Clinical engineering
The future of clinical engineering
EBME 2025 provided a platform to discuss the future direction of clinical engineering – from career development, to professional registration and the need for independent oversight. Clinical engineers will have a vital role in influencing sustainability, patient safety, and navigating rapid technological change. To meet the challenges head on, the sector must ensure it has a powerful voice and lead the way.
Speaking in his opening address, Professor John Sandham CEng FIHEEM, Chair of EBME Expo, revealed that this year’s event attracted around 50% more delegates and featured over 175 exhibitors. The event continues to provide a vital platform to promote the crucial conversations needed to ensure medical device technologies are managed safely, efficiently, and effectively to improve clinical outcomes. Prof. Sandham pointed out that the landscape
of medical technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace, presenting both immense opportunities and significant challenges. The overriding message at the event was clear: clinical engineers must take a central role and lead the way in decision making – to achieve this, we must elevate the profile of the profession and secure the recognition it deserves.
Professional development High on the agenda was the future direction of clinical engineering and the need to support professional development. Someone with extensive experience of career advancement within the sector is Richard Scott, who recently retired as the Director of Medical Physics & Bioengineering, at the University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust. A clinical engineer by background, he has recently stepped away to take on the role of developing international standards, chairing a committee tasked with rewriting IEC 60601. He is also currently consulting on medical device regulation through a new consultancy which he founded – called Citizen MedTech. “There are many in the room who may feel a little frustrated with their role in clinical engineering and the opportunities for career progression – so, it’s great that you’re all here today. You’ve taken the first step to thinking about what the future holds for you and hopefully your services. “Wherever you work – whether you are in
estates, clinical engineering, a medical physics team, or a private provider – we need to ensure we have the right service specification for clinical engineering. We are trying to ensure the safety and availability of equipment for the patient’s benefit. I want to start a debate – can you develop a clinical engineering roadmap?” he commented. He pointed out the array of options available
to clinical engineers at an early stage of their career can seem overwhelming. While it is tempting to try and develop a full career roadmap, it can be better to set short term goals, he advised. Too rigid a plan can close doors. He suggested that delegates should be “opportunistic but constantly adapting their plans”. There are various training schemes available
– including the practitioner training scheme, and the option to train as a clinical scientist. His own professional pathway highlights the many unexpected routes into the profession – career paths into the profession are not always
linear and Richard Scott shared that, when undertaking his degree at North Staffordshire Polytechnic, he had “no grand plan of career steps to take”. “I undertook an electronics degree in 1980
and wanted to go into the electronic musical instrument industry, to design synthesizers. I chose a degree where I could spend the third year in industry. However, a placement fell through with a music company and I had to find somewhere to go. This was back in 1982. I found a little scrap of paper on a notice board saying, ‘electronics design engineer needed’, with a clinical research centre division of anesthetics in Middlesex. I did 15 months of designing equipment to measure the depth of anesthesia and assessing respiratory mechanics, and that gave me a lifelong interest in designing and developing medical equipment. It also gave me a life-long love of standards – it was the beginning of thinking: how can we make equipment that is safe?
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