Hall of Fame

Posthumous Recipient

December 13, 1945 - July 31, 2019

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Education 

Bill Hyman’s lifelong achievements and influence on our profession are immense and his influence continues even after his untimely death.

Professor Hyman’s intense thought-provoking advocacy for expansion of the C.E. profession has been unique and is still impactful through inclusion of teaching risk management methodologies and the engagement with regulatory processes in academic programs and practices in industry and within healthcare provider institutions. Clinical engineers and safety officers are better prepared for additional careers in areas that were not considered part of CE field several decades ago. There are more clinical engineers in key positions due to the teaching and publications delivered by Bill at international and domestic ACCE events, as well as at NASA, FDA, BME society, AAMI, ASTM and of course at Texas A&M university.

His sphere of influence stretched from Texas A&M University, where he initiated and promoted the teaching of system safety and human factors engineering and their role in the design of safer medical products. His influence reached communities beyond academia creating changes in industry, FDA, and HTF practices. This was recognized by his numerous awards including the Excellence in Engineering Teaching (1996), Cerebral Palsy of Houston (1996), ASTM Meritorious Service (2005), and ACCE lifetime achievement (2009).

Bill developed a methodology for adverse events investigation and tools to practice problem resolution that resulted in safer medical products, both disposables and reusables, and safer organizations. He used his service on standards committees (ASTM E-30 on Forensic Sciences, F-4 on Surgical Implants and Medical Devices) to better connect and guide improvements between desired risk control principles and its practical application.

His editorials at BS&S, JCE, and books he published guided large followers and established higher safety bar in design, practice, regulations, and litigations related to medical products quality performance. Bill’s passion about guiding the future development of C.E. field was far wider than practitioners alone and span out to help built organizations needed to carry this out. 

“Bill Hyman was one of my valued mentors, someone who took time to listen to new clinical engineers and share words of wisdom. So many of us in the clinical engineering community are indebted to Bill and others like him. It's a debt I always strive to pay forward to the next generation.”

“Without Dr. Hyman’s leadership and example, I would not be a successful clinical engineering practitioner and published author today.”

“He impacted the field throughout his entire life. He had tremendous influence with his students and his colleagues. He was always a proponent of innovation if it was logical. His reach was global.”

“Though Bill is no longer with us and certainly missed, it is wonderful that his legacy will live on forever. His soft spoken, intensely thought-provoking teaching inspired generations!”

“Bill was a brilliant biomedical/clinical engineer whose scope of influence reached all corners of health technology – the highest levels of education, research, government,  associations and foundations, and the practice of clinical engineering. Like previous CE Hall of Fame members, clinical engineering was lucky to have someone of his exceptional background in our field. His accomplishments include chairmanship of a major university biomedical engineering program, exceptional research endeavors, editorial leadership for the Journal of Clinical Engineering, consulting for the FDA, NSF, NIH, and other major organizations, recognition as an international safety expert, and former president of the Healthcare Technology Foundation.”

“Bill challenged the status quo of ideas and standards, and fostered change due to his credibility and common-sense reasoning. Due to this approach, he caused positive change in the field.”