Clinical Engineering in France : state and trends for the future

The French Association of Clinical Engineers has been asked several times by Governmental Services and/or Educational Organizations to set out the present and future role of clinical engineers in French hospitals, which are themselves in the process of changing their organization and financing system. This paper describes the main features of the profession and its present position in France, notably from a survey ran in 2006, and attempts to draw some lines about its possible evolution, driven by general trends of the technology, the French society and hospitals organization.