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.