J Global Clinical Engineering Issue 2, 2019  

Editor’s  Corner
In today’s digital communications, institutions and 

individuals alike are taking extra efforts to protect the 
confidentiality and privacy of their records. This behavior, 
however, is not restricted to the digital era. Well before the 
arrival of what we now know as digital communications, 
existed the era of analog communications. The desire to 
conceal or to cipher records became globally notorious 
from the electro-mechanical Enigma cipher machine. 
Its unique code system is illustrated on the cover page 
of this issue. Developed at the end of World War I, and 
commercialized in the early 1920s, it was adopted by 
military and government services – most notably, those of 
Nazi Germany before and during World War II (https://
www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/enigma/hist.htm).

Upon the release of the 2014 Oscar-nominated film, 
The Imitation Game, our society became familiar with 
the name and work of the brilliant mathematician, Alan 
Turing. Alan cracked the Enigma code at the beginning 
of World War II (https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/
how-alan-turing-cracked-the-enigma-code) and helped 
decipher the military codes used by Germany and its 
allies. His impact on computer science has been widely 
acknowledged and revered. Throughout the ages, our 
society has gone to great lengths to protect certain re-
cords. On the contrary, here at the Global Clinical Engi-
neering Journal, we aim to collect and share records and 
information by publishing them, and broadcasting this 
knowledge to all four corners of the healthcare world.

For a long time now, I have heard clinical engineers 
express that they feel underrepresented. In some way 
we countered that, by establishing the American College 
of Clinical Engineering Association (https://accenet.
org); and by reviving the IFMBE/CED (http://cedglobal.
org). After that, several people mentioned the need for 
a clinical engineering recognition/awards program…
and now we have a program to do it (http://cedglobal.
org/awards). Following that, others voiced their opinion 
about our field lacking focused general conference…and 

now we have a very successful International Clinical En-
gineering and Health Technology Management Congress 
(http://www.icehtmc.com). Last but not least, we have 
now also the newly created Global CE Journal https://
www.globalce.org.

It is the duty of clinical engineers all over the world 
to improve patient care, and one effective way to move 
toward that goal is by publishing quality manuscripts 
that teach, increase the visibility, and contributions of 
our professional practice. A recent international survey 
by WHO suggests that there are more than 800,000 
practitioners in our field. But where are the submissions?

Contrary to the Enigma machine, the Global Clinical 
Engineering Editorial Board and myself intend to initiate 
workshops and training to teach clinical engineers how 
to write papers that will be successfully reviewed and 
published – hopefully in our Global Clinical Engineering 
Journal. Let’s open up pathways to information, encourage 
authors to submit, and dissolve one of clinical engineer-
ing’s disreputable attributes: being fearful of publishing.

Help me to break that cycle by deciphering and shar-
ing the knowledge our clinical engineers have to offer!

Together we will make it the best it can be!

Dr. Yadin David