Next month, healthcare professionals from around the world will celebrate the 2nd annual National Biomedical/Clinical Engineering Appreciation Week from May 18-24 with special events, career days, and other activities to raise awareness of the biomed field. In honor of this special week, AAMI's Technology Management Council (TMC) has produced a 4-color poster that hospitals, manufacturers, schools, and biomedical societies can use to draw attention to the event.

Copies of the poster are being distributed to AAMI's institutional members, schools, and biomedical society members of AAMI. In addition, an online version of the poster is now available at the AAMI website. In editable PDF format, the online poster enables individuals to localize the poster by adding an organization's name or special local events in the lower left hand corner of the poster, and then print and post.

The TMC, which is sponsoring the special observance, notes in its proclamation that biomedical equipment technicians, clinical engineers, and other medical technology professionals "uniquely serve patients, the medical community, and the new technology development to improve the quality of today's healthcare. Given the complexity of medical technology today, these professionals provide "an invaluable resource to the healthcare industry" by "controlling healthcare costs and improving patient safety."
Meantime, biomeds from around the country are already gearing up to celebrate the National Biomedical/Clinical Engineering Appreciation Week. In Alabama, for example, a new state biomed society plans to hold its first meeting in conjunction with the national appreciation week, while biomeds at a New York hospital are planning to hold an open house by welcoming in others from other departments.

"It's a chance to get staff from other parts of the hospital - many of whom don't even know where our shop is located - to come in and get to know us and what we do," says Stephen Zigelstein, director of clinical engineering at the University of Rochester Medical Center, who is planning the open house.

He and his staff will publicize the open house through their hospital's newsletter, lay out test equipment for staff to see, host an ice cream social event, and open up their doors for two hours a day on two consecutive days.

A similar event held last year attracted 75 employees and was "a real eye-opener for some of the staff members who came through," he says. "Some of the nurses were surprised at just how much we are involved with, saying things like,'you help out with the operating room?' or 'you work on x-ray machines?'"

Zigelstein urges others to hold similar events, because"your staff will appreciate the opportunity to show off what they do, and you'll make a lasting impression on the staffers who come through to visit. An event like this gives you a chance to spread that message to people who otherwise might not know."

For more information about the TMC projects and events, visit www.aami.org/tmcconnect.

For links to poster and materials, go to:
http://aami.org/news/2008/040108.poster.html