Help Wanted: CE-IT Convergence Leads to New Opportunities
With the growing convergence of
clinical engineering (CE) and
information technology (IT), some hospitals
are now creating new positions to
help manage the integration of bedside
medical data with clinical information
systems or electronic medical records
(EMR).
Demand for “device integration project managers” is growing as CE and IT responsibilities continue to merge, and as the biomed/CE profession evolves. “It is not a break/fix mentality anymore. It is a system approach,” says Marilyn Hailperin, associate partner at Santa Rosa Consulting, a healthcare IT management consulting company.
| CE-IT Resources | |
| The CE-IT Community — a collaboration among members of AAMI, the American College of Clinical Engineering (ACCE), and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) — has created several resources to help with the convergence of CE and IT. To access them, visit www.ceitcollaboration.org |
Hailperin, who is helping some hospitals find candidates to fill these positions, recently sought clinical engineers who might be interested in this new opportunity. Hospitals need to make thoughtful decisions on integrating data from biomedical devices with the clinical information, she says.
Some systems experts say that the job of device integration project manager isn’t prevalent — at least not yet. “I absolutely think that these types of positions are necessary and required, but it has to be more than just ‘are you familiar with how to take the plug from this medical device and plug it into the IT network?’” says Rick Hampton, wireless communications manager for Partners Healthcare, a hospital group in Boston. Risk management plays a key part in this position and in integration, Hampton adds.
Understanding integration is necessary because “when you start including your devices into other systems, you change the nature of that device,” says Rick Schrenker, systems engineering manager at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “You are making medical devices when you do that. It has reached the point where there is zero doubt about it anymore.”
Biomeds and clinical engineers can prepare for this position by learning more about their facilities, Hailperin says. She cites the case of how one clinical engineer’s involvement in a telemetry project led to a better understanding of other departments’ operations. “It is just paying attention, and offering to become engaged with these kinds of projects,” she says.
AAMI News: March 2010, Vol. 45, No. 3