A Bright Future

Marian Benjamin, Editor, 24x7

The 2004 Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation Annual Conference & Expo was held in June, and, although outside the weather in Boston was soggy and gloomy, inside the convention hall and in the educational sessions it was bright with lively conversation, exchange of ideas, and optimism about the future of biomedical equipment technology and clinical engineering.

I was delighted to meet many of you at the 24x7 booth and value the suggestions and insights you shared. Many of your ideas will find their way into an article in the coming year.

Among the exciting happenings was the first ever meeting of META, the Medical Equipment Technology Association, a national association for BMETs recently formed as a result of meetings between the American College of Clinical Engineers and interested biomeds at last year’s AAMI meeting. META shared a booth with ACCE, and attendees who stopped by were invited to join and to vote for the group’s logo. I was fortunate to speak to Mary Coker, CBET, the powerhouse behind META’s formation. Coker, who previously ran her own consulting firm and now works for ARAMARK, has big plans for this group of dedicated biomeds. I encourage you to visit their Web site to learn more about what META can do for you.

ACCE continues to support META, according to Izabella Gieras, the newly elected president of ACCE, and hopes to work closely with its board and help in its development. ACCE too, has big plans for the future and I learned some of them at their annual meeting, held on June 6. The meeting began with a reception and was followed by the annual membership meeting. The reception is an ideal venue for networking, exchanging ideas, and seeing old friends and colleagues. During the meeting, ACCE presented advocacy awards to clinical engineers who have made outstanding contributions to their field. You can read about the awards in this month’s Browser.

ACCE offered the CE certification test for the first time last year and will be giving it again in November. They are in the process of putting together study guides for individuals who want to take the exam. Additionally, in July ACCE will offer a CCE Prep course as part of its teleconference series. Information about that teleconference is available on the ACCE Healthcare Foundation Web site.

So much to learn, so little time. The AAMI meeting is so rich in educational sessions and fascinating presentations that one is hard-pressed to choose which events to attend. It was an eye-opening experience for me, and I can hardly wait to attend next year’s meeting.

mbenjamin@medpubs.com