Personnel
The educational level of engineers and biomedical equipment technicians (BMETs) in the departments varies considerably. Figure 15-1 represents the skill mix in the departments per region. Table 15-2 shows the variation in the skills per region. It is a general trend in all regions that CEDs consist predominantly of BMETs. However, in some departments in the Nordic countries and Latin America, the number of engineers is sometimes equal to, or higher than, the number of BMETs. CEDs in North America and the Nordic countries are large, with many personnel. Furthermore, it was found that in Latin America all departments have engineers. In some departments in Latin America and in Europe there are no BMETs at all, while in all other areas there are departments without engineers but not without BMETs. In a number of hospitals, there are also medical physicists within the CEDs. In Europe generally, and especially in the Nordic countries, many departments have engineers holding a Ph.D. In Australia and Latin America, clinical engineers are predominantly at the B.Sc. level, while in North America there is an equal distribution of B.Sc. and M.Sc. graduates. The educational background of the BMETs was further analyzed and compared to the previous survey in Figures 15-2 and 15-3. A clear trend toward longer educational programs for BMETs is noted. The survey indicates that this is predominantly true for the three- and four-year technical education following high school. This is also seen in Figure 15-4, where the educational backgrounds for all regions are studied. Nevertheless, there are BMETs with B.Sc. degrees and some in the U.S. and in Western Europe even hold M.Sc. degrees. Figure 15-5 shows the number of technicians per engineer per region. In Australia and in North America the number of technicians per engineer is quite high, i.e., 8 and 7, respectively. This ratio drops to 3 in Western and Southern Europe, while in Latin America data show that on average the number of engineers equals the number of technicians. Table 15-3 summarizes data on age and experience of engineers and BMETs. Clinical engineers appear to be older and with more years of clinical experience, on the average, as compared to BMETs. The situation is different only in Latin America. Therefore, this table reflects a younger profession of clinical engineering in Southern Europe and Latin America.