James H. Philip has been inducted into the Clinical Engineering Hall of Fame in recognition of his significant contributions to Clinical Engineering in many areas, in special the creation of Gas Man a computer simulation program that educates anesthesiologists on the kinetics and economics of inhaled anesthetics.

Jim Philip, MD, CCE, has had an illustrious career as an engineer-anesthesiologist for over 50 years. He was one of the first physicians to become a Certified Clinical Engineer and as such helped establish credibility for the field early in its formation. He is an exemplar of a physician-engineer and has made substantive contributions to his profession of anesthesiology in a way that could only be done by an engineer who understands the nature of clinical engineering. Jim Philip used his knowledge and insights to engineer the medical environment by developing devices that are safer, more effective, less costly, and more educational than what was there before, improving the delivery of healthcare.

Dr. Philip was co-author of the Harvard Anesthesia Monitoring Standard of 1984. This was the first Medical Care Standard for any medical specialty. He created or led the creation of 23 medical products including Perkin-Elmer Lifewatch™ CO2 Monitor, Baxter InfusOR™ IV Pump for Bolus + Infusion, Edwards Vigilance® Continuous Cardiac Output Monitor, IVAC-BD Signature® Pump to monitor hydraulic resistance and detect catheter infiltration, and the IV fluid bag pressure infuser, reprinted in the Yearbook of Emergency Medicine and used in operating rooms, intensive care units, emergency rooms, and ambulances, around the world. Dr. James Philip developed the Gas Man® computer simulation of inhaled anesthesia kinetics, distributed free worldwide, www.gasmanweb.com.  Dr. Philip is recipient of the 2017 Society for Technology in Anesthesia (STA) Gravenstein Award for lifetime achievement creating clinical technologic products in anesthesia and  he was honored as Distinguished Alumnus of SUNY Upstate Medical University in 2023 for his accomplishments in engineering medicine.

Dr. Philip teaches physicians, nurses, clinical engineers, clinical engineering students, and industry design engineers. He presents examples of engineering the clinical environment in his lecture entitled Engineer for Life, which he has given at U Conn, Cornell U, U Toronto, NE Society of Clinical Engineering, and Romanian Society of Anesthesiologists (SRATI), and similar lectures to GE, Draeger, and Getting-Maquet. He has been honored as Visiting Professor at academic institutions over 250 times. He published countless research papers, book chapters, case reports, patents, videos and other educational materials and lists many hundreds of lectures presented around the US and the world. In most of those, he represented ideas, innovations, and teachings that derive from his merging of medical and clinical engineering concepts and principles, thus representing clinical engineering to the world.

Dr. Philip isn’t just an exemplar of clinical engineering innovation and practice. He is an exemplar of generosity and kindness, giving of his time and energy to mentor others, especially engineers who work in support of all things clinical. 

Dr. Philip’s many engineering based technological and educational innovations, his mentoring of so many who became clinical engineers, and his support and promotion of the principles and practices of clinical engineering have brought honor and recognition to the profession of Clinical Engineering. He was one of the early pioneers and has dedicated his career to all that clinical engineering stands for. 

"As an anesthesiologist, Dr. Philip observed that those clinical engineers rarely became involved in operating room issues and seemed reticent to engage deeply with physicians.  He took it upon himself to establish an in-depth function for clinical engineering in anesthesiology.  In doing so, Dr. Philip’s aim was to have clinical engineers understand the patient care issues facing the (mostly) physicians in anesthesiology and to have their efforts dedicated to solving problems in partnership with those clinicians.  This clinical engineering activity within the operating room originally took the form of an independent mini department. Eventually, it was merged into the hospital clinical engineering department.  The mantra of this mini department was to enhance patient safety through the front-line clinicians in every way possible.  Dr. Philip established a role for clinical engineers to present lectures at the weekly educational lectures.  He insisted on clinical engineering presence in the operating room and solving problems when and where they happened even during on-going surgery. Clinical engineers were on capital equipment procurement committees and attended mortality and morbidity conferences.  Importantly, clinical engineers were encouraged to attend and present at national meetings to share their work."

 "Among Dr. Philip’s most notable contributions is the creation of Gas Man®, a computer simulation program that educates anesthesiologists on the kinetics and economics of inhaled anesthetics. For over 20 years, this program has been a vital tool for training clinicians and has been instrumental in the adoption of techniques such as Volatile Induction and Maintenance of Anesthesia (VIMA). His efforts in refining and teaching these concepts have made anesthesia delivery safer, more efficient, and more accessible worldwide."

Gas Man Anesthesia Simulator