticed, resulting to a total cost increase of 25% from 2013 to 2016.
 The study revealed that in Greece, there are quite pronounced inequalities in terms of availability of RT technologies in different regions. Long term strategic planning is needed based on evidence, such as updated inventory of MDs, acts performed, associate costs etc , which are unfortunately lacking in Greece. Additionally, the role of clinical engineers in the effective management and safe use of this technology should be widely recognised and regulated.

The Role of Clinical Engineering in the Time of Integration

The Role of Clinical Engineering in the Time of Integration

Rebirth of a Profession: Hybrid Positions on the Rise in Clinical, Manufacturing Settings

n the not-so-distant future, the professionals who keep medical devices humming might not have the job title or responsibilities of today’s “clinical engineer” (CE) or “ biomedical equipment technician (BMET).” That’s because working with medical devices increasingly requires a skill set that goes beyond those of many medical technology professionals in the field today. Hospitals and manufacturers are responding by creating new, hybrid jobs that require a broader range of skills. Moreover, more institutions are realigning their organizational, operational, and reporting structures to reflect the changing nature of job roles and responsibilities. In this environment, the days of carving a career out of “fixing boxes,” in the words of several medical technology professionals, is giving way to an era of new opportunities for careers focused on integrating, managing, and servicing highly sophisticated and interconnected systems.

Clinical Engineering's Role in Managing Clinical Alarm Risk

This manuscript highlights the role that clinical engineering can play to minimize the risk of problems associated with clinical alarms. AAMI held a town meeting on clinical alarm management and integration during its 2005 Annual Conference & Expo. The meeting highlighted some excellent suggestions on how the whole concept of improving clinical alarm design and implementation must be addressed in a systematic way. Examples of how the clinical engineering profession can contribute to this effort include participation in more AAMI town hall meetings and other conferences, providing design suggestions to medical device manufacturers, and participation in the development of alarm-related standards.

The Role of Clinical Engineers in Reducing Medical Errors

In Brief Utilizing their knowledge of human factors, regulatory processes and principles of design and safety engineering, clinical engineers can have a major impact on reducing injuries, deaths, and clinical complications resulting from medical errors. These processes, which are part of the biomedical/clinical engineering curriculum, are inherent in minimizing healthcare hazards as well as reducing the risk of bad clinical outcomes resulting from the technology assessment process in selection of new medical devices. Medical equipment standardization and initial user training are essential concepts that must be employed to create a lower risk environment. Removing equipment that does not conform to the standardization process will provide a uniform process of clinical standards for patient treatment and thus increase the familiarity of medical equipment use. This familiarity will lower the risk of clinical errors related to technology frustration and inadvertent user error. Clinical engineers should be at the core of the technology assessment process and make their expertise known to hospital administrators. When hospital administrators realize that input from clinical engineers contribute to a safe environment within the hospital and thus affect the bottom line, their expertise will be a sought after value added commodity. Utilizing their knowledge of human factors, regulatory processes and principles of design and safety engineering, clinical engineers can have a major impact on reducing injuries, deaths, and clinical complications resulting from medical errors. These processes, which are part of the biomedical/clinical engineering curriculum, are inherent in minimizing healthcare hazards as well as reducing the risk of bad clinical outcomes resulting from the technology assessment process in selection of new medical devices. When hospital administrators realize that input from clinical engineers contribute to a safe environment within the hospital and thus affect the bottom line, their expertise will be a sought-after value-added commodity.

Technology assessment--a survey of the clinical engineer's role within the hospital.

Advancements in technology are vital to improve clinical outcomes within the medical community and, in particular, to healthcare systems. The need for a systematic approach to analyzing, assessing and selecting the best new technology for individual hospitals continues to increase in response to this technological growth. To determine the use of technology assessment, the effectiveness of different methods, and the role of clinical engineers and bioengineers in this process, a survey was conducted of clinical engineering departments throughout the United States. The results reveal that technology assessment programs are widely utilized as a team effort between hospital departments. Clinical engineers are playing a key role within these teams as technology managers.

The role of clinical engineers in hospitals: essential or expedient?

This article explores the capabilities of those technicians and clinical engineers who manage biomedical equipment. Equipment technicians maintain the equipment in hospitals and may participate in some basic equipment management. Clinical engineers, on the other hand, may augment this management effort in equipment-intensive hospitals by designing the specifications and procedures needed to integrate equipments into properly working systems and to maintain them under local conditions. In addition, clinical engineers can improve equipment management by providing an engineering viewpoint to such areas as technology assessment, computer applications, quality improvement, and in-service education.

Technology evaluation in a US hospital: the role of clinical engineering.

Appropriate deployment of technological innovation contributes to improvement in the quality of healthcare delivered, containment of cost, and an increased access to the healthcare system. Hospitals have been allocating a significant portion of their resources to procuring and managing capital assets; they are continuously faced with demands for new medical equipment and are asked to manage existing inventory for which they are not well prepared. To objectively manage their investment, hospitals are developing medical technology management programmes that need pertinent information and methods for new equipment planning as well as for reduction in the ownership costs of existing equipment. Clinical engineers can identify new medical equipment, review their institution's technological position, develop equipment-selection criteria, supervise installations and monitor postprocurement performance to meet their hospital's programme's objectives. This programme, together with cost accounting analysis, will objectively guide the capital assets decisionmaking process. The result of systematic planning and execution, the programme will assure the lowest life-cycle costs at the best performance. The clinical engineer's skills and expertise are needed to facilitate the adoption of an objective methodology for implementing the programme, thus improving the match between the hospital's needs and budget projections, equipment performance and cost of ownership.

Technology assessment and equipment planning in Kaiser Permanente, Northern California Region.

Hospitals face a significant challenge to select and appropriately place clinically warranted, safe, and cost-effective medical devices. To meet this challenge, the Kaiser Permanente, Northern California Region developed a comprehensive medical device technology assessment and equipment planning program. This paper discusses the structure of the program, physician leadership and accountability, the role of clinical engineers and other support personnel, and the program's influence on strategic planning and policy development.

The role of clinical engineering in the redesign of existing hospital patient monitoring systems.

Clinical engineering can have a key role in the redesign of existing hospital patient monitoring systems. This paper presents a systematic approach to the process of reinstrumenting highly specialized cardiovascular operating suites. A detailed definition of system requirements is presented for both basic and specialized instrument sets. Configuration flexibility was given the utmost attention. The method presented here suggests that system requirements should reflect information gathered from direct interviews of both the clinical and support personnel. Consideration is given to all applicable codes, standards, and practices. Special attention must also be focused on proper and efficient interfacing of the components of the new system to all components of the existing system. The project described here was conducted within and supported by the University of Alabama Hospital of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Am empirical study of selected cost measures of clinical engineering service effectiveness.

The growing demand for more and better healthcare service greatly expands the role of medical equipment in providing health services more effectively. The purpose of introducing clinical engineering programs in hospitals was to improve the effectiveness of healthcare institutions' utilization and management of medical technology. Over the last decade, the role of clinical engineering has grown in importance as a component of hospitals and the healthcare delivery system. Hospital administrators currently put a strong emphasis on cost effectiveness of clinical engineering services, to reduce the cost of acquisition and maintenance of equipment. Unfortunately, the lack of a commonly accepted definition of cost effectiveness has resulted in a certain amount of confusion over how the performance of clinical engineering services can or should be measured. The results presented in this paper should assist hospital administrators and clinical engineering program managers to establish a common understanding of what "cost effectiveness" means and how it can be achieved.

Risks associated with diagnostic devices.

Therapeutic medical devices alter patients' physiological functions. Diagnostic devices are for information gathering, manipulation, and display. Despite this difference in purpose, both types of medical equipment have potential risks associated with their use that must be recognized and subjected to the principles of risk management. For diagnostic equipment, special concerns include direct side effects, clinical misinterpretation of results, malperformance, obvious non-function, and inherent limitations. The role of clinical engineering in diagnostic risk management must be consistent with its general obligations in equipment acquisition, training, maintenance, and hazard identification. Since sharp lines of distinction often cannot be drawn between equipment, operator, and clinical issues, clinical engineering has the opportunity and responsibility to extend its contributions into an integrated systems approach to medical device safety and effectiveness.

The emerging field of clinical engineering and its accomplishments.

Clinical engineering has emerged during the past 20 years as a specialty area to apply the knowledge produced by biomedical engineering research. The clinical engineer is a member of the health care team in a clinical environment and interfaces with physicians, nurses, and allied health care personnel. The role of clinical engineering also includes management, information systems, and health care delivery systems. A survey was performed, and the results of the questionnaire identified the primary contributions of clinical engineering to be as follows: provide technical advice, expertise, and educational services; provide electrical safety programs; provide consultation to resolve and investigate equipment malfunctions or failures; and provide for the centralized management and maintenance of medical instrumentation and equipment. The role of clnical engineering is expanding as the use of advanced technology increases in health care delivery.

The Role Of Clinical Engineering In India And Developing Nations

The Role Of Clinical Engineering In India And Developing Nations