The math, sadly, doesn’t add up. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects more than 7,300 openings for biomedical equipment technicians over the next decade — but only about 400 new graduates each year. Compounding the issue, nearly half of today’s healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals are over 45, with one-third older than 55.

The shortage is already taking its toll. According to the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), the average HTM role now takes more than three months to fill. This delay leaves critical systems idle, forcing hospitals to scramble while a stretched-thin workforce struggles to keep pace with demand.

Rewriting the playbook

Christopher Nowak, CHTM, CBET, CSCS, CHP, senior director of medical equipment capital and biomedical services at Community Health Systems in Franklin, Tennessee, has seen the workforce gap firsthand. “It’s not just HTM,” Nowak muses. “Why aren’t people going into nursing or other medical fields?” He attributes the decline to shifting career expectations, with many students bypassing biomed programs for flashier fields like social media.

This generational shift has forced Nowak to rethink his approach to attracting and retaining talent. He’s casting a wider net, seeking candidates from technical schools and community colleges with IT or electronics backgrounds. “Finding the right person is key,” he says. “This job isn’t about sitting behind a computer, it’s hands-on, high-stakes work. Recruitment becomes a sales job. You have to tailor the pitch to the person.”

Nowak has also updated how he structures job roles. Traditional titles like “BMET 2” or “imaging engineer” don’t resonate with younger candidates and can create an “us-versus-them” dynamic. Instead, his job descriptions emphasize IT, networking, and security skills. Think: “senior medical systems engineering technologist” and “medical systems technician". "These job titles reflect the new skills today’s technology demands,” Nowak says.

Changing titles is just part of the solution; reshaping how the field is perceived is equally vital. Pej Namshirin, manager at Lower Mainland Biomedical Engineering (LMBME) in Vancouver, emphasizes the need to shift the perception of HTM from “technician” to “technologist". The outdated notion of biomeds sitting in basements repairing broken equipment is a far cry from reality. Today’s professionals are fully embedded in clinical teams, solving urgent problems and working alongside caregivers to keep critical systems running.

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