ACCE Blog

​After serving more than four decades as a clinical engineer and in related industry roles, I’ve become and remain a great believer in the benefit of the proliferating technological advances in the field of medicine.  I do believe we have the possibility of our offering higher quality, lower cost health care to an ever growing portion of the world’s population.

However I am not naïve.  The hoped for benefits from technological advances are not guaranteed.  We need to be mindful that technological innovations are neither inherently positive … nor negative.  It is only in how they are applied that we see the true nature and benefit of those “advances.” 

Netflix’ recently released its original documentary, The Bleeding Edge.  Everyone in the healthcare industry, including clinical engineers and other healthcare technology professionals, should watch this documentary.  It is a cautionary tale of how technological advances in medicine can go horribly wrong when we become blindly enamored with innovation, profits, and unfettered deregulation.   Most who buy into the adoption of these technological advances do so with the best of intent.  A smaller but still influential number are more focused on the industry growth and profitably. 

We as clinical engineers and healthcare technology professionals must ensure we are the voice of reason when selecting which new technologies to adopt and that we make clear what exactly must be done to deploy and support new technologies that are adopted. 

The Bleeding Edge is a reminder that it is the patient we are truly here to serve … and it is the patient who ultimately benefits … or suffers … based on how we and our other colleagues in medical device manufacturing, regulation and healthcare delivery do our jobs.

Go to  https://www.netflix.com/title/80170862​