The Need for BMETs Is Up and So Is the Educational Requirements

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<h1>The Need for BMETs Is Up and So Is the Educational Requirements</h1> <p align=right>by Jesse Fisher</p> <div align=justify>Biomedical equipment technicians or BMETs represent a growing division of people who are technically trained whose main responsibility is the maintaining and repairing equipment that deals with medical imaging like a a CT scanner, ultrasound, x-ray MRI, and so on. The job outlook for BMETs seems to be changing as quickly as newimaging equipment} is being developed. First and foremost, the demand for BMETs is growing. The increase is due to the expansion in new equipment used for medical imaging and technologies that need BMET expertise, and, by the necessity for income by institutions that own medical imaging equipment. As medical services like hospitals recognize that downtime on a piece of imaging equipment affects income generation, there is demand to add BMETs to hospitals to make sure that every piece of imaging equipment is maintained in good order so that costly service contracts are used as little as they can be. The U.S. Department of Labor and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Imaging (AAMI) predict that the number of BMET jobs in the US will rise 24 percent to 31 percent until the year of 2010. Not that long ago, BMETs were trained in the workplace. But, as medical imaging equipment technology has increased, so has the need for consistent, quality training. Now, most BMETs have earned an Associates degree in medical imaging electronics or an engineering-related study. Recently an experiment by the AAMI discovered that 62 percent of all BMETs went on to voluntarily become certified by the International Commission on Accreditation. ICC Certification for BMETs is an academic acknowledgement by the International Certification Commission for Clinical Engineering and Biomedical Technology (ICC) that individuals have shown excellence in theoretical and practical knowledge of the principles of biomedical technology. The BMET function keeps evolving and, as it does, the educational requirements have started to increase also. The BMET job has started to walk the trail of lots of different jobs both in and out of the medical field where increasingly more schooling is required to serve in a job and/or advance inside a career field. BMETs report that employers are starting to require bachelors degrees for advancement to a supervisory rank or in some cases just to be a BMET inside some institutions. While this requirement may constrain the job options for few BMETs serving right now, the good news is that increased educational requirements creates the opportunity for higher income. Studies have determinedshown|found out} that beginning pay levels for BMETs are from $20,000-$30,000. However, senior and supervisory jobs can get salaries as high as $80,000. The future appears bright for career growth in this area.</div> <p align=center>Article source: <a href="http://www.ArticlePros.com/Science-Technology/Advancements/article-77378.html">ArticlePros.com</a></p> <table align=center width=550 cellspacing=1 bgcolor=silver cellpadding=5> <tr bgcolor=antiquewhite> <td> <p align=center><b>About the author</b></p> <p align=justify>Jesse Fisher enjoys writing articles for his customers which includes Transamerican Medical, a business that buys and sells <a href="http://www.transamericanmedical.com/">Philips Medical</a> equipment and parts. See also <a href="http://www.medicalimagingnews.com/">Medical Imaging News.</a> (Article may be republished online IF all links are kept intact.)</p> <p align=left><a href="http://www.transamericanmedical.com/" target="_blank" title="will open in new window" class=blue>http://www.transamericanmedical.com/</a></p> <p align=center><input type=button class=asubm value="Other articles by Jesse Fisher" onclick="document.location='http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Jesse Fisher'" style="height:20px;cursor:hand"></p> </td> </tr> </table>