GE Healthcare launched a “College of HTM” at the GE Healthcare Institute in Waukesha, WI on June 25.
The College of HTM will offer healthcare technology management professionals and would-be professionals an opportunity to further their skills by offering classroom and virtual training.
There will also be training provided in staged clinical settings like an operating room suite, a patient room in an intensive care unit, a nurse’s station, and a biomed shop. Students will be trained on both GE and non-GE equipment.
The senior director of HTM at GE Diane Dyer explains that an industry with a projected growth of 4% according to a 2017 AAMI survey and an aging workforce is creating an interesting time for GE and the industry. “You also have this dynamic where there are fewer and fewer colleges who are producing graduates with an associate’s degree in biomedical equipment technology,” Dyer says.
Because the College of HTM only offers certificates, GE hopes to work with the HTM degree programs according to Dyer. Due to the college not offering a degree it will not compete with the 22 existing traditional biomedical equipment technician (BMET) college or university programs. Currently the degree programs are producing approximately 400 graduates a year.
“Working on medical equipment in a hospital, what’s great about it is, number one, you’re doing really important work,” Dyer said. “The medical devices that we work on are used to make the patient’s experience better.”
At this time the college is only available to GE employees, but there are plans to expand to non-GE employees in 2020.
AIV is dedicated to providing support for various biomedical associations in the United States and around the world. To learn more about the various biomedical and healthcare technology management associations that AIV supports, visit http://aiv-inc.com/biomed-associations.html.
About the Author
Laura Collier
Laura Collier has a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of North Florida. She is the Marketing Manager at AIV, Inc.
