Emerging Horizons of Clinical Engineering in Disaster Preparedness and Management Proposal for an expanded professional identity
Main Article Content
Keywords
disaster preparedness, clinical engineering, systems engineering, alternate sites of care, health technology design, dual-use infrastructure
Abstract
GLOBAL DISASTER UNPREPAREDNESS - The global COVID-19 crisis of 2020 has thrown a disturbing spotlight on the many ways in which healthcare systems, governments, medical industries, markets, and healthcare professions have been dangerously fragmented, unprepared, under-resourced, tragically slow and uncoordinated in responding to the most disruptive medical disaster of our times. Despite numerous threat-analysis studies, detailed pandemic scenarios and simulations by state and Federal agencies, despite billions of dollars spent on post-9/11 international disaster preparedness, and repeated top-levels warnings, the world’s governments, markets and healthcare systems have failed to prepare and prevent a health disaster from exploding into a multi-dimensional catastrophe.
The fragmentation of plans and competencies across sectors, complicated by political decision-making, clearly demand mission-critical re-organization among the institutional players, with more coordinated, integrated, and systems-oriented professional approaches worldwide, and active cultivation of public health intelligence. For the reasons that follow, Clinical and Biomedical Engineers are among the best-suited health professionals to assume an expanded and comprehensive leadership role in this urgently needed transformation.