Should Biomedical Engineers Service Medical Imaging Systems?

Because of a growing talent shortage in healthcare technology, there are fewer experienced engineers available to service and repair medical imaging systems. Imaging engineers we’ve worked with tell us OEMs, such as Siemens, aren’t employing as many field service engineers (FSEs) as they have in the past. The manufacturer’s FSEs are covering larger regions, which means they may not be able to get to your location as soon as you’d expect.

Even when an engineer is finally able to troubleshoot problems, it may still be necessary to order replacement parts. Then, it’s possible a replacement part may not work, showing up dead on arrival (DOA) and extending system downtime even longer.

One way some healthcare organizations mitigate the risks and avoid the negative impact of medical imaging system downtime is by relying on in-house talent to service and repair equipment. This is an especially useful strategy if the system is no longer covered under an OEM service contract.

Perhaps the most capable people in your organization are the biomedical engineering technicians (BMETs). However, some may question whether it’s feasible for BMETs to work on medical imaging systems. After all, it’s not really their job.

Flexibility in the Healthcare Hierarchy

While biomedical engineers and imaging engineers sometimes get lumped into the same category, these are different practices. In the healthcare world, there are clear lines separating these roles, which are rarely crossed.I witnessed this mentality firsthand while working in a hospital as an imaging director. People with certain titles in healthcare are expected to stick to specific duties. Unless it’s a dire situation, you won’t see surgery techs working in the ER, and you won’t find X-ray technicians drawing blood. They may have the knowledge or even the training, but they don’t do it.

Some of this organizational structure is useful because it helps identify people of a certain stature. For example, that’s why doctors traditionally wear long lab coats and medical students have short ones. There are also compliance and liability reasons for having strictly defined roles. However, in a time when talent shortages threaten to impede operations and productivity in healthcare, it may be wise to maximize the capabilities of in-house talent in new ways, at least when it makes sense.A director of diagnostic imaging and other decision-makers in HTM may have never even considered the possibility of utilizing the biomedical engineering staff for medical imaging service and repairs. Yet, with the right training, support, and parts supply chain, it can be a viable option.

BMETs work with a wide variety of medical devices, but because of the intricacies of medical imaging, the biomedical engineering department is unlikely to touch most imaging systems.There’s good reason for this, too. Computed tomography (CT) equipment, angiography, fluoroscopy, and MRI systems are all complex and expensive pieces of technology requiring in-depth knowledge, including safety training and electrical engineering experience.

In most biomedical engineering education programs, students receive some medical imaging training, but it is minimal. Typically, students spend only a few weeks learning everything from how X-rays are produced and radiation protection to asset control and equipment management. It is unrealistic to assume you can take someone directly from one of these programs and ask them to properly service or repair an imaging system. However, with continuing education, expert support, and reliable medical imaging replacement parts, there are opportunities to utilize BMETs effectively.

Original blog post by Technical Prospects can be found, here.
For more information on Technical Prospects and to view their training calendar, please click here.