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James O. Wear: Certification in the United States, Canada and Asia

• Associate’s degree in electronics technology and CeRtified heAlthCARe
three years’ full-time BMET work experience; OR teChnology MAnAgeR (ChtM)
• Four years’ full-time BMET work experience In 2015, the AAMI Credentials Institute (ACI) initiated
The exam can be taken if a person has an associate the Certified Healthcare Technology Manager (CHTM)
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degree in BMET or two-years’ experience full time as a program. ACI defines a CHTM as
BMET. If they pass the exam, they have five years to com- “The healthcare technology manager is a person
plete the additional 2 years of full-time experience as a responsible for planning and directing activities of
BMET to be certified. To take the CRES or CLES exam, a other healthcare technology management profes-
person must have worked at least 40% of the time in the sionals, monitoring their work, and taking corrective
past two years or 25% of the time in the past five years actions when necessary. This HTM certification
in the designated specialty area. covers two major areas in healthcare technology
management: the management of healthcare
Each of the AAMI exams is 165 multiple-choice questions
technology operations; and, the management of
and is administered by a professional testing organization.
personnel. The functions of the manager are to
The Board of Examiners creates questions for the exam
include the participation in the “leadership” of the
bank and reviews new exams before they are used. The
business enterprise. The manager is also expected
professional testing organization has responsibility for
to have the skills and understanding needed to
the exam security.
perform strategic, business, and change manage-
In the AAMI certification program over 3000 are ment as well as employee relation.”
CBETs, about 600 CRESs and around 100 CLESs. Every
This certification is not currently ANSI accredited.
three years, individuals must renew their certification
by demonstrating a certain amount of continuing educa- Individuals interested in pursuing the CHTM designa-
tion to be maintained as a CBET, CRES or CLES. Most of tion must meet one of the following paths to be eligible
the CBETs are in the United States, but BMETs in several for the program.
other countries have taken the exam and become CBETs.
Path 1: A current certification as a clinical engineer (CCE),
AAMI has placed all of their certification programs in biomedical equipment technician (CBET), radiology
their AAMI Credentials Institute (ACI). In 2016 the CBET, equipment specialist (CRES), or a laboratory equipment
CLES and CRES became ANSI accredited under ISO/IEC specialist (CLES) with at least three (3) years of work
17024 Personnel Certification. experience as a supervisor or manager in the last five
Electronics Technicians Association International (ETA) (5) years.
also certifies BMET as both general medical equipment Path 2: Successful completion of the Department of
and radiological equipment technicians. They must be Defense’s biomedical equipment maintenance techni-
certified as Certified Electronics Technicians (CET) before cian (DOD BMET) training program with at least three
they can take the journeyman certification exams. With years of work experience, military or civilian, as an HTM
six or more years of training and work experience in the supervisor or manager in the last five years
field, the CET can take the journeyman exam. They must Path 3: An Associate degree in biomedical technology,
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score 85% on the journeyman exam to be certified. If related health care discipline, information technology
they pass the journeyman certification exam for medical or business with at least three years of work experience
equipment, they become CET-BMD. By passing the journey- as an HTM supervisor or manager in the last five years.
man certification exam for radiological equipment, they Path 4: A Bachelor’s degree or higher in biomedical
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become CET-BIET. Their programs are aligned with the technology, engineering, related health care discipline,
ISO/IEC 17024 standards “Conformity assessment – General information technology or business with at least two
requirements for bodies operating certification of persons” years as a manager within the last five years.

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