"HTM Pathways: From Novice to Seasoned Veteran - 6 Professionals' Journeys"

This week's episode, you will meet the people who live and breathe HTM and understand why this industry is a game-changer in healthcare today. I was able to interview six HTM professionals at the CEAI 2023 Annual Conference.  

 The Podcast guests shared stories about how they have pivoted their careers, learning to adapt to new technology and cybersecurity concerns. The significance of building connections with other HTM professionals was emphasized, highlighting how these connections foster a sense of family within the industry.

For anyone passionate about the healthcare technology management industry, this episode is a must-listen. It promises to leave listeners inspired, informed, and connected with the vibrant HTM community. As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, the HTM industry is set to play an increasingly critical role, making it an exciting field to watch in the years to come.

Special Guest: Fatima Rogaria, Leslie McGovern, Jonathan Romero, Guillermo Morales, Undrell Johnson, Natsumi Shiotani.

This podcast is sponsored by The College Biomedical Equipment Technology. You can find out more information about this outstanding institution at CBET.EDU.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to HTM on the line, the podcast that is for HTM by HTM. I'm your host, bryant Hawkins, senior. This week episode is a special one. We're bringing you to the electric energy and insight straight from the heart of the action at the CEAI 2023 annual conference, a gathering of some of the brightest minds and innovators in the HTM industry. I have six special guests I will be interviewing for this special episode. Together, they represent the very essence of what makes the CEAI annual conference a must attend event for anyone passionate about the HTM industry. Their stories, insights and experiences promise to inspire and educate us all.

Speaker 1 0:57

So, whether you're a seasoned HTM professional or some just curious about the vibrant world technology plays in healthcare, you're in the right place. We're about to embark on a journey through the past, present and future of HTM. Get ready for an episode filled with knowledge, inspiration and a vision of a brighter, more technological, advanced healthcare landscape. Let's kickstart this episode and turn the spotlight on our esteemed guests as we explore the innovations, dedication and vision that make HTM a vital force in healthcare today. Hello Fatima, how are you doing today?

Speaker 3 1:48

I'm good. How are you?

Speaker 1 1:49

Great. Before we get started, give us a little background about yourself.

Speaker 3 1:54

So my name is Fatima. I work for Crothal at Lurie's Children's Hospital as a project manager. I have a background in nursing and I got my master's in informatics and pivoted my career. However, I'm a project manager at the healthcare tech team at Lurie's, so we integrate the tech and software side of the new technology that we bring into the hospital.

Speaker 1 2:21

Okay, great, great. So you are an RN background and you are on the healthcare technology management side. How does that work with you? How does that? How do you feel about doing that type of?

Speaker 3 2:33

work Well. As a new nurse, I always told myself that I was probably going to be an engineer in another life. I had a passion for technology and helping with early adaption and new tech, so I found a way to outlet that and found clinical engineering and technology management.

Speaker 1 2:55

Now you can be that advantage we need when dealing with the nurses that can call you to go in and do a translation with them.

Speaker 3 3:02

Yeah, that's. The biggest goal that I have is to be a way of communicating between nurses and the tech team, or even nurses in the administrative side of the team.

Speaker 1 3:14

Awesome. So let me ask you this question. We've been in the industry like over a month. You said so this is your first trade show you attended, yeah, this is my first trade show on the clinical engineering side. And how is?

Speaker 3 3:27

it. It's great there's a lot of. It's a very male dominated profession, so I'm happy to input my female perspective.

Speaker 1 3:37

So what have you taken from this show that you take back and utilize?

Speaker 3 3:43

A lot of the things that I took from this show is just like a lot of the management side of things that I was not aware of being a clinical user. There's a lot of PMs and different verbiage that I'm not really I'm trying to familiarize myself with and it's been a great learning process.

Speaker 1 4:02

I'm glad to see you enjoying yourself. It's very challenging but it's a very enjoyable industry, as you will get to see as you go on your journey. Did you meet any new people here? Has it been great? Have you made any new friends?

Speaker 3 4:16

Yeah, I met a lot of people that I probably would not have met if I didn't come to this conference, so it's very nice to see how other people got into this side of the field as well.

Speaker 1 4:28

Yeah, you get to experience the Expo in a minute. That's going to be pretty cool also.

Speaker 3 4:32

Yeah, I'm excited to see all these new gadgets.

Speaker 1 4:37

Well, I appreciate you taking the time and hanging out with me for a field. Anything you would like to say to the HTM community?

Speaker 3 4:47

Just live out your dreams. They're crazy, but you'll get there somehow.

Speaker 1 4:50

All right, great Thanks here Talk to the other team no-transcript. Jonathan, welcome to HTM on the line. Sir, I'm so excited to have you on here today.

Speaker 6 11:17

What's up, Brian? Pleasure to be here, sir. Thanks for inviting me Before we get started.

Speaker 1 11:21

Give us a little background on yourself sir, let's see, I'm Jonathan Romero.

Speaker 6 11:25

I'm a clinical engineer supervisor at Edmondson North Shore Hospital in Illinois. On their Sovek soon, okay.

Speaker 1 11:34

Now how long you've been in the industry.

Speaker 6 11:35

I've been in the industry 14 years at the site I'm at right now 12 years Awesome.

Speaker 1 11:42

Awesome. How do you feel about this industry here?

Speaker 6 11:45

I love it. So as you're going industry it's always changing. We're in the tip of, not the tip, but we're always looking in the frontline of high-end technology.

Speaker 1 11:56

Yeah, exactly, Exactly so. No doubt you've been in the 12 years. You've seen it evolve. What would you say is one of the most challenging things you've come across since you've been in the industry?

Speaker 6 12:09

Keeping up with the new stuff. Keeping up with the new stuff and learning it and then getting rid of the old stuff that we just mastered to learn that. And then, to be honest, cybersecurity Keeping up with cyber stuff and networking. That's a fun challenge, but it's a good challenge.

Speaker 1 12:23

Absolutely. Let me ask you this question here, the C-P-A-I Is this your first show? No, I've been here a couple of times. What have you gained from coming to this show? What would you say are the benefits of coming to the show each year?

Speaker 6 12:40

Definitely networking, seeing different companies help you all get along, even though we're rivals or like Burger King vs McDonald's, but in here we're all family. So to me, seeing all the companies that we're competing for and we get along, we share stories, shake hands you would try Maddox, there's persons with Zdexel, there's persons with in-house I think it's pretty sweet to be able to get together and be brothers and sisters.

Speaker 1 13:05

Absolutely. I appreciate the same thing, brother, If you had to give some advice. The reason the podcast, the whole purpose of this podcast is to motivate the young. What advice would you give to a young person that's maybe finishing up school or he just got into the industry? What encouragement or would you recommend to him or suggest to him?

Speaker 6 13:26

I would say, definitely same school study hard Find someone you know that's in this field pick the brain a little bit.

Speaker 6 13:34

see if you can shadow them Like check it out. Shadow them when they at work, see what kind of stuff they do. You'll see the challenge. You'll see all the fun stuff they get to be involved in. People think you're a doctor. You say I'm a clinical engineer. It sounds like you're something fancy, but it's good to shadow somebody just to taste it out and see how it is. That's what I would highly recommend to do.

Speaker 1 13:58

B-Met one. I've been on a job two months now. It's not really. What I'm thinking is what would you tell him if he was in your shop?

Speaker 6 14:08

I tell him or her to stick through it. If they were at my side, I'm like here, follow me a little bit, let me show you a little something different. So, just so they're not seeing B-Met level one stuff, let them see level two stuff. I'll bring them up with surgery and let them see some stuff that's going on in surgery. Let them know, hey, in a couple of years this could be you up here, in a couple of years you'd be writing my check. But I would show them a different angle of stuff that we do Not just like doing infusion pumps and thermometers and the normal routine stuff. I would show them some surgical robots and some anesthesia machines we work on and to show that dire need of us in surgery or us in doing radiology equipment or just an area where they absolutely, absolutely need us.

Speaker 1 14:50

Right, man, I can hear the passion of your voice talking to you. It's very contagious, man, because I love this industry. It seems like you love it as much as I do. It's great man, great talking to people like you, great to meet you. I feel like I got my long lost friend. It's great and I wish you the best and anytime you want to come on my podcast, you are more than welcome, sir.

Speaker 6 15:10

And you got it, brian. Thank you very much. Thank you sir.

Speaker 1 15:15

Hello everyone. I have my good friend, guillermo on the show. I'll say good friend. We just met about an hour ago, but close enough, guillermo. Tell us about yourself. Give us some background information on you.

Speaker 2 15:27

Well, I have been in the Biomed field for about 35 years. I went from Biomed one, two, three and then the obvious change was to go for radiology imaging. So I did imaging. I don't know. I've been doing imaging for like 20 years now. I'm going to be 65 years old in November, so I'm planning on retiring in May next year after my hospital is moving to a new building. So I'm going to help out with the building move and then I'll retire and I will travel.

Speaker 1 16:13

Let me ask you this now what part of the country are you working in?

Speaker 2 16:18

What part of the country are you working?

Speaker 1 16:20

in right now.

Speaker 2 16:21

I'm in Indiana. I have worked previously in Illinois in a couple of hospitals, but right now I'm at Franciscan Health in Crown Point, indiana. Oh awesome.

Speaker 1 16:32

Now you mentioned you've been in this industry for 35 years, man that's awesome. What would you say was one of the most challenging obstacles for you?

Speaker 2 16:43

Probably making the move from Biomed to radiology. At one point I had to go on my own and pay for my own training to do the radiology. To be able to get a position in radiology Most people the hospital will pay Me. I had to pay for my own and make my way into radiology on my own.

Speaker 4 17:09

That was probably the hardest thing to do information Every year I believe the other years I went to the seminars. That was touched the one leadership. I liked it. This year they touched on a lot of technology. So my goal for myself within this field is to merge within IT a little more. So I would like to get more IT background and I like that. They introduced that because, as viol meds, we are getting more into IT. It is becoming more IT related and our organization here in Illinois, which is Advocate, we're actually under IT branch, so we're all under the same branch now.

Speaker 1 24:33

That's good. I met one person that told me it was under the IT umbrella. That's good. That way y'all have no choice but to work.

Speaker 4 24:41

Exactly, and because a lot of our equipment is intertwined. So it's the best way to go, especially to be in relationships, because you're going to need to have a relationship with IT where you can just pick up the phone and call without having to go through the large channels of what part of IT that you need this for.

Speaker 1 25:04

Well, let me tell you I appreciate you coming on. You have to come do a whole episode with me, sure no problem. Great situation there where you can talk to the young people more and hear more about your story.

Speaker 4 25:16

Yeah, that's true, and I think definitely for women too as well, to not be intimidated by it being a male dominate yes, it has this. You know with any other situation that if it's a male dominate it has its challenges.

Speaker 1 25:35

But the females are coming in. They are Well. I appreciate you, ms Untrell Johnson. It's Undrell Undrell. Excuse me, untrell Johnson, and you're from Illinois area. Right, yeah, chicago, all right, let's go. All right, thanks you once again. I appreciate you. Wish you the best.

Speaker 4 25:53

Yes, thank you.

Speaker 1 25:57

Welcome to HTM on the line, natsumi.

Speaker 7 25:59

Thank you how you doing. Thank you Good, how are you.

Speaker 1 26:02

Great Glad to finally get you on here.

Speaker 7 26:04

Happy to be here.

Speaker 1 26:05

So, before we get deep into it, tell us about your background.

Speaker 7 26:09

Sure. So I have my bachelor's in biological sciences from University of Wisconsin Madison and I got my master's at Marquette by degree in healthcare technologies management. And then I started my career at Crawthill as an HTM fellow at Laury Children's Hospital under Kelly Harris.

Speaker 1 26:30

All right, kelly, kelly, she's a great person.

Speaker 7 26:32

Yes, very lucky to have her as my mentor.

Speaker 1 26:35

So how long have you been working in the HTM industry?

Speaker 7 26:38

So I've been in the field for seven years now. I started as a fellow and then just gradually grew into my current role.

Speaker 1 26:47

And what is that coming role?

Speaker 7 26:48

I'm now the director of medical device integrations projects and equipment services at Laury Children's Hospital.

Speaker 1 26:54

The medical device integration that has been picking up every week look like. So how has that challenge been going for you?

Speaker 7 27:02

It's been great. So we started our team about five years ago, when there is a little gap between the technicians, the clinicians and then also IT, and so when I was a fellow I was able to kind of establish my team into having just one analyst. But as years passed there's just been such a need with evolution and technology and medical devices as a whole, and so now I have a team about four people.

Speaker 1 27:28

That's awesome. It's great. So coming into this HTM industry wasn't a mistake for you.

Speaker 7 27:35

No, I didn't even know about the field until I started my master's program.

Speaker 1 27:38

actually, I think everybody either came into it from family or happened upon it. It's just the way it works, and I wish that's the reason for this podcast, honestly, is to make people aware of it, because there's so many different avenues you can go in it. Like, for instance, you're not even really dealing with the day-to-day repair of equipment, right, but you also a strong part of what's going on in this industry and what's needed. And so, if you had to, in a few words, because I'd always channel it toward the young people, that's what I've been asking everyone what advice would you give a young technician that's probably just starting or about to get into the industry?

Speaker 7 28:22

I would definitely encourage someone to find a mentor, someone that's able to guide them throughout just even the day-to-day operations, but also growth opportunities and how someone can challenge themselves on a day-to-day basis, just understanding the whole industry. I think it's really helpful and to have someone that you feel comfortable talking to, reaching out to to get any sort of help. It's been great, I think.