New name

Many of the speakers said an expanding role for biomeds and the need to promote the profession justify a somewhat controversial proposal to adopt "healthcare technology management" as the umbrella name for clinical engineering, which happened at an AAMI-convened meeting last fall.

"I've heard a lot of negative comments about the healthcare technology management name, and the comments have gone along the lines of, 'It's not a good fit for what we do,'" Keller said. But he said the name reflects the expanding "focus of our profession beyond medical equipment maintenance to cover the entire health technology life cycle."

At the meeting, Alan Lipschultz, who worked in clinical engineering for more than 37 years before starting Healthcare Technology Consulting, compared the new umbrella term to "Human Resources," which includes diverse sub-fields, from recruiters to benefit managers, but still gives a unified designation the jobs are known by.

"The variety of names has hampered efforts by the community to be recognized by the C-suite," he said. "Rebranding provides an opportunity for the profession to come together and explain to the world what we're all about."

He said a marketing firm has been retained by AAMI to promote the field, and a Future Forum II, a sequel to the group held last fall that came up with HTM, will meet in September to talk about the next steps.

For more information on Healthcare Technology Management Week, go here: http://www.aami.org/meetings/htmweek/

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