Clinical engineering is one of the most overlooked disciplines in healthcare—and yet, it is arguably the most fundamental.
Every healthcare system, regardless of geography or level of sophistication, depends on three basic components: money, people, and technology. Health administrators and accountants are responsible for managing financial resources. Human resources departments and professional organizations oversee people. But a critical question is often left unanswered:
Who is in charge of healthcare technology?
This is not a trivial question. In fact, it is one of the most consequential questions a healthcare system can ask.
Healthcare Is Now Irreversibly Technology-Dependent
Modern healthcare is no longer conceivable without technology. From the most basic elements—single-use devices, personal protective equipment, infusion pumps—to highly complex systems such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), radiosurgery platforms, robotic surgery, and increasingly, artificial intelligence, technology permeates every clinical act.
The World Health Organization has repeatedly emphasized that health technologies are essential for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disease, and that their safe and effective use is a core determinant of health system performance (WHO, Medical Device Technical Series). Studies estimate that up to 70–80% of clinical decisions are influenced by diagnostic technologies, imaging, or laboratory systems, underscoring the centrality of technology in patient care.
Yet technology is not static. Devices must be:
- available when needed,
- properly calibrated,
- maintained and repaired,
- patched and updated,
- integrated with other systems,
- interoperable across platforms,
- and operated within budgetary, energy, and supply constraints.
Data must flow seamlessly. Downtime must be minimized. Risks must be anticipated, not merely reacted to.
Technology is not just the backbone of healthcare—it is the neural system that keeps the entire organism functioning.
If Not Doctors, Then Who?
Most healthcare professionals intuitively understand how critical technology is, yet few pause to examine governance.
Medical doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals are expert users of technology, but they are not responsible for its lifecycle. Administrators and IT teams provide essential support, but their focus is typically financial systems, information infrastructure, or enterprise software.
The professionals uniquely positioned to understand both clinical intent and technological reality are:
- Biomedical Equipment Technicians
- Clinical Engineers
- Health Technology Managers
These professionals operate at the intersection of medicine, engineering, safety, economics, and operations. They ensure that technology is not only present, but fit for purpose, safe, reliable, and aligned with clinical needs.
Without them, healthcare technology would quickly become unsafe, inefficient, or unusable.
An Analogy Worth Remembering
Consider a highway.
It does not matter how wide it is, how modern the vehicles are, or how skilled the drivers may be—if the road is full of holes, traffic cannot flow safely or efficiently. Highway engineers are responsible for ensuring that infrastructure is designed, maintained, and continuously improved.
Clinical engineers play the same role in healthcare.
They are the first ones called when a system fails, and often the last ones to leave until it is fully operational. They manage risk long before it becomes visible to patients or clinicians. Their work is most noticeable only when something goes wrong—which is precisely why it is so often undervalued.
But without well-managed technology, there is no healthcare. This may sound like a bold statement, but it is a factual one.
Accreditation: From Individual Competence to System Maturity
Recognizing the critical role of clinical engineering, several organizations have developed accreditation and certification frameworks.
Professional bodies such as AAMI (Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation) and ACCE (American College of Clinical Engineering) have established standards and certification pathways for individual professionals. The World Health Organization has clearly defined the scope and importance of health technology management and clinical engineering functions at national and institutional levels.
However, modern healthcare does not fail—or succeed—at the level of individuals alone. It succeeds or fails at the level of systems.
This is where the Global Clinical Engineering Alliance (GCEA) provides a unique and essential contribution.
Certifying the System, Not Just the Engineer
The GCEA Clinical Engineering Peer Review Service is the only program specifically designed to evaluate and certify an entire clinical engineering department, not just individual credentials.
Through comprehensive peer review, GCEA assesses:
- operational efficiency,
- patient safety and risk management practices,
- technology lifecycle governance,
- integration with clinical and administrative leadership,
- readiness for innovation and emerging technologies.
Reviews are conducted by experienced clinical engineering leaders and adhere to internationally recognized standards. The process delivers objective assessment, constructive feedback, and actionable recommendations, tailored to the realities of diverse healthcare settings around the world.
This approach recognizes a critical truth: sustainable, safe, and innovative healthcare depends on mature clinical engineering systems, not heroic individual effort.
The Strategic Implication
Healthcare leaders often invest heavily in new technologies, digital transformation, and innovation initiatives—yet overlook the discipline responsible for making those investments work in practice.
Clinical engineering is not a support function. It is a strategic enabler.
Organizations that recognize, empower, and accredit their clinical engineering capabilities gain:
- safer patient care,
- higher technology uptime,
- better cost control,
- faster adoption of innovation,
- and stronger regulatory and accreditation readiness.
In an era where healthcare is increasingly complex, interconnected, and technology-driven, the question is no longer whether clinical engineering matters.
The question is whether healthcare systems can afford to ignore it.
Selected References
Global Clinical Engineering Alliance (GCEA). Clinical Engineering Peer Review Service. https://www.globalcea.org/peer-review
World Health Organization (WHO). Medical Device Technical Series: Health Technology Management. https://www.who.int/publications
World Health Organization (WHO). Global Atlas of Medical Devices. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241506284
Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI). Healthcare Technology Management. https://www.aami.org/htm
American College of Clinical Engineering (ACCE). What is Clinical Engineering? https://accenet.org/About-ACCE/What-is-Clinical-Engineering