This chapter concerns the advocacy of clinical engineering and the ethics associated with its practice. The bylaws of the American College of Clinical Engineering (ACCE) address both of these topics. For example, ACCE (Bauld, 1991) defines a clinical engineer as “A professional who supports and advances patient care by applying engineering and
management skills to health care technology.” ACCE amplifies this definition in its seven-point code of ethics, as follows:
1. Prevention of injury in the clinical environment
2. Accurate representation of the clinical engineer’s knowledge, level of responsibility, education, authority and experience
3. Revelation of conflict of interest
4. Protection of confidential information
5. Improvement of patient care delivery
6. Cost containment by technology utilization
7. Promotion of the profession of clinical engineering
This chapter will address the above points based on the knowledge of the author, a clinical engineer with 35 years of experience, and describes the relationship of these areas to ethics and advocacy.