Biomedical equipment technicians or BMETs represent an expanding group of technically trained personnel whose main responsibility is the maintaining and repairing equipment that deals with medical imaging like a a CT scanner, ultrasound, x-ray MRI, and so on. The career path for BMETs appears to be improving as rapidly as newimaging equipment} is being developed.
First and foremost, the demand for BMETs is getting bigger. The increase is due to the growth in new equipment used for medical imaging and technologies that need BMET expertise, and, by the necessity for revenue by institutions that own medical imaging equipment. As medical services similar to hospitals see that downtime on a piece of imaging equipment affects revenue generation, there is demand to add BMETs to hospital staff to assure that every piece of imaging equipment is kept in good order so that costly service contracts are used as little as they can be. The U.S. Department of Labor and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Imaging (AAMI) suggest that the number of BMET jobs in the US will rise 24 percent to 31 percent up through the year of 2010.
Not that long ago, BMETs were trained in the workplace. But, as equipment for medical imaging technology has increased, so has the need for consistent, quality training. Today, most BMETs have earned an Associates degree in medical imaging electronics or an engineering-related study. Not too long ago an experiment by the AAMI found that 62% of all BMETs journeyed on to voluntarily become certified by the International Commission on Accreditation. ICC Certification for BMETs is an academic recognition by the International Certification Commission for Clinical Engineering and Biomedical Technology (ICC) that individuals have demonstrated excellence in theoretical as well as knowledge of the principles of biomedical technology.
The BMET role continues to evolve and, as it does, the educational requirements have started to grow as well. The BMET profession has started to walk the path of many different careers both within and outside of the medical field where more and more schooling is required to obtain a job and/or excel inside a career field.
BMETs say that employers are beginning to require bachelor's degrees for advancement to a higher level or in some situations simply to be employed as a BMET inside some institutions. While this requirement might constrain the job opportunities for some current BMETs, the good news is that strengthened educational requirements bring the chance for greater income. Studies have determinedshown|found out} that entrance pay levels for BMETs range from $20,000-$30,000. However, higher jobs can get salaries as good as $80,000. The future appears bright for career growth in this area.
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Author Jesse Fisher likes writing articles for his customers which includes Transamerican Medical, a business that buys and sells
Philips Medical equipment and parts. See also the
Imaging Centers; online directory. (Article may be republished online IF all links are kept intact.)
