PREPARING BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERS FOR CAREER ADVANCEMENT: THE HEALTHCARE TECHNOLOGIES MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

摘要

Engineers working in industry often find that after several promotions, they reach a point where further advancement places them into a management position. These positions require more than technical, interpersonal, and communication skills. Managers must be able to get things done through other people and provide their subordinates with the tools, resources, and support to be successful. Making the transition from engineer to manager involves less doing and more delegating, and requires motivation, training, coaching, and evaluation skills. Managers need to understand how their functional areas and those of others in the organization help the company meet its goals. Knowledge of basic business functions such as accounting, marketing, finance, and an understanding of organizational behavior are also important. Undergraduate biomedical engineering curricula include courses in math, physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, design, and the engineering sciences. Students usually take elective courses in the social studies and the humanities. Due to the lack of additional elective credits in an already full curriculum, very few biomedical engineers take any business or management courses as undergraduates, and few have an understanding of the regulatory aspects of medical device development. Most engineers are not prepared for their first management position. They typically lack the management skills and business knowledge needed for the job. This contributes to the high rate of managerial failure among engineers. Recognizing the value of additional education in reducing the incidence of managerial failure, many engineers are preparing for career advancement by enrolling in part-time graduate management programs. These programs allow students to supplement their technical education with formal coursework in business and management while they continue to work full-time. Medical device companies need engineers with technical and business skills, and an understanding of the economic and regulatory aspects of healthcare delivery. They need to invest in employee training and education to develop, promote, and retain key employees. For this reason, many employers will pay for continuing education programs through tuition reimbursement benefits. There are a variety of part-time graduate management programs available to biomedical engineers. The Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree is typically a generic management degree that emphasizes the core business areas of marketing, finance, accounting, organizational behavior, and others. Programs in Engineering Management focus on technical management. They include core business courses with emphasis on technical areas such as production and control systems, quality control, operations research, research and development, and project management.