









































J Global Clinical Engineering Vol.2 Issue 2: 22-25 ; 2020  22

Received January 31, 2020, accepted February 9, 2020, date of publication February 14, 2020

IFMBE/CED recognition of certification/registration 
programs for clinical engineering practitioners 
By J. Wear

Scientific Enterprises, Inc.

ABSTRACT
The IFMBE/Clinical Engineering Division (IFMBE/CED) has recently established an International Credentialing Board (ICB) 
[https://ced.ifmbe.org/projects/ce-htm-credentialing.html] to recognize organizations that certify or register clinical en-
gineering practitioners (CEPs).  The ICB has 9 members appointed by the CED Board and these members are experienced 
Clinical Engineering Practitioners with several certified or registered.  The ICB will maintain a list of recognized organiza-
tions that certify or register CEPs but will not maintain a list of the individuals certified/registered by these organizations.  
The National Examining Authority (NEA) that performs national certification/registration can submit information on their 
program to the ICB and request to be globally recognized.  This will include detail information on the program and how 
it administers their certifying or registering their individuals. Once recognized a program will be subjected to renewal 
reviews every three years to assure that it is still a valid and compliant operational program.  
Since there are yet no specific guidelines for programs to certify/register CEPs, the ICB will have to evaluate each NEA 
submission in detail.  The ICB will need to determine that the individuals certified/registered are qualified practicing 
CEPs and the program is well managed and fulfills its objectives.  To be qualified the NEA must have a set of By-Laws and 
a Code of Ethics amongst other requirements. Certification programs may be based on credentials only or programs based 
on exams and credentials. Registration programs may be based on credentials including experience.  The recommenda-
tions are that certification/registration programs should meet individual countries needs and how clinical engineering is 
practiced in a country. In lieu of an engineering degree requirement the NEA may substitute experience history since not 
all clinical engineering practitioners have engineering degrees due to the lack of education opportunities in their local.
The ICB will also aid professional groups that are trying to establish certification/registration programs for CEPs.    

Keywords – Clinical Engineering, Certification, Registration, Practitioner, Board, Clinical Engineer, Education. 

Copyright © 2021. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY): Creative Commons - Attribu-
tion 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.

INTRODUCTION
The Credentialing Project Team of the Clinical Engi-

neering Division (CED) of IFMBE https://ced.ifmbe.org/
projects/ce-htm-credentialing.html worked for three years 
on the development and adoption of the framework for 
recognition of certification or registration programs for 
clinical engineering practitioners (CEPs).  The previous 
work of the CED was examined.  Next existing certification 

and registration programs for CEPs were reviews to 
determine if there were any common requirements and 
operations for the programs.  There are major differences 
between certification and registration programs and 
significant differences in each of these approaches [link 
here] https://aamalegaleye.wordpress.com/2017/09/06/
registered-vs-certified-a-question-of-terminology/.  It was 

http://www.globalce.org
http://globalce.org
http://globalce.org
https://ced.ifmbe.org/projects/ce-htm-credentialing.html
https://ced.ifmbe.org/projects/ce-htm-credentialing.html
https://ced.ifmbe.org/projects/ce-htm-credentialing.html
https://aamalegaleye.wordpress.com/2017/09/06/registered
https://aamalegaleye.wordpress.com/2017/09/06/registered


23 J Global Clinical Engineering, Special Issue 3, 2020 

Wear: IFMBE/CED recognition of certification/registration programs for clinical engineering practitioners

determined that all of the major certification/registration 
programs for CEPs appeared to recognize only qualified 
CEPs. “IFMBE CED White Paper entitled “Certification/
Registration of Clinical Engineering Practitioners” James 
Wear was submitted 1 September 2017. http://cedglobal.
org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CED-Certification-
White-Paper-with-Annexes.pdf
The team that worked on this project represented dif-
ferent countries and different sections of the world.  The 
present team members are listed here:

•  James O. Wear (USA)
•  Fabrola Martinez (Mexico)
•  Mario Medvede (Croatia)
•  Adrian Richards (Australia)
•  Ewa Zalewska (Poland)

Since the members were scattered around the world, 
most of the meetings were by teleconferences.  The team 
submitted the “Proposal for Recognizing Certification/
Registration Programs for Clinical Engineering Practi-
tioners” to the IFMBE CED board in the summer 2019 
and it was afterwards approved by this board.

PROGRAM
Clinical Engineering Practitioners perform many 
technology-related functions in the healthcare field and 
are called by different names even in the same country. 
Therefore it was necessary for the team to develop a 
definition for Clinical Engineering Practitioners for this 
project.  The definition the team developed is:
“A clinical engineering practitioner is a Clinical Engineer, 
Biomedical Engineer, Healthcare Technology Manager, 
Clinical Engineering Technologist or Clinical/Biomedi-
cal Engineering Technician who practice technology 
management at a qualified level.”
The purpose of the project was to develop a method for 
recognizing programs that certify or register clinical 
engineering practitioners and to facilitate evolution of 
common program elements.  It will not be a program 
to recognize individuals who have been certified or 
registered as CEPs.  The program will only develop a 
list of recognized programs and will not maintain a list 
of individuals certified or registered by the recognized 
programs.  To maintain a list of individuals would be time 

consuming and therefore lead to the need for significant 
administrative and clerical time.  This also would require 
significant additional funds.
The recognized programs will be expected to have an up-
to-date list of individuals they have certified/registered.  
A requirement for recognition will be that such a list 
be included and will stimulate individuals to maintain 
their certification/registration.  The program should 
provide information on the certification/registration 
of individuals.
Recognized programs will be listed on the IFMBE/CED 
website with associated contact information.  This will 
be an added benefit of their recognition.  This will also 
provide a method that can be used to determine if an 
individual is certified/register by a recognized program.  

The IFMBE/ CED Board has appointed the first Inter-
national Credentialing Board (ICB).  There are to be 9 
members with some members being representative of 
the IFMBE/CED Board.  Their service terms are to be the 
same as the IFMBE/CED Board members having stag-
gered terms.  They also are to be certified/registered or 
well qualified CEPs and representing the different parts 
of the world.  The members in this first appointment are:

• Fabiola Martinez (Mexico) Co-Chair
• Li Bin (China) Co-Chair
• Ewa Zalwska (Poland)
• Jitender Sharma (India)
• Adrian Richards (Australia)
• Ricardo Silva (USA/Venezuela)
• Ashenafi Hussein (Ethiopia)
• Tomokazu Nagusawa (Japan)
• Riad Farah (Lebanon)

This ICB has representatives from 9 countries and 6 
continents. Three or four are from countries that have 
programs that could seek recognition for their country’s 
certification/registration program of CEPs.
The ICB will have to examine each application in detail to 
determine if it meets the requirements to be recognized.  
This will require the application for recognition to be 
very detailed and in specific format.
The sponsoring organizations of the certification/regis-
tration programs do not have to be members of IFMBE 

http://cedglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CED-Certification-White-Paper-with-Annexes.pdf
http://cedglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CED-Certification-White-Paper-with-Annexes.pdf
http://cedglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CED-Certification-White-Paper-with-Annexes.pdf


Wear: IFMBE/CED recognition of certification/registration programs for clinical engineering practitioners

J Global Clinical Engineering, Special Issue 3, 2020  24

for the program to be able to apply for recognition.  Since 
initially the number of programs applying is expected to 
be small, there will not be any fee to make application or 
to be recognized.  This will also encourage programs to 
apply.  The program will be administratively supported 
by the CED Secretariat and ICB board members.  The 
CED may later initiate fees if the administrative costs 
becomes sufficient to justify it.
The organization that makes the application for rec-
ognition must be the one that operates the program 
and is called the National Examining Authority (NEA).  
The organization can be a professional organization, a 
government entity, an academic entity or some other 
form of a national or regional program.  It can also be a 
for-profit program.
Requirements for a National Examining Authority to 
make a submission for recognition of their certification/
registration program are not as simple as it appears. 
Existing certification programs are very different and 
registration programs are very different from certification. 
Some basic requirements can be made for a submission 
and these follow in the next section.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

1. All submissions must be typed in English.
2. The submission must have a single contact person 

which is the chair person of the NEA or the Secretariat 
of the NEA.  An address, email and phone number 
must be provided so they can be contacted if there are 
issues with their submission or administration.  The 
ICB may at any time request additional information 
on a program through this individual.

3. The date the program was established will be submit-
ted.  There are no minimum years of operation since 
this might discourage new programs from developing.  
The critical factor is that a NEA is operational and has 
all the appropriate requirements for consideration of 
recognition.  Also the programs will have a renewal 
every three years for their recognition.  This will allow 
the ICB to recommend withdrawal of recognition of a 
program that has not fully developed.

4. The submission must have a sponsoring organization 
including how the program is involved with the sponsor-
ing organization.  This needs for the submission to be 
very specific for instance one of the major certification 
programs is sponsored by a national society, but it is 
independent of the sponsor for operation.  The spon-
sor only provides administration support including 
budget but not fund raising. 

5. The submission must provide all the names and af-
filiation of the NEA Board Members that are current, 
their terms, how they were selected and if they are 
certified/registered and by whom.

6. The submission must include the number of people 
currently certified/registered as Clinical Engineering 
Practitioners.  The number should show the number 
in each Clinical Engineering group if there is more 
than one.  

7. The National Examining Authority must be governed 
by a set of By-Laws included in the submission. If it is 
a problem for a new program to develop a legal set of 
By-Laws, the ICB should be able to provide an example 
of By-Laws to assist in their adoption.

8. Since ethics is a general important issue also for Clini-
cal Engineering, the NEA must have a Code of Ethics 
that each certified/register person will abide by.  The 
ICB can provide samples of Codes of Ethics to any 
organization applying.

The major part of the submission shall include a detail 
of the program including how it is financed.  This part 
of the application can be different for each program 
and probably will be different for certified programs 
and registration programs. This shall include at least 
the following:
• When program started
• Program By-laws
• Forms for individual applications
• Forms for renewal applications
• How applications are reviewed
• If written or oral exams are required

• How many are certified/registered in Clinical 
Engineering



25 J Global Clinical Engineering, Special Issue 3, 2020 

Wear: IFMBE/CED recognition of certification/registration programs for clinical engineering practitioners

• Years of experience required including type of 
experience

• Education requirements including any specific 
courses

• Fees required
There is no time limit on how long a program has been 
in operation, but it must be currently operating.  No indi-
vidual practitioner exams are required for a program to 
be considered for evaluation and some existing programs 
are based on experience and credentials.  Programs like 
the US and Taiwan started based on experience and cre-
dentials and now require both written and oral exams.
If the program has a handbook on how to become certi-
fied/registered CEP and renew, a copy must be provided. 
A program will normally have a renewal for certification/
registration and if so, this must be submitted.  This will 
normally include the completion of continuing education 
CEUs, experience and professional activity. The renewal 
time period is usually for 3 to 5 years during which time 
the person must be practicing in the field.
The submission should include how the program is 
promoted in general to individuals in the field and to 
healthcare administrators.  This would include how 
Clinical Engineering Practitioners are informed that 
the program exists in their area.  This might be with 
presentations at their professional meetings as well as 
presentations at healthcare providers and administra-
tor meetings. The program should be promoted to other 
healthcare providers such as administrators, physicians, 

nurses, technologists and to government agencies.  This 
can be done with their interactions with these individu-
als.  Offering to make presentations to their professional 
meetings and submitting articles about clinical engi-
neering practitioners certification/registration to their 
professional journals.
After considering the application and the support docu-
mentation the ICB will determine if the application met 
the requirements and qualified for inclusion in the roster 
of ICB recognized NEA.  The ICB may make specific rec-
ommendations for changes to a non-recognized program 
which can then resubmit an application.
A recognized program will be reviewed periodically to 
assure that it is still operating and if it has made any 
changes in operations.  The ICB will have to determine 
how frequently this will occur and what will be required 
for demonstration of compliance.

CONCLUSION
The newly established International Credentialing Board 
currently conducts its business through virtual platform 
that support participation of its members from different 
parts of the world.  It is working to encourage existing 
certification/registration programs to submit application 
for their program to be recognized.  It is also developing 
materials and support that can aid in the development 
of new programs.
The ICB can be contacted through the IFMBE CED.


