A CE-IT Community Is Born...
 Welcome to the 4th edition of IT Horizons. AAMI is pleased to present this publication along with our cosponsors, the American College of Clinical Engineering (ACCE) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
In 2008, our three organizations joined forces to address the timely and critical issue facing the clinical engineering (CE)-information technology (IT) community. Together, we represent thousands of biomedical equipment technicians, clinical engineers, IT professionals, clinicians, and other medical technology professionals around the world. By pooling our resources through this collaboration, we are seeking to foster a united voice for clinical engineering and IT concerns and to develop important resources, best practices, and networking opportunities to advance the interests of CE-IT issues in healthcare. (Visit www. ceitcollaboration.org for more details.)
This publication represents an important step in that collaboration. Two roundtable articles bring together experts from our three organizations to look at the big-picture issues driving changes in the CE-IT world and what effects they will have on the professions. Other articles focus on how biomedical and clinical engineering professionals can upgrade their IT skills, what technologies are driving the changes in the field, and the implications of two documents that aim to reduce the risk associated with the convergence of medical devices and information technologies.
We hope that this issue of IT Horizons will be beneficial to you and advances efforts to fulfill the promise of these emerging technologies.
Sincerely,
The CE-IT Community's Steering Committee |
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