









































J Global Clinical Engineering Vol.5 Issue 2, 2022  2

Editor’s  Corner
As if Hollywood film stars don’t already get enough 

attention, once a year even more adulation is heaped upon 
them with the annual OSCARS awards:  a glamourous 
events where the good and the great of showbiz world 
reflect on their achievements and the lucky winners gain 
awards and recognition for their work.  

We Clinical Engineering don’t generally get this level 
of public recognition.  Our teams can sometimes feel 
undervalued – no red carpets and flashing cameras for 
us.  Often hidden away in the bowels of the hospital, we 
dedicated professionals ensure medical equipment is ap-
propriate, legal, safe, properly maintained, used correctly 
by clinical colleagues and available in the right places and 
in the right amounts; but we do so in quite a non-showy 
way.  As a breed, we don’t tend to seek the limelight, being 
content in the knowledge that high-quality patient care 
is dependent on our skills and hard work. 

Well actually I was lucky enough to have my own little 
bit of limelight just the other week when received an OBE 
from the Princess Royal in Windsor Castle.  For those of 
you not familiar with the UK honours system (and why 
would you be!) this is a very prestigious award with only 
a few made each year recognising outstanding service 
across any field: military, community, charity, sport or 
professional.  My award was for services to Clinical Engi-
neering, and whilst I was the one receiving the medal, this 
award was very much for the team of clinical engineers 
around me and indeed for clinical engineers everywhere.   
It was a very proud moment for me and my family and 
I received a many, many messages from well wishes all 
over the world so thank you for all of that.

In all honesty, and believe me when I say that this is 
not false modesty, I also felt a wee bit embarrassed. Yes, 
embarrassed.  Because although I know that I have had 
some degree of success throughout my career and have 
achieved many successes locally and nationally, perhaps 
most notably during the covid-19 pandemic when we 

all faced such pressures, I also know I have been very 
privileged.  When I reflect on my career I realise just how 
lucky I have been and how much support I have received 
from colleagues, from professional bodies, from family and 
friends.  My international experience has put my personal 
fortunes into even starker contrast:  so many clinical 
engineering colleagues from around the world achieve 
great things in the face of daunting challenges and with 
none of the support I’ve been so fortunate to receive.   So 
initially, I did feel a little embarrassed that I was being so 
recognised for my achievements when others were not.

However, I realise that despite our natural inclination 
to stay in the background, we Clinical Engineers do need 
to celebrate our successes and broadcast them to help 
raise our profile.  Because only when we raise our profile 
can we gain the recognition we deserve for the work that 
we do; only when we gain recognition can our value be 
acknowledged; only when our value is acknowledged 
will we see investment in our resources, training and 
capacity building for our profession; and only through 
this investment can we build our profession, strengthen 
our teams and develop the services we deliver.  And, 
ultimately, only through developing our services, can we 
continue to maximise the potential of technology for the 
benefit of patients – and that, after all is what Clinical 
Engineering is all about.

So, I got over my natural reluctance and promoted 
my personal success through news articles, webpages, 
twitter and the rest and used my award to showcase the 
work of all clinical engineers everywhere. And my plea 
now is for you to do the same – the time for modesty is 
passed. We need to show off our achievements, celebrate 
our successes and use these opportunities to raise the 
profile of our profession which in turn will help us to grow.

And there are so many ways to lend your weight to 
this effort.  Why not write an article about a success you 
and your team have had and get that published in your 

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


3 J Global Clinical Engineering Vol.5 Issue 2, 2022

local journals or indeed submit it for consideration here, 
we’re always looking for good news stories.  Why not of-
fer to review manuscripts, and we’re always looking for 
volunteers, or become a mentor for junior staff.  Organise 
an open day of your department and invite your senior 
clinical colleagues and hospital directors to come along.  
GCEA and IFMBE both have awards every year1,2 – not 
yet matching the glitz and glamour of the OSCARS but 
every bit as prestigious in our own way - so why not put 
your team or your colleagues forward for one of those. 
Utilise social media, tweet pictures of your work and 
short notes about your achievements.  If you’re into such 
things, why not make a video of  Tik-Tok or similar.  There 
are so many ways to promote our profession, so don’t be 
embarrassed, be proud!

The world needs well trained clinical engineers; it just 
doesn’t always know it.  As we struggle to emerge from 
under the cloud of the covid-19 pandemic, healthcare sys-
tems all over the globe are struggling to find sustainable 
business models. It feels like the challenges before us are 
dauntingly large.  Populations in the richer nations are 
getting older, fatter and more prone to long-term diseases 
like diabetes, coronary heart disease, and dementia.  Our 
life expectancies have risen sharply over the last couple 
of decades and our demands on the healthcare system 
have risen even more so.  We now expect to be treated 
for, indeed cured of, conditions and diseases that a gen-
eration ago we were prepared to live with and indeed die 
from.   And this is of course a really good news story.  As 
an industry, healthcare has been incredible successful 
but we are now, in many ways, the victims of our own 
success:  there are more and more people, expecting 
more and more healthcare and the cost of meeting this 
expectation is increasing faster - much,  much faster  - 
than the resources we have at our disposal.  Whilst in the 

poorer nations, access to healthcare facilities, medicines 
and technology can continue to be a challenge. 

A daunting challenge indeed; but a challenge we clinical 
engineers can play a huge part in solving.  Technology is 
already a part of the solution and will increasingly become 
ever more important to the wellbeing of the patients 
globally. It will enable new diagnosis and new treatments; 
it will increase access to healthcare to remote environ-
ments and make healthcare provision more affordable for 
all.   But to maximise the potential of this technology for 
the benefit of patients requires clinical engineers – both 
developing and adopting new technology and managing 
and supporting existing technology.  So we need a strong, 
vibrant and connected community of clinical engineers.  
We need a confident and growing profession.  We need 
resources, training and capacity building.  And we need 
to have a shared platform to promote all that we need to 
best serve population expectations. 

So let’s be proud of the work we do. Let’s celebrate 
our successes and shout about them as often as possible.  
Let’s grab the recognition we so richly deserve.  Let’s stake 
our claim to those red carpets and camera flashes.  And 
let’s make sure the world sees us, clinical engineers, as 
the film stars of the future.

References:

1. GCEA Awards (https://www.globalcea.org/clinical-engineering-awards)

2. IFMBE CED Awards (https://ced.ifmbe.org/about-us/awards.html)

Together we are making it better!
Prof.  Dan Clark (OBE) 

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.globalcea.org/clinical-engineering-awards
https://ced.ifmbe.org/about-us/awards.html

