Talk on Healthcare Technology Management

Ir Dharmesh (front row, sixth from right) with the participants

Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science’s (LKC FES) Department of Mechatronics and Biomedical Engineering (DMBE) and Centre for Healthcare Science and Technology (CHST) have jointly organised a talk titled “Embracing Healthcare Technology Management” at Sungai Long Campus on 31 July 2017.

Ir Dharmesh delivering the talk

The two-hour talk was presented by senior consultant Ir Dharmesh R. Doshi from Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI), a non-profit organisation that is dedicated into reviewing, testing and approving any scientific research that consist of medical procedures, devices and drugs before making it available to any medical facilities to ensure the safety and health of the public.

The talk was designed to focus on students who were currently pursuing a degree in Biochemical Engineering so that they may pursue a career in the Healthcare industry and address the objectives and purpose of their role in Healthcare Technology.

Armed with interesting power points, Ir Dharmesh shared his work experiences with the participants and talked about the background story that led the founder to establish ECRI. He said, “In the 1960’s, when knowledge about medical device and safety was still very new, our founder was working in the emergency department of a hospital. A four-year-old child was rushed to the hospital to be defibrillated. However, the patient died due to the malfunction of the defibrillator, which later angered him. With this incident in mind, he focused his energy on improvising the resuscitation technology and established ECRI, an independent organisation that performed safety inspections for manufacturers of any medical devices of its kind before publishing the findings to all federal hospitals, regardless it is good or bad. We want to ensure that the medical devices operate as intended without risking the lives of the patients.”  

After briefing the participants regarding the background of the institute, Ir Dharmesh gave an explanation about the process of the Healthcare Technology Management. He then showed the participants a video about a scientific research paper which was called “Mr Smith”. The video story was about the validation process of “Mr Smith” in having his scientific findings through the comparison with several other scientific research papers, and how his research was finally validated by ECRI.

 “There is a broader scope of what biomedical or clinical engineers could do than just run preventive maintenance and repairing technology,” said Ir Dharmesh, “If you are a biomedical engineer which is more towards research and development, especially when you are working with the manufacturer, this case would be very important. You are out there in a hospital, setting up the medical equipment while configuring it, this is where biomedical engineers are very much involved.” 

The talk ended with a brief Q&A session, followed by a token of appreciation presented to Ir Dharmesh by DMBE Head Dr Kwan Ban Hoe.

Ir Dharmesh has about 15 years of industrial experience and started the first year of his career as Area Sales Executive with EDApharm, followed by Medical Site Engineer with Team Vantage. From December 2003 till March 2014, he became the Director of Technology Management for ERCI Institute, after having worked his way up from a Biomedical Engineering, to become a Senior Principal Engineer.

Dr Kwan (centre) presenting a token of appreciation to Ir Dharmesh (left), while Dr Loo Joo Ling (right) looks on