Strategic impact of the changing healthcare landscape

Dramatic changes are occurring in the health care industry. These will have profound implications for the technology provided and supported by clinical engineers. Healthcare has been transformed from a service to a product. Market forces, legislation and regulation have driven this change. New definitions of the customers for clinical engineering services have been created. Demands from these new customers are driving new expectations for lower costs, innovative functions and non-traditional environments of service delivery. Clinical engineers will need to respond to these challenges and opportunities by innovating, integrating, and becoming even more customer-conscious.