Clinical Engineering Revisited: the Grip of Leadership - Part 1

A survey on two fundamental questions - Q(A): What is Clinical Engineering (CE)?, and Q(B): How can International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) with its partners advance CE globally? - was e-mailed to the Clinical Engineering Division of the IFMBE (CED/IFMBE) members at large. The survey actually consists of ten sub-questions Q(A)1-Q(A)5 and Q(B)1-Q(B)5. This work presents answers and discussion of the CED/IFMBE leadership related to question QA. The survey response rate was 35% (18/51). CE is not equal to biomedical engineering (BME), but a subset of BME for 16/18 (89%) responders, and a kind of new identity associated with BME in 2/18 (11%) cases. CE is not equal to health technology management (HTM) for 17/17 (100%) responders, but 11/17 (65%) stated that CE encompasses HTM, 5/17 (29%) stated that CE and HTM are two sets that intersect, and 1/17 (6%) stated that CE is a subset of HTM. CE practitioners are health professionals for 94% (17/18) responders, and are not in 1/18 (6%) cases. CE is not for engineers only in 13/18 (72%) responses, and it is for engineers only in 5/18 (28%) responses. Corresponding white paper of the CED/IFMBE is expected to be published soon.