









































37 J Global Clinical Engineering Vol.4 Issue 1, 2021

In our continuous efforts to encourage sharing of 
knowledge and publication of engineering and scientific 
work related to the clinical engineering field, we have 
initiated a new section of our Global Clinical Engineering 
journal www.GlobalCE.org  named Book Review. We 
hope that you will find it helpful to your career and at 
the same time promote the submission of other books 
for our review serving the benefit of all our readers.  

Introduction to Clinical Engineering
Samantha Jacques & Barbara Christe

ISBN 978-0-12-818103-4
Academic Press, Elsevier

Published 2020

This book review is about the Elsevier Academic Press 
newly published Introduction to Clinical Engineering 
by two authors Samantha Jacques, Ph.D., FACHE, and 
Barbara Christe, Ph.D.  with Foreword by Lawrence 
(Larry) W. Hertzler, C.C.E., fAAMI. In addition to the For-
ward, the book contains six chapters, an appendix, and 
an index for a total of 270 pages. Dr. Jacques (or “Sam” 
as her colleagues call her) has served as Director/VP 
of clinical engineering program in several healthcare 
systems, and her writings express her expertise in 
healthcare technology management from the applied 
side. This style adequately complements Dr. Christe’s 
writing that draws from her academic background and 
pedagogical experience. Together, the two styles combine 
into a single book that both practitioners and students 
will find interesting.

True to its title, the book provides a concise introduc-
tion to the conventional clinical engineering field that 
sometimes struggles with identity and recognition. The 

authors clarify this issue straight up in Chapter 1, the 
Profession. It starts with an introduction to healthcare 
technology management (HTM) and argues that clinical 
engineers are part of HTM. It is an exciting proposition 
that falls short of the notion that the clinical engineering 
profession as a learned life science engineering disci-
pline contains a broader scope where HTM is one of its 
competencies, including consulting, design, informatics, 
and marketing.  In their attempt to clarify a conventional 
clinical engineering practice, the authors partially achieve 
their goal; however, they left some confusion with read-
ers, suggesting that technicians and technologists who 
specifically support medical equipment often function 
in a biomedical engineer position. Chapter 1 suggests 
that AAMI in 1973 developed a certification program for 
clinical engineers but neglected to recognize that this 
program was discontinued by AAMI and re-initiated 
through the America College of Clinical Engineering as 
correctly described few pages later.    

The book generally describes the structure of a 
healthcare system and clinical engineering’s role within 
it from a US point of view.  For example, according to 
Japan’s clinical engineering association, over 20,000 
certified clinical engineers are licensed to service and 
to operate complex heart-lung bypass machines as well 
as dialysis systems. Chapter 2, Healthcare Technology 
Basics, provides an overview of how medical products 
enter into commerce and the roles of regulations and 
FDA function in protecting public safety. I found the 
scenarios described in section Devices Throughout the 
Healthcare System and Relationship to Patient care a 
good topic and practical reference for educating read-
ers about the intersection between care processes and 
medical technology. Chapter 3 on Healthcare Technology 
Management introduces the crucial concepts of system 

Book Review
By Y. David
Editor-in-Chief, GlobalCE Journal

http://www.globalce.org
http://www.globalce.org
www.GlobalCE.org


J Global Clinical Engineering Vol.4 Issue 1, 2021  38

thinking and system engineering. The chapter then fol-
lows a short cover of human factors issues and jumps 
into computerized maintenance management systems 
(CMMS). It provides an excellent introduction to CMMS 
with well-organized material.    

Chapter 4 on Safety and Systems Safety effectively 
covers a wide range of subjects that include regulations, 
standards, safety, risk management, quality, and adverse 
event investigation. The material is a well organized, 
easy read; however, the subjects on industry standards 
and infection control provide limited education for the 
readers about related international standards bodies 
and infection control. This is especially notable regarding 
care areas airway infection management where chapter 
6 adds to this content but neglects to connect the read-
ers to it. Furthermore, new air disinfecting tools, which 
became an increasingly vital component of patient care, 
both for patients and staff, lacked cover yet are essential 
during this pandemic era, we all are fighting. Chapter 5 on 
Information Technology delivers a useful description of 
the closer relationship between clinical engineering and 
the Health IT field with an effective comparison between 
life cycle management that the engineers/technicians 
follow and the ITIL practice that the IT practitioners do.

Further description of the data flow between medical 
devices and the EHR is written with clarity and includes 
content about cybersecurity’s evolving importance. This 
chapter, in my opinion, is one of the best in this book. The 
final two chapters, chapter 6 on Facilities Management 
and chapter 7 on Human Resources Management, cover 
areas that will be most helpful for hospital-based practi-
tioners who were not exposed to these topics previously.

Finally, the most extensive section of the book, almost 
100 pages, Appendix: Additional Readings provides, as 
its name suggests, additional reading that incorporates 
throughout the various subjects of the Appendix an 
interesting section of questions to consider, acronyms, 
and abbreviations. It would have been helpful for the 
readers to add a table of content. Readers will be able 
to satisfy their curiosity by continuing further reading 
in the Appendix subjects related to chapters of the book 
they are reading at that moment. 

The book accomplishes its purpose of providing read-
ers with a clear introduction to the body of knowledge 
that all novices to the field of clinical engineering must 
understand. It delivers the reader an appreciation for 
the vast knowledge one should be competent in and 
the benefit from realizing how to prepare for their next 
step in their career. 

You can find the handbook at https://www.elsevier.
com/books/introduction-to-clinical-engineering/
jacques/978-0-12-818103-4?countrycode=US&for-
mat=print&utm_source=google_ads&utm_medium=paid_
search&utm_campaign=usashoppinglr&gclid=Cj0KCQiAuJb_
BRDJARIsAKkycUkC0L0WdkS5fayxfOap78E0KX1HQGB-
BolT32tBEMUo-lTxKn_KqitYaAk_pEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.
ds where it is sold, after discount, for US $74.96.

In this field, recently published books were more ex-
tensive in scope, suffering format variation due to their 
multiple contributors, and were more expensive. As this 
book is aimed at students, novices, and practitioners 
ready to advance in their career, it will be very useful 
to this community and anyone else who explores and 
is curious about clinical engineering as a future career. 

Copyright © 2021. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY): Creative Commons - 
Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0. The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright 
owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction 
is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

http://www.globalce.org
http://www.globalce.org
https://www.elsevier.com/books/introduction-to-clinical-engineering/jacques/978-0-12-818103-4?countrycode=US&format=print&utm_source=google_ads&utm_medium=paid_search&utm_campaign=usashoppinglr&gclid=Cj0KCQiAuJb_BRDJARIsAKkycUkC0L0WdkS5fayxfOap78E0KX1HQGB
https://www.elsevier.com/books/introduction-to-clinical-engineering/jacques/978-0-12-818103-4?countrycode=US&format=print&utm_source=google_ads&utm_medium=paid_search&utm_campaign=usashoppinglr&gclid=Cj0KCQiAuJb_BRDJARIsAKkycUkC0L0WdkS5fayxfOap78E0KX1HQGB
https://www.elsevier.com/books/introduction-to-clinical-engineering/jacques/978-0-12-818103-4?countrycode=US&format=print&utm_source=google_ads&utm_medium=paid_search&utm_campaign=usashoppinglr&gclid=Cj0KCQiAuJb_BRDJARIsAKkycUkC0L0WdkS5fayxfOap78E0KX1HQGB
https://www.elsevier.com/books/introduction-to-clinical-engineering/jacques/978-0-12-818103-4?countrycode=US&format=print&utm_source=google_ads&utm_medium=paid_search&utm_campaign=usashoppinglr&gclid=Cj0KCQiAuJb_BRDJARIsAKkycUkC0L0WdkS5fayxfOap78E0KX1HQGB
https://www.elsevier.com/books/introduction-to-clinical-engineering/jacques/978-0-12-818103-4?countrycode=US&format=print&utm_source=google_ads&utm_medium=paid_search&utm_campaign=usashoppinglr&gclid=Cj0KCQiAuJb_BRDJARIsAKkycUkC0L0WdkS5fayxfOap78E0KX1HQGB
https://www.elsevier.com/books/introduction-to-clinical-engineering/jacques/978-0-12-818103-4?countrycode=US&format=print&utm_source=google_ads&utm_medium=paid_search&utm_campaign=usashoppinglr&gclid=Cj0KCQiAuJb_BRDJARIsAKkycUkC0L0WdkS5fayxfOap78E0KX1HQGB
https://www.elsevier.com/books/introduction-to-clinical-engineering/jacques/978-0-12-818103-4?countrycode=US&format=print&utm_source=google_ads&utm_medium=paid_search&utm_campaign=usashoppinglr&gclid=Cj0KCQiAuJb_BRDJARIsAKkycUkC0L0WdkS5fayxfOap78E0KX1HQGB
aw.ds
aw.ds
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

