Job profile: Clinical engineer

As a clinical engineer, you would use your technical knowledge to design and develop the equipment used in medical treatments and patient aftercare. These could range from medical instruments to rehabilitation methods.

Your work would involve:

• testing equipment, such as walking aids, wheelchairs and speech synthesizers (known as assistive technologies)
• developing artificial limbs, for example ones which use microelectronic sensors that attach to the patient's own tissue giving them greater control
• making artificial joints, heart valves and hearing implants from new materials to lessen the chance of rejection by the patient’s body
• designing equipment that allows doctors to try new medical techniques, for example optical instruments for keyhole surgery and image-guided surgery
• day-to-day management of medical equipment, such as scanners, imaging machines and monitoring systems
• carrying out quality assurance checks to make sure all equipment is working correctly and safely.

You would work closely with other medical professionals, technical staff and patients.

Find out more from Careers Advice.

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