Stephen L. Grimes has been inducted into the Clinical Engineering Hall of Fame in recognition of his significant contributions to the profession as a visionary leader. Mr. Grimes saw places where clinical engineering needed to go as a profession, for example, Clinical Systems Engineering, and Medical Technology Cyber Security, and then used his leadership skills to advocate for those ideas, create the conversation and enable them to become realized.
Education:
- B.S. Biomedical Engineering (1974), Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
Certification, Registration, & Peer Recognition:
- Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (FAAMI) - 2019
- Fellow of American College of Clinical Engineering (FACCE) - 2002
- Fellow of American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers (FAIMBE) - 2008
- Fellow of Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (FHIMSS) - 2007
- American College of Clinical Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award - 2015
- Association for Advancement of Medical Instrumentation's (AAMI) Healthcare Technology Management Leadership Award - 2016
- Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology's (BI&T) Feature Article/Commentary Award - 2014
- ACCE/HIMSS Excellence in Clinical Engineering and Information Technology Synergies Award - 2010
- American College of Clinical Engineering's Professional Achievement in Technology Award - 2005
- American College of Clinical Engineering's Professional Advocacy Award - 2003
Summary of Career:
After graduation from Purdue University in 1974, Steve served as the first director of clinical engineering for two affiliated hospitals in the Cincinnati, OH area. While there he developed a guide for establishing in-house CE programs that was used by Purdue in educating future classes of engineers. Steve went on to join ECRI in 1976 where he learned from some of the best talent in healthcare technology and where he ended up playing a significant role in the development and management of ECRI's early shared service and risk management consulting programs.
In 1984, with a number of his professional colleagues, Steve formed GENTECH, an independent service organization (ISO) based in Saratoga Springs that provided medical and information technology support services to hospitals and other businesses in the upstate NY area. As GENTECH's principal owner and director of operations, he acquired new interests and honed new skills in technology convergence, asset-related analytics, risk management and quality assurance.
In 1998, Steve began a long association with Technology in Medicine, Inc., Holliston, MA, as Senior Consultant and Analyst. His areas of concentration included Y2K and HIPAA compliance, medical technology security and risk management, and strategic planning for clinical engineering and healthcare technology management services. During this time, he also gained international recognition through his frequent publications in IEEE-EMB Magazine, the Journal of Clinical Engineering, AAMI's Biomedical Instrumentation & Standards (BI&T), 24x7 Magazine, the Clinical Engineering Handbook and A Practicum for Biomedical Engineering. Additionally, he frequently presented at various national and regional venues as well as international workshops in Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Kosovo, China, Argentina, Mexico and India.
From 2005 through 2007, Steve was brought in to Vanderbilt Medical Centers to organize and run their new clinical engineering service. Here he became keenly aware of the challenges medical and information technology convergence were posing to healthcare providers. He reorganized Vanderbilt's clinical engineering services accordingly, defined the role and began recruiting clinical systems engineers and then worked with HIMSS, NIST, FDA and other groups to help others in the industry better understand the growing convergence challenges and how to best deal with them.
Steve returned to Technology in Medicine (subsequently acquired by Linc Health and then ABM Healthcare) in 2007 as Chief Technology Officer and oversaw major expansions in consulting and aspects of their clinical engineering support services. He also continued to work domestically and internationally with groups on issues related to convergence, security, risk management, maintenance management, strategic technology acquisition, professional credentialing, quality management systems, and HTM-related standards.
Since 2015, Steve has been Principal Consultant for Strategic Healthcare Technology Associates LLC, Swampscott, MA and, most recently, has also been co-teaching a clinical engineering graduate course at UCONN on medical device cybersecurity.
Steve's leadership and vision become evident on examining some of his achievements:
- He proposed and organized the first ACCE symposium on medical device cybersecurity (AAMI 2001). This was a watershed event in clinical engineering involvement in cybersecurity
- He authored the first comprehensive medical technology security guide for healthcare delivery organizations (ACCE/ECRI 2004) and co-authored an updated Medical Device Cybersecurity Guide for HTM Professionals (AAMI 2018)
- He proposed the Manufacturer Disclosure Statement of Medical Device Security “MDS2” in 2004 and led the HIMSS Medical Device Security Workgroup that developed the first version
- He served as member of the planning committee for the ACCE/HIMSS CE-IT Leadership symposium in the years those symposia were held during the HIMSS conference (2006-2012)
- Steve conceived of and proposed the ACCE/HIMSS Synergies in CE-IT Award to raise awareness between two communities (2006)
- He was one of the founders and steering committee members of the collaborations between AAMI, ACCE, and HIMSS (both the CE-IT Community and its subsequent Healthcare Technology Alliance, 2006-present).
Below are some extracts from the material provided for his nomination:
"What makes Steve unique is that he was one of the few to recognize the need to better define the role of the healthcare technology management professional and not just focus on the technical requirements for medical device system connectivity. He introduced the title of the clinical systems engineer and his publications on the topic have inspired several new job descriptions used to hire the current and future generation of HTM professionals."
"Through his groundbreaking work in CE-IT, medical device security and risk management, Steve will influence generations of clinical engineers here in the U.S. and around the world."
"Passion! That is the word that comes to mind when I think of Steve Grimes. He is one of the most passionate people I know. When talking about any of his Clinical Engineering activities, Steve's eyes light up and he winds up his pitch. He was one of the first people that I know of who understood the vulnerabilities of medical devices that we now call cybersecurity. He worked tirelessly on interconnectivity, and then on the security of devices. He is constantly developing new methods to help illustrate the concepts and ideas."
"I have had the privilege of partnering with Steve on ACEW (Advanced Clinical Engineering Workshops) Workshops and other international clinical engineering engagements, including numerous national presentations. His depth of knowledge and desire to educate others on medical technology advancements, patient safety, information technology and more has been shown in his presentations and published articles."
"One of the major challenges faced by HTM today is finding a place in a rapidly shifting environment: clinical engineering professionals are increasingly ‘sharing custody' with IT when it comes to medical devices that incorporate or consist of information systems, and some facilities are realigning reporting chains to consolidate HTM under IT. In his work with ACCE and HIMSS, Steve has emerged as a national leader in collaboration between clinical engineering and IT, raising the profile of the HTM professional as a key player in the safe planning, implementation, and use of health IT and medical device integration."
Steve (far right) with other faculty at ACCE/WHO/PAHO’s first Advanced Clinical Engineering Workshop (ACEW) held in DC in 1991