Over the past decade, the medical device and information technology industries have made significant progress in designing and creating “smart” products and systems. Figure 54-1 illustrates various levels of technology adoption and integration through the health care delivery process. Only by advancing more of the health care processes to Level 3 can we achieve the degree of quality that the system needs. Through adoption, standardization, and integration of technology, the quality, safety, availability, and cost of health care will improve. In this era of rapid change and diffusion of medical and information technology, clinical engineers are essential members of multidisciplinary hospital teams. The clinical engineering perspective can be instrumental in identifying root causes and solutions with regard to patient safety and process improvement. An understanding of equipment and system design principles can produce insights that go beyond the standard behavior of the device or system in question. The ability to utilize best practices and quality-management systems allows clinical engineers to contribute to the improvement of management processes, efficiencies, and patient safety measures.