We develop and implement new certificate programs

For the past two months, the Educational and Scientific Institute of Continuing Education, together with partners, has been actively involved in developing a concept for the dissemination in Ukraine through the system of continuing engineering education of European principles, methodology and practice of systems engineering (clinical engineering) of healthcare institutions. In international practice, clinical engineers cover a wide range of responsibilities: from designing medical institutions and integrating equipment at the construction stage, to examining project documentation and managing medical equipment in hospitals. Ukraine still lacks such specialists as a clinical design engineer, a clinical engineer-expert, and a clinical engineer for medical equipment, which leads to systemic problems for hospitals, patients, and the state as a whole. Society requires high-quality medicine, doctors with reliable equipment, and hospitals with specialists who are able to ensure effective planning and use of medical technologies. Currently, only a small number of enthusiasts (mostly old-school “medical technologists” or self-taught), and this is about 10% in Kyiv alone, are trying to close these issues, which is extremely insufficient for the entire state. And now we have frequent equipment breakdowns, shortcomings in new hospital buildings, and irrational use of public funds. Ukraine currently lacks standards for the healthcare engineering service, as well as a mandatory system of continuing education for such engineers: they improve their qualifications either on their own or at individual trainings from manufacturers. Therefore, the demand for the implementation of clinical engineering is already ripe and is currently extremely relevant, and both society and the medical community are waiting for the appearance of such specialists.

These conclusions were once again confirmed by the next meeting of the leadership of the NNINO with representatives of healthcare institutions, the chief engineer of the 7th clinical hospital Vitaly Oleksandrovych, the medical physicist of the Feofania hospital Nadia Goncharenko, the head of the NGO “Medical Designer” Vladislav Smirnov, the project manager of the NGO “Medical Designer” Fedor Myroshnychenko, etc., which took place on April 9.

The purpose of the meeting was to work out issues related to the development of a certificate program for the training of clinical engineers, issues of advanced training, retraining of engineering specialists who already work as engineers or technicians in medical institutions. The issues of the main requirements for the education of a clinical engineer in different countries of the world were discussed, educational programs of the USA, Canada, the EU, and Asian countries were analyzed, issues of the training of clinical engineers in Ukraine were proposed, and it was proposed to create a working group to develop a professional standard for a clinical engineer and a consultative center based on the institute for the operation and methodological support of medical equipment. It is planned to involve specialists from the University’s specialized faculties in this work.