EBME Forums Forums Management Professional Issues Clinical engineers employment

Hello !

That is my first post in this forum, so please forgive me if I put it in the wrong place!

I am currently doing my project to complete my MSc, and I chose to deal with Clinical Engineering in the UK: education and profession.

I was wondering: do clinical engineers exclusively work in hospitals, or can they also work in industries / government ? Do they have the same title if so ?

As I have to compare the education provided with the activities Clinical Engineers deal with, it would be good for me to find a segmentation of their employment! But for now, I can't find this information anywhere...

Thank you!

Alice

Clinical Engineering departments in the Armed Forces are known as Medical/Dental Servicing Sections. Same thing just different name. I'm sure this is the same throughout the civilian world as the title 'Clinical Engineer' accounts for various careers involved with Medical technology.

Hello Alice,

Yes, Clinical Engineers are found both in industry and in government.

All sorts of job titles may be used, but someone has to design the equipment in the first place, and bring it to market, commission it, and later on, service it on behalf of the manufacturer.

You with find equipment engineers sitting in every Health Ministry that I have ever had dealings with. And don’t forget our own MHRA.

There’s loads of stuff on the web, but you might need to tap in:-

Biomedical Engineer
Medical Physics Technician
Medical Equipment Engineer etc, etc.

I recently completed my M.Sc in Bioengineering. I endorse on what Geoff Hannis has to say and would like to give you a website which speaks on depth on biomedical engineering-it has many external websites which could be helpful.

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Explore_types_of_jobs/Types_of_Job/p!eipaL?state=showocc&idno=250&pageno=8

In which field are you doing your Masters?

Thank you very much !

Well, I'm doing an MSc in Medical Diagnostics, but actually I'm French and I come from an Engineering school (general engineering : I know, typically french...)

I know that in the US, clinical engineering is not exactly biomedical engineering: the clinical engineer is more dealing with equipment management, risk assesment, etc. In France, we don't make such a difference, and from what you say it seems that in the UK either! Am I right ?

Thank you !

There isn’t any difference, Alice. It’s all just semantics. One of the best jobs I ever had was entitled “Medical Equipment Repairman”! Plus ça change, eh?

Thanks... So my brasilian supervisor might be a bit disturbed himself, as the system in Brazil is quite similar to the american one.(yes: french student, british MSc, project in Brasil... no comment :))

So I guess that the job depends more on where you do it (hospital / industry /...) than on the title you give to it !
In hospitals, a clinical (or biomedical or...) engineer will have to deal with equipment management, while in industries he/she will work on developing new products, etc.

Do you know where I could find this kind of information ? (activities regarding the employment - how many clinical engineers in each sector, etc.)

Once again : tank you so much for your help !!

Alice

Beats me, Alice, I'm just a lowly trooper (... see that job title in my earlier post)! The internet is where you need to enquire, I would say. Have fun!

Thank you, Geoff !
At least now I will try to diversify my key words on the web !

Just to add to the confusion for Engineer you could also read Technician. Again in industry apart from design and manufacture etc you will have Field Service Engineers/Technicians, all doing similar jobs to hospital based staff.