The President of the Ghana Society of Biomedical Engineers, Elsie Effah Kaufmann says Biomedical Engineers can function effectively if government ceases exports of health equipments and provides supports to build locally made ones.

She insisted that it is very necessary for the country leaders to have faith in Biomedical-related issues by since failure to inspire members results in the loss of confidence to deliver what they are capable of, an act which hampers the competences of the profession.

 

 

“We have to believe in our own people that they are qualified. There are trained engineers who can design and build hospital equipments. We don’t need to export everything related to health to the country for use,” she said.

“If they are not encouraged to keep on with their work, how do they come out with what they have learnt? Even if they do, no one will know the benefit of their production. It is up to us to realise that we have such people in the country therefor there is the need to give them such opportunity to perform. Through that, we can know their duties and empower them,” she added.

 

 

The Ghana Society of Biomedical Engineers held its 2nd National Conference on Thursday, February 27, 2020 in the capital of the Ashanti Region at the Great Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

The two-day program, themed, “Addressing Local Healthcare Needs through Biomedical Engineering Innovations” was focused on how to acclimatize society’s general shift towards everyday utilization of machinery and technology in all aspects of health life and address medical needs by overcoming daily challenges of technology in the various Ghanaian hospitals through development of life-saving concepts.

 

 

With Biomedical engineers increasingly becoming an effective part of man’s health by way of combining engineering principles with medical sciences to design and create equipment, devices, computer systems, and software, the Ghana Society of Biomedical Engineers deem it a great advantage to come together as a unified body distinct from other engineering departments.

According to Miss Kaufmann, due to the unique nature of Biomedical Engineering, recognition as a regulatory body by the Engineering Council is needed to be able to provide and enforce on adequate standards for health and safety.

 

 

“Our members need to be recognized as a profession. All engineers are under the regulation of the Engineering Council. Because of the unique nature of the biomedical engineering, we have been trying to be recognized by the council.

“That is a very important step because all engineers must be regulated. I agree and all healthcare workers must be regulated but we are unique. We do both and so the recognition has been very difficult so we would like the Engineering council to recognise us as a regulatory body,” she said whiles debriefing the press after the program.

 

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She spoke that the lack of enough trained members is one challenge making it difficult to be established hence the meeting to bring them together with an assurance that with time, the standards required will be fulfilled.

 

 

“At the moment, because we haven’t trained enough members as the engineering council would like to see, that is one of our challenges but it’s a young and vibrant discipline and so we believe we can raise the membership eventually to be able to join”.

The General Secretary of the Society, Mr. George Boadi described the role of Biomedical Engineering as necessitating in the modern world and called upon the government to assist the society in playing a key role in Ghana’s Health sector.

“Without Biomedical Engineers in today’s world, doctors will find it very difficult to attend to patients – they make sure to install, adjust, maintain, repair, or provide technical support for biomedical equipment. That is our duty.”

 

 

Mr. Boadi encouraged young students who have joined the society to take their books seriously and come out with ideas to put an end to health challenges in Ghana especially on the field of biomedical engineering.

“My advice to students who have joined this course is to learn hard. We have more problems relating to health in this country, which requires students who can provide Biomedical engineering solutions to resolve such,” he counseled.

The Ghana Society of Biomedical Engineers has been in existence since 2011.