Certification of biomedical engineering personnel: constraint or resource?

Summary form only given, as follows. The technological advances impact the modern medicine with a high complexity of biomedical equipment. Such sophisticated equipment should be used and serviced by technical specially trained personnel, in cooperation with the medical staff. The need for certified personnel become a stringent requirement. The paper recommends a system for certification of the personnel who work in biomedical engineering. It presents the requirements for the several levels of competence in one or more of the following biomedical engineering fields: diagnostic systems; therapeutic systems; medical imaging; patient environment and rehabilitation; clinical laboratory. The above fields refer to a specific sector. That is defined as a particular section of health care, industry or technology where specialized biomedical engineering practice are used requiring specific knowledge, skill, equipment or training. A sector may be interpreted to be: clinical engineering, manufacturing, evaluation or marketing of biomedical equipment. A particular attention is given to the contribution of the academic staff to establish a minimum of knowledge according with the specific level, field and sector of biomedical engineering activities. Finally we refer to the independent certifying body, which shall be organized in accordance with relevant standards, and shall be responsible for certification.