373Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology September/October 2014

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During AAMI 2010, in Baltimore, MD, William Schlick, a certified biomedical equipment technician and professor of computer science at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, MI, attended a session in which the presenters were describing ways to bridge the networking gap between the informa-tion technology (IT) and healthcare technology management (HTM) depart-ments in hospitals.

The presenters, said Schlick, were discuss-ing how to make IT staff more sensitive to patient contact. He posed a question to them: If faced with a network-related hardware issue, who do you call first?

“They looked at each other—the IT people and the biomeds—and they said, ‘We call the biomeds.’ I asked why, and they said, ‘Because they’ll come,’” Schlick recalled.

“Biomeds are patient-contact sensitive,” added Schlick, who graduated from the biomedical program at Schoolcraft in 1974. He has worked in Detroit-area hospitals and as a service specialist for Radiometer International. In 1995, he came to Schoolcraft as a full-time instructor in biomedical electronics, electron-ics, and computer information systems.

Schlick’s experience in hospital computer and early networks allows him to approach his work as an HTM professional. “A hospital network being down should not be thought of as something that can wait,” he said. “The information it carries is critical to the medical staff. We are first responders for all

mission-critical systems; this now includes networks, switches, and so on.”

ChallengeAccording to Schlick, HTM professionals are the right people to tackle medical device networking problems. The challenge, however, is that their knowledge base in this area needs to be bolstered. “The problem has been that healthcare technology management professionals do a great job of repairing medical equipment and certifying whether it works, but when they go to plug it into a network, their knowledge base becomes limited or the process stops,” he explained.

SolutionGetting HTM professionals up to speed on these issues, said Schlick, is a key benefit of several course offerings at Schoolcraft. He explained that many certifications are available for HTM workers (e.g., from Cisco, Microsoft, and CompTIA). “The manufactur-ers, of course, offer certification for their specific equipment. For HTM professionals to have a foundational knowledge base, students at the BMAT [BioMedical Admissions Test] class level need to learn this basic networking.”

“In other words, a network interface is a network interface, whether it’s on a medical piece of equipment, a PC, or my refrigerator,” he added. The courses taught by Schlick, therefore, offer biomeds fundamental

BRIGHT IDEAS

Courses Help Foster Network-Savvy HTM ProfessionalsJoseph Sheffer

At a Glance

SUBJECTComputer Science Department, Schoolcraft College

LOCATIONLivonia, MI

SOURCE CODE: PB

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374 Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology September/October 2014

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knowledge that they can apply immediately. “Quickly, they are introduced to terms like ‘subnet mask’ and ‘DHCP servers,’ so they’re starting to use the IT lingo correctly and they understand its application.”

Schlick was quick to emphasize that increasing an HTM professional’s network-ing knowledge is not going to impinge upon the tasks of hospital IT staff. “IT still takes care of its piece of the pie. The issue is that biomeds and clinical engineers have inher-ited mission-critical networking issues. For example, the information in a bedside monitor goes along wires, through your switches and routers, and is stored in databases. And that information is going to be critical for treatment; it’s going to be stored in medical records.”

The progression of available certification courses helps inform the content of courses at Schoolcraft, offering a step-by-step approach. “The first basic certifications are A+, Network+, and Security+ from Comp-TIA, said Schlick, so we start with the bread and butter of what every person who works in a biomed shop needs, in order to prepare them for those basic certifications.”

Demystifying terminology surrounding networking and electronics, therefore, is a key feature of the courses taught by Schlick. “For example, we teach them the difference between an RJ11 [registered jack 11], which is a phone connector, and an RJ45, which is a network connector. Now, we’re talking about eight-pin or four-pair connectors that can be used for analog and digital signals. Biomeds can pick that up really quickly, since they have an electronics background, and see how it is used in an application because of their medical training,” Schlick explained.

To keep students from getting over-whelmed, Schlick’s primary goal with course content is to make sure students are well versed in the basics of networking, rather

than taking them to the highest level. This practical approach, he said, helps to foster skills that students can apply in the work-place: “Just by looking at the equipment, can you determine certain things about the network? By using certain pieces that test the equipment, can you determine if the network is working? Can you go in and configure, for instance, a standard operating system so that it works in the network? Are you able to create the proper network address, subnet? If I say ‘ping,’ does it mean a golf club or is a networking term?”

You won’t find any actual medical equip-ment in these courses at Schoolcraft—it’s all about networking fundamentals. “We’re talking about basic networking configura-tions, basic hardware configurations, and basic security protocols,” said Schlick. “The students who have gone through our pro-gram are given the knowledge to apply what they’ve learned and out in the field. Then, they can customize it to the requirements of the individual hospital or medical company.”

About the Author

Joseph Sheffer is publications specialist at AAMI. E-mail: jsheffer@aami.org

To keep students from getting overwhelmed, Schlick’s primary goal with course content is to make sure students are well versed in the basics of networking, rather than taking them to the highest level. This practical approach, he said, helps to foster skills that students can apply in the workplace.

William Schlick, CBET, professor of computer science at Schoolcraft College, teaches a student about breadboarding and troubleshooting.

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375Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology September/October 2014

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“We’re almost there,” he added. “We still have situations in the hospital where nurses and other health professionals are waiting for the IT person to bring in a switch and hook it up. And I believe that those days are going to be in the past because the biomed could easily put in that switch because that’s a mission-critical item.”

For HTM professionals who have been working in the field for many years, going back to school to get certified can be a major challenge. “We know how hard these men and women work, and returning to class and being a student again can be understandably burdensome,” said Schlick.

Originally, Schoolcraft offered the classes as instructor-led, 15- and 16-week classes. Now, the classes are offered in what Schick described as “open entry/open exit”—mean-ing that students are allowed to work at their own pace. “In other words, we give them the material,” said Schlick. “It’s done during the regular semester. And they do the work when they’re able to do the work, and then they finish with everyone else. Final exam week is still the same for everyone.”

In addition, starting in winter 2014, the college will begin offering the courses online, which will further allow students to tailor the pace of their study. While Schlick still believes that coming to class for hands-on training is very useful, enhancing nontraditional class offerings gives students the latitude to learn in a setting that’s comfortable for them.

“What we’re trying to do,” he said, “is to take away the excuse of why a person can’t take the time to learn the material. When students get in there and they realize that they drive the bus, they learn it the way they want.” For a full-time biomed who would be challenged attending a regularly scheduled class, Schlick believes that this added leeway can help remove obstacles.

Insights on the FutureAs healthcare technology continues to advance, Schlick envisions a time when HTM professionals will no longer be physically working on medical equipment. He tells his students: “There will come a time where you won’t be taking the cover off of anything. You’ll be coming in through a network and interrogating, calibrating, and double

checking whether equipment is functioning because your time will be that valuable.”

That sort of interface, he said, is the evolution of the electronics and the network-ing. “And we’re definitely the players. We definitely have some chips in that game.”

He also believes that a new position will emerge in healthcare: a liaison who will bridge the gap between the HTM and IT departments. Schlick envisions these profes-sionals as being charged with performing a project management–type role to help guide the two departments in configuring a network. This position, he believes, will be critical to bypassing the many hurdles of interoperability. He also sees these individuals as helping to define, for exam-ple, requirements for patient load and the exchange of patient information.

He provided a practical example: “If you have an ultrasound transducer with a broken shield in a family birth unit, the information being transmitted could be misinterpreted if there is a signal bleed over from a high-speed network, result-ing in heart rate readings that are incorrectly high. That could result in direct conse-quences. So, we need someone who can bridge the gap between IT and biomed, to head off these sorts of problems before they tran-spire. The widespread use of wireless devices now in hospitals is another area where leadership and representation by biomeds is clearly needed.” n

Schlick explains LabVIEW myDAQ real-world measurement and control.

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