Dr. Furst has been inducted into the Clinical Engineering Hall of Fame in recognition of his significant contributions to the advancement of the profession in three areas: His pioneering texts helped set the foundation for modern benchmarking; “Manny’s Meeting”, which became an AAMI committee, served as an incubator for ideas from throughout the profession; and, his work as Technical Manager for IHE Patient Care Devices built key bridges between CE and IT and vendors and providers.
Education:
B.E.E., 1962, Clarkson College (now Clarkson University)
M.S. Electrical Engineering, 1963, Columbia University
Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering, 1969, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Certification, Registration, & Peer Recognition:
Certified Clinical Engineer
New York State Scholarship for undergraduate education
Election to Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi honor societies
Graduation "With Distinction," Clarkson College
Columbia University Scholarship for graduate education
National Science Foundation summer stipends for engineering faculty education
National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Fellowship
"Best Paper of the Issue" awards, 1985 and 1986, Journal of Clinical Engineering
Editorial Award for Special Issue, March 1987, Journal of Clinical Engineering
Clinical Engineering Achievement Award, 1990, Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation
Professional Advocacy Award, 2000, American College of Clinical Engineering
Professional Achievement in Management Award, 2005, American College of Clinical Engineering
AAMI BI&T Outstanding Management & Technology Paper of 2006
ACCE/HIMSS Clinical Engineering – Information Technology Synergies Award 2014
ACCE Tom O’Dea Professional Advocacy Award, 2015, American College of Clinical Engineering
ACCE Lifetime Achievement Award, 2017, American College of Clinical Engineering
Summary of Career:
Dr. Furst is recognized as one of the pioneers of the Clinical Engineering profession. He joined the University of Arizona in 1972, initiated the Clinical Engineering Shared Service Program within the Arizona Hospital Association in 1972 and served as Director of the Biomedical Engineering Department at University Medical Center (UMC) until 1993.
In 1985, Dr. Furst convened a group of clinical engineering leaders to discuss ideas and trends in healthcare technology. The group has expanded and continues to meet annually. Known within the profession as "The Manny Meeting", it is officially called the "Annual Conference on Clinical Engineering Productivity and Cost Effectiveness" and "AAMI Subcommittee on Technology Management." This unique gathering is known for its active and vigorous dialogue, as a forum where members often present their ideas and are encouraged to publish or present at national meetings.
In 1996, Dr. Furst founded a consulting company called Improvement Technologies LLC and co-authored, with W.D. McKinney, the landmark publications: Clinical Engineering Improvement Tools™ and with Bruce Hyndman as co-author, Facilities Engineering Improvement Tools™, both published by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE). These books provided valuable techniques for performance and management improvement through self-assessment, peer comparison, and benchmarking. In 2009, Dr. Furst joined other subject matter experts to define and develop the data collection tool for the AAMI Benchmarking Solution. Dr. Furst extended his work to advise on compliance with the accreditation standards.
Dr. Furst took on the roles of Technical Project Manager, Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise, Patient Care Devices Domain and Technical Project Manager, HIMSS Interoperability Showcases from 2004-2015. In these roles he played a major role in the development of interoperability of medical devices connected to the Electronic Medical Record, by bringing vendors and users together to participate in the development of technical requirements and coordinating demonstrations of interoperability of medical devices and systems.
Below are some extracts from the material provided for his nomination:
"Manny's ability to bring together all of us with different perspectives and experiences helped shape my method of practicing Clinical Engineering. Additionally, most of the topics discussed at the Manny Meeting found their way into the following AAMI meeting agendas; a sign of his ability to encourage new ideas and ways of looking at healthcare challenges."
"Manny has always been an active contributor to the Manny Meeting itself, but his most important legacy was to set up the structure for extremely effective discourse during the meeting, invite the right mix of representatives of our profession to make the dialog happen in a meaningful way, and subsequently hand over the reins of a well-oiled machine after his retirement to keep such a vital part of our clinical engineering profession running for years to come."
"Manny has published on a number of topics of interest to the professionals who manage medical technology and his work has provided clarity and understanding of complex issues. He has influenced the careers and work processes for thousands of professionals in the field"
"Manny has demonstrated insatiable curiosity about medical technologies, management theories and application, clinical research projects, and the growing area of healthcare information systems. Manny not only created one of the pre-eminent clinical engineering departments of its time at the University of Arizona Medical Center, but many of his staff went on to be high-level leaders in their own right. His "can-do" attitude is certainly inspiring and infectious, and it encouraged all of us to tackle new and difficult technologies and methodologies as a learning community."
"This is what Manny did. He took the concept of PCD – the glimmer in our eyes – and crafted a success story that has impacted the lives of countless patients and clinicians around the world. Over the years, I realized that PCD was not Manny's first success in pulling together disparate interests to focus on identifying and solving problems that faced the clinical engineering and healthcare community. "The Manny Meeting" is but one obvious example."
"There can be no question that Manny has had a significant impact on the CE profession through his very many presentations, publications and other technical material, his warm personality, his organizational leadership, and his continual, (often behind the scenes) organizational efforts."
"Manny has been a leader at the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) for decades. His positions and responsibilities have included AAMI's Board of Directors, chair of the AAMI Continuing Education Committee, and chair or co-chair of the Manny Meeting."
 A successful 2006 IHE-PCD showcase, left to right, Elliot Sloane, Jack Harrington, Emanuel (Manny) Furst, Ray Zambuto and Todd Cooper |