CMBES International Outreach Committee

The CMBES International Outreach Committee pursues and develops opportunities for CMBES members to participate in volunteer programs to support Clinical Engineering initiatives and Health Technology Management in developing countries. Further information can be found in the committee's terms of reference.

CMBEC35 Outreach Committee Session

The CMBES International Outreach Committee will be hosting a session at the forthcoming CMBEC35 conference in Halifax, on Friday June 22 at 0830. We have invited the Deputy Director of the Ghana Clinical Engineering service, Dr. Nicholas Adjabu, to attend our conference, and talk to us about the challenges that Clinical Engineers in Ghana are dealing with.

The session is the first step in developing a long term relationship between members of CMBES and members of the Ghana Biomedical Association, to explore new ways of addressing Health Technology Management issues in Developing Countries.

One major problem faced by many developing countries is the flood of inappropriate donations of medical equipment. We are planning to address this and many other issues.

Please click here to view a video clip that we have produced, that highlights this important problem. At the end of the video, there is an appeal for donations of time or money.

The reason for this appeal is that members of the Outreach Committee are paying the cost of bringing Dr Adjabu to Halifax out of their own pockets. We are looking for help in defraying the cost of this visit.

Here is the link to our online donation page.

Committee Membership 2012

Chair:

Bill Gentles is vice president of BT Medical Technology Consulting. He is the former Director of Biomedical Engineering at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto Canada. He served in that position from 1972 - 2001.

Since leaving Sunnybrook, Bill has been working as a freelance consultant in the field of Clinical Engineering. His consulting work relates primarily to equipment planning for hospitals, policy development and incident investigations in which medical equipment is involved.

Bill is one of the co-authors of the "Standard of Practice for Clinical Engineering in Canada". In 2004 he authored 2 chapters in “Clinical Engineering Handbook” – J. Dyro, Ed., Academic Press, Burlington MA, 2004. Chapters are entitled “Clinical Engineering in Canada” and “Clinical Engineering Standards of Practice for Canada”

He is the current President of the Clinical Engineering Society of Ontario, a past president of the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society (CMBES) and is a member of the American College of Clinical Engineering. He is a member of the board of Examiners for Clinical Engineering Certification in Canada. He has lectured in Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua Kosovo and Ghana. He received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto in 1974. He is a Registered Professional Engineer, and a Certified Clinical Engineer.

Members:

Bev Bradley, Centre for Global Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Shauna Mullally, Tropical Health and Education Trust, London, United Kingdom

Jim Renshaw, AIM Instrumentation and Technologies, Vancouver, Canada

Mario Ramirez, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada