Happy new year

Captions log star date 76466.2 currently inhabiting earth. Have eaten far to much food and have spent most of the time in a sedentary position. This along with a substantial period of time away from work has given me time to reflect on my journey into my current career (bare with me there’s a point I’m getting to). I started out in civil engineering in 2005 when I left school, progressing onto electronic engineering in 2014 and then onto clinical engineering in 2021. The point to this is I have spent a lot of time doing engineering, and for the most part this has not really affected people’s live or left a great impact, sure I’ve won a couple of awards and grabbed a couple of degrees along the way but I didn’t feel until I started the job I’m currently in that I added value to society. I kind of felt like the clients were all nameless faceless people and I felt very detached from the job and the impact I was having. Where as the clients I have now are very real people, and the engineering design and development has high stake impact, and with that comes a measure of responsibility.

These individuals have very unique problems to solve and with that come the question is it better to design for mass production or for bespoke designs? The answer is complex there is in my humble opinion (two awards, two degrees) a time and a place for mass produced design though it generally excludes people who do not fit into “normal” limits, a sizeable portion of my clients don’t fit into “normal” limits. Conversely I have clients that do fit into normal limits but require a more bespoke options due to secondary issue. For example I met a patient with a full range of motion but because of their sensory and proprioception needs required custom moulded seating rather than off the shelf.

A second reflection is that when I was doing gas engineering a lot of the focus was on sales, where as with this the focus is solely on the clients needs. To understand a clients needs I have the pleasure of getting to know them and their lives. I got to meet a former art teacher who has a degenerative disease which has stopped them from pursuing art in a physical form, instead they use an eye controlled tablet to create digital art. This involved them learning how to use a new piece of technology and new techniques, their perseverance to be able to pursue something they loved is inspiring to me. I also met a patient early on in my job who even though they have MS (multiple sclerosis) which is a very debilitating disease they approached our appointments with humour which to my relief made me more comfortable, I have subsequently got more comfortable and confident around patients but this was definitely a starting point on the road.

My last reflection of the year is how much I have learned about the people I have met in healthcare and their invaluable pool of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm to make their patients lives better. I sometimes feel like healthcare can be a bit of a losing battle, we go in provide a treatment and 6 months later the disease has progressed and we have to start from scratch, this can be somewhat disheartening but the staff I work with really do help get rid of those moments of doubt and frustration.

The year ahead promises a lot of opportunities for me to learn more about technology and the impacts it has on our patients.

happy new year and best wishes for 2023