KC Biomed Society

The Healthcare Technology Management

                   Association of the Midwest


  

The place for BMETs & HTM professionals in the Midwest & Beyond.




HTMA Midwest News

  • 14 Nov 2023 3:32 PM | Anonymous

    Please take a few minutes to take part in an important research study. Thank you!


  • 14 Nov 2023 3:16 PM | Anonymous

       Go vote now!

    The top nominations for each category will be highlighted in the January 2024 issue of TechNation magazine, with voting allowed until January 12, 2024.

    Wrenchies will be awarded with the winners selected based 100% on votes from those who make up the HTM industry. Winners will be announced in the March issue of TechNation and highlighted in a special digital supplement.


  • 22 Aug 2023 10:18 AM | Anonymous

    HTMA-MW has established a newsletter that is scheduled to be published bi-monthly starting in October 2023! The newsletter will recap past meetings in case you missed them and preview future meetings so you can get all the details in advance. The newsletter will also feature a message from the board keeping you up to date on all the plans the association has going forward. Our sponsors will be featured in every issue, and we will give shout outs to cool HTM field related podcasts, books, and products the BMET might find interesting! That and much more, please reach out with any thoughts or recommendations @ officers@htma-mw.org. 


  • 20 Aug 2023 10:17 AM | Anonymous

    HTMA-MW has established 3 new social media accounts for our members & sponsors to follow! We are on Linked In, Facebook and Instagram with TikTok to follow soon. Members can follow these accounts for up-to-date information on meeting dates/changes, special events, volunteer opportunities, job postings, cool HTM field related articles and much more. Please like & follow us to help create a vibrant and strong community here in our city!


  • 22 Jun 2023 10:16 AM | Anonymous

    It was that time of the year again! AAMI and the AAMI Exchange took over the Long Beach Convention Center from June 16th to the 19th. The weather in Long Beach was amazing to go along with a fantastic conference!

    2,100 HTM professionals filled the convention center taking advantage of 80+ breakout sessions, classes and workshops, when they weren’t networking and enjoying peer to peer conversations. Around 160 exhibiters filled out the expo hall for 10+ hours thought the convention.

    There was more emphasis this year on providing education and resources for the boots on the ground BMETs. The classes and workshops were broken out into different categories making it easy to identify which session would be most appealing to you.

    Speakers at the conference included Alex Weber, Scott Trevino and Herman McKenzie among many others. Overall, the event was a great success and a valuable tool for anyone interested in furthering your career in the HTM field.

    The HTMA Midwest even had our own booth in the expo hall to promote our association!


  • 07 Oct 2019 9:09 PM | Robin Faut (Administrator)

    BMET Certificate Program available thru JCCC & State Tech College of Missouri



    To the HTMA-MW Membership,

    As most of you are aware, we (Ken Ervin, Kevin Hashman, Dan DeMaria, Cliff Allen, Kevin Johnson, Drew McElroy, Kenny Brown and myself) formulated a concept at last years’ Annual meeting to provide a path for students interested in HTM to obtain a BMET degreed certificate program. We’re happy to inform that that idea has become a reality as State Tech College has accepted 3 in-seat classes at JCCC that are required for the BMET Certificate Program. JCCC has also accepted A & P, Medical Terminology and Job Search Strategies as electives to the Electronics Technology AAS degree. Two of the other 3 classes required for the Certificate Program are done on-line thru State Tech College and the last requirement is the Internship.

    The Program works like this, students would enroll in JCCC’s Electronics Technology Program and upon completion of the basic Electronics Technology requirements, dual enroll at State Tech and they would begin Anatomy & Physiology, Medical Terminology and Job Search Strategies in-seat at JCCC , followed by Biomedical Instrumentation and Diagnostic Imaging on-line then followed by the 3 month Internship at one of our local Hospitals.

    This “adventure” results in various opportunities for the HTMA-MW membership to be involved, consider what is needed below and if you can assist send an email to Tim Cordes, ptckc@sbcglobal.net. Our intent would be to establish a sustainable process for raising awareness of HTM careers to various high school and/or 1st year Electronics Program students.

    We Need:

    • BMETs to sit on the Advisory Boards for JCCC and/or State Tech

    • BMETs to attend Career Day Fairs (materials and demo equipment will be provided)

    • BMET Leaders to present to students in the Electronics Technology Program at JCCC

    • Hospitals that allow ”job shadowing” opportunities. (great for HS students to get an idea of what HTM is about)

    • Donations of used Medical Equipment and old Simulators, a defib and cautery units would be desired.

    • Donation of a couple of large equipment cases

    Our hope is we can provide a “conduit” to direct students into these Programs and especially High School students that could “job shadow” and begin to get an idea of what it’s like to be in HTM. The objective would be to do this consistently and effectively, we plan to assemble the materials, brochures from the Institutions and AAMI, display posters, Medical equipment to demonstrate and lists of Hospitals that allow job shadowing/Internships. If you can help or want to be involved in this effort, email Tim Cordes, ptckc@sbcglobal.net

  • 18 Nov 2017 5:26 PM | Anonymous

    Please add admin@htma-mw.org and president@htma-mw.org to you email contacts. We want to remind our members and contacts to double check your Spam or Junk email folders for anything from HTMA-MW.


    If you have not received an email from us regarding meetings please email the President or the Membership Secretary and let us know so we can make sure no one gets through the cracks.  
     
  • 18 Nov 2017 5:02 PM | Anonymous

     

    Biomed Breaks the Mold by Working for Veterinary Practice

    The patients at the healthcare facilities where Rick Trexler, CBET, works tend to be rather furry, are prone to pacing, and have been known to bark or purr on occasion.

    Trexler, you might say, is a rare breed: He’s a healthcare technology management (HTM) professional who works for a veterinary practice.

    “Less a couple of ‘sabbaticals,’ I’ve been working in veterinary medicine since 1985, my senior year of high school. I am a registered veterinary technician, which is the equivalent of a registered nurse on the human medical side,” said Trexler, who is the equipment and facilities manager at BluePearl Veterinary Partners in Kansas City, MO. “The bulk of my career has been in canine and feline medicine, but I have also worked in the aviculture department of Sea World with penguins, alcids, waterfowl, and parrots; with other wildlife; and for a short time in large animal medicine.”

    Rick Trexler

     

    A Lone Wolf in Search of a Pack

    After taking on HTM duties for BluePearl’s three Kansas City-area facilities full time, Trexler went back to school to earn a degree in electronics, which included a three-month internship servicing infusion pumps. But it is his background in veterinary medicine that Trexler credits for helping him understand the needs of the practice’s four-legged patients and their healthcare providers. This is also what sets him apart from his HTM peers.

    “To my knowledge, Kansas City is the only area with an in-house biomed shop,” Trexler said. “This isolation without peers has been one of my biggest challenges. I joined the local biomedical association a few years back, which has been helpful, but I still find that a lot of my fellow biomeds can’t relate to my work environment.”

    Neither can many of his vendors.

    “In the past, some of the vendor-based technical support personnel would automatically try to ‘dumb things down’ for me when they heard the word veterinary. I don’t get that as much now when I introduce myself as a BMET,” said Trexler, who earned his CBET credential this past May.

    Facing Unique Challenges

    Veterinary Equipment
    The equipment used to diagnose, monitor, and treat veterinary patients is similar to that found in human hospitals.

    According to Trexler, although the patients he serves might be furrier, the equipment he oversees is not all that different from what is found in human hospitals—albeit older in many cases.

    “There are very few instruments designed from the ground up with the veterinary patient in mind. For example, most patient monitors sold as veterinary units are simply relabeled, sometimes with a slight modification such as a higher cap on the heart rate,” Trexler said.

    Using equipment designed with human patients in mind on sick and injured pets presents some unique challenges.

    “Our patients tend to nervously circle a run as opposed to lying stationary on their backs in a hospital bed; as a result, occlusion alarms on infusion pumps tend to go off frequently in the absence of an occlusion, even at their least sensitive setting,” Trexler explained. “Finding service providers who are willing to adjust these out of spec for our needs can be a challenge.”

    Even procurement can lead to uncertainty, as the Food and Drug Administration does not require premarket approval of devices sold on the veterinary market.

    “This serves as a double-edged sword for us,” Trexler said. “In some cases, it allows us to get technology ahead of our human counterparts. However, it also leaves the veterinary market vulnerable to equipment that would never receive approval for human patients. For example, there were some veterinary-labeled infusion pumps imported a few years ago that were catching on fire.”

    Despite these challenges, Trexler remains passionate about being an HTM professional and sees a growing need for others with his unique skillset. “As veterinary medicine continues to evolve and larger, more specialized facilities such as ours become more commonplace, I see a need for in-house shops that can service the large amounts of medical technology not found in the traditional general practice,” he said.

  • 24 Oct 2017 9:30 AM | Robin Faut (Administrator)

    HTMA-MW helps Medical Missions


    The HTMA-MW were proud to present a check to the Medical Missions Foundation to help expenses for a Medical Missions Trip .  Noe Aguilar will be traveling to Guatemala this Spring to assist with equipment set up and equipment service during surgeries performed by Volunteer Surgeons, Anesthesiologists, CRNA's and Nurses.  This donation represents the realization of HTMA-MW's long standing goal to support Medical Missions trips and would not be possible without the help of Paul Wessler with Pronk Technologies and their "Pronk it Forward" campaign and the support of our Corporate Sponsors.  Noe will be speaking about his experiences at an upcoming meeting this year.
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