EBME
at this conference,” she continued. Another issue highlighted was the fact that
there is an increasing trend for IT people to work remotely. This creates challenges in getting the right people onsite to solve connectivity issues together. There are further issues around IT availability on night shifts. When a fault occurs on a vital connected device out of hours, this can present significant issues. “The connectivity or device malfunction
often doesn’t materialise until it is displayed on a monitor screen and triggers a message or an alarm to the user. Often, the user doesn’t know who to report it to. We need to create defined roles, on who has ownership for these connectivity issues, and if the user comes to us to deal with it, we need to be trained,” said another one of the delegates. “However, I think there are some potential
problems with us becoming trained for that sort of thing – as we will inherit more and more IT jobs. I’m a clinical technologist and I found myself on a night shift in a riser cupboard trying to plug things in – because I was sent on a really good course on medical devices connectivity. “Although I’m a clinical technologist, I’ve
got the training for quite a bit of IT stuff. So, because I’m qualified to do that, I found myself troubleshooting beyond the wall, beyond the port, back to the riser cupboard, logging into remote services to see why data is not coming through. I’ve taken on a lot more jobs than my usual, because of the response time,” she explained. Iain Threlkeld asked them: “Have you had any
resistance from IT, when taking on those roles?” “No, because they’re not inclined to come in on the night shift,” she responded. “Although there’s an on-call person, sometimes they are hard to get hold of. If you’re in an emergency theatre and you’re not getting your data on your
Hospitals are increasingly bringing in new technologies with connectivity. Whether building a new hospital or refurbishing, you need to make sure that you have a voice and that you are talking with the project team. It’s about getting into that room and explaining.
anaesthetic machine, it is preposterous to tell an anaesthetist to stop what they are doing, log a ticket for IT, and we’ll escalate it to someone who will come in ‘when they can’. They need a response straight away. “So, that’s why clinical engineering has
inherited these issues and why I was sent on a training course. But I think, if we have a defined role of someone that knows this is their job, they are going to get onto it; they’re going to sort this out. Then the anaesthetist can get the data, which is better for the patient and speeds up the whole process.” Another EBME expert interjected: “The experience I’ve had is that IT won’t move without a budget code and they have a priority list. So, it’s about getting on this priority list as well. A really important point is that it’s about patient safety and I think patient safety is what gets you into the C-suite priorities. “I believe it’s the role of head of clinical engineering to take these issues to their exec teams and make them understand, because often the director of IT is an exec member. Quite a few Trusts have very big digital agendas and it’s important to make sure that clinical engineering are part of that digital funding. “The other issue I want to highlight is that we could be setting ourselves up for a little bit of a challenge in relation to the workforce, because
the more skills you give clinical engineers around IT, the more likely they are to be poached by the IT industry. So that is a real risk as well. I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it, for that reason, but pay is going to be a challenge.” One of the EBME experts went on to caution against another challenge – if EBME departments become absorbed by the ‘digital directorate’, there is a risk that they may become ‘overlooked’ due to the many other competing demands and priorities. One of the delegates pointed out that, at their
Trust, IT is overseen by the Chief Digital and Information Officer’s department (CDIO), then there is ‘CDIO (Med)’ – where the Clinical Safety Officer is located. They are responsible for connectivity, including patient tracking systems etc. “That’s our route in,” they explained. Overall, the discussion highlighted the fact that there is no standardisation across Trusts, with a wide variety of approaches being implemented to tackle the increasing connectivity of medical devices. In the absence of strategic oversight on a national scale, each Trust is tackling the issue of device connectivity and evolving responsibilities in different ways. Ultimately, IT training and collaboration will be key going forward.
Technology’s impact on patient care The conversation moved on to ‘technology’s impact on patient care’ and Iain Threlkeld asked the delegates to consider the following: l As we move towards providing care away from acute hospitals, what needs to happen to support patients with access to medical equipment in these environments?
l Is there a need for new roles to support this? l What challenges do we see in moving towards remote care and how can we ensure we are ready to address these?
The government is keen to roll out ‘virtual wards’ with more care being delivered in the home environment. Iain Threlkeld highlighted a paper from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, highlighting a need for the introduction of a ‘patient enablement engineer’. The report can be
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www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I October 2025
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