By John Wallace
An exciting first day of the 2024 MD Expo in Las Vegas included top-notch educational sessions, a special solar eclipse experience, an amazing keynote address and the inaugural presentation of the Tech Choice Awards!
TechNation magazine’s Jayme McKelvey took to the stage prior to the keynote presentation to present the inaugural Tech Choice Awards. The Tech Choice Awards (also known as the Wrenchies) recognize the important men and women who work tirelessly behind the scenes.
“On behalf of TechNation I want to extend a sincere thank you for allowing us the opportunity to be a part of these awards. It is our mission to serve and support the men and women of the biomedical and HTM industry, and these awards provided one more way we can shine a spotlight on the heroes of HTM,” McKelvey said after the presentation of awards.
And the winners are …
PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR – sponsored by Renovo Solutions
Taylor Dunbar, Clinical Engineering Specialist, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Taylor Dunbar is a clinical engineering specialist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. When asked what people should know about her, Taylor says that she strongly believes in the work biomeds are doing. She acknowledges that it is certainly behind the scenes work – and many times thankless – but she doesn’t let that discourage her.
YOUNG PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR
Allison Woolford, CBET, Biomedical Equipment Specialist, Duke University Hospital
Allison Woolford graduated from the biomedical technology program at Durham Technician Community College and is now an adjunct professor for the program. Her mission is to bring light to a field that is not advertised in high schools, colleges, universities and job fairs. She wants to show high school girls that they too can repair and maintain medical equipment side by side with their male counterparts.
DEPARTMENT OF THE YEAR – sponsored by USOC Medical
The Houston Methodist Biomedical Engineering Department
The Houston Methodist Biomedical Engineering Department, services eight hospitals, an academic institute and 2,509 operating beds. The 85-member biomedical engineering department is led by System Director Anthony Maroulis. Other members of leadership include Campus Director of Clinical Engineering Marc Bateman, Managers of Clinical Engineering Terresa Everhart, Javier Ruiz, Miguel Meza and Coreaun Jackson and Program Coordinators Brandon Hight and Nathan Stathos. Leadership is part of GE Healthcare. The team’s clinical engineers include Zach Smith, Cristian Delgado, Bailyn Piecewicz and Hani Khalil. The department also consists of two administration assistants, five biomed equipment tech leads, 23 biomed equipment tech IIs, 23 biomed equipment tech IIIs, 15 biomed equipment tech Is, 4 biomed radiology service engineers and 1 data entry specialist.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – sponsored by Tri-Imaging Solutions
Patrick Lynch, CHTM, CBET, CCE, MBA, CPHIMS
Patrick “Pat” Lynch, CHTM, CBET, CCE, MBA, CPHIMS, is the recipient of the inaugural Tech Choice Awards Lifetime Achievement Award presented by TechNation magazine based on nominations and online voting by the HTM community. Biomedical Society Vice President Kelly VanDeWalker nominated Pat for the award.
MILITARY BMET OF THE YEAR – sponsored by CBET
Josh Garvin, VISN 10 Information Systems Biomedical Equipment Support Specialist at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
“Joshua Garvin is a veteran of the United States Army where he was an intelligence analyst for many years. Since 2012, Josh has been working for the Department of Veterans Affairs in networking- and cybersecurity-related capacities. As of March 2021, he has been a Biomedical Equipment Support Specialist (BESS) for the Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) covering Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. In his time with VA, he’s made a significant impact to the healthcare technology management (HTM) community in this region and throughout the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Josh has worked to ensure VHA medical centers in his region meet the key performance indicators related to cybersecurity, such as vulnerability management. He’s also played a hand in countless VISN-wide projects such as the deployment of Zeiss FORUM Eye PACs in preparation for an electronic health record changeover. Josh’s passion for cybersecurity is even more evident in his enthusiasm to educate those that need or wish to learn more about the topic. He holds education sessions in the VA for interested BESS for several years, and he’s even created training content available to all biomedical engineers and BESS. The topics covered range from medical device security KPI improvements, basic networking skills, adding devices to the domain, PowerShell tutorials, IBM web reports, isolation management and much more. Josh also takes the time to provide additional support and education to those VA sites that express the need. He has regularly held one-on-one trainings for sites struggling with cybersecurity actions and/or have new VA HTM staff onboard. He is the co-lead for the National VHA HTM IT Education Workgroup that aims to educate the HTM field in medical device security knowledge. This expertise has even been featured in a variety of TechNation articles with Josh as co-writer to three published articles. He truly encompasses what it means to be the Military BMET of the Year from his time in the Army to now serving his fellow Veterans as a BESS for the Veterans Health Administration,” shared Jennifer Harrison, Biomedical Engineer, Veterans Health Administration
DIRECTOR/MANAGER OF THE YEAR – sponsored by MW Imaging
Chris Nowak, Director, Clinical Engineering at Arkansas Children’s Hospital
Chris Nowak is the director of clinical engineering at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and is an individual that held in the highest regard. His credentials include CBET, CHP and CSCS. He endorses and encourages staff education and individual achievement.
ISO EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR – sponsored by Elite Biomedical Solutions
Keven Sun, Biomedical Service Technician, CME Corp
Keven Sun is a biomedical service technician for CME Corp. Keven has a can-do attitude and is the kind of young, eager, full of potential BMET/CBET that everyone wants on their team. He provides the type of top-level service exemplified by CME Corp employees and understands the importance of patient care and mutual respect.
HUMANITARIAN AWARD – sponsored by Healthmark Industries
Emmanuel Essah, Biomedical Program Manager at Mercy Ships
Mercy Ships Biomedical Program Manager Emmanuel Essah is an amazing biomedical professional who has been serving with purpose for Mercy Ships for many years. In his current position as the biomedical project manager, he travels around West Africa and educates local healthcare professionals in the biomedical industry.
INGENUITY AWARD
Carl Cross, Biomedical Engineer at VHA
“He innovated an entire PowerBI Analytics portal for the Medical Device Cybersecurity data for the entire VHA Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) community which consists of approximately 2,000 Biomedical Equipment Support Specialists and Biomedical Engineers throughout the U.S. This portal compiles key cybersecurity data as it relates to medical equipment in VHA medical centers. Since its inception, this portal has been utilized over 175,000 times by VHA HTM professionals, and it directly benefits the HTM community on a daily basis. He has also developed enterprise interactive reports for tracking each Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) directive to monitor remediation of cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the field. These reports are vital to the successful management of cybersecurity threats to medical systems in the VHA health care system.”
WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP AWARD – sponsored by Avante Health Solutions
Dana Hamed, Clinical Engineering Supervisor at Middlesex Health
Dana Hamed exemplifies many key leadership qualities, she has a strong work ethic, stays until the job is done, and she’s available to help solve crisis issues at any time. Most importantly, she leads by example by being kind and empathetic, always willing to help find solutions, and committed to learning and improving.
INDUSTRY INFLUENCER OF THE YEAR – sponsored by Soma Tech Intl
Bryant Hawkins, Sr.
HTM on the Line podcast
Bryant Hawkins Sr. is a site manager for Trimedx, the host of the HTM on the Line podcast, a blogger, motivational speaker, advocate for STEM and youth mentor, DJ, photographer and probably the best tour guide the city of New Orleans has ever had.
OUTSTANDING VENDOR OF THE YEAR
Sage Services Group, sageservicesgroup.com
Some of the accolades received for this company included phrases like “very helpful”, “top customer service”, “repairs equipment efficiently”, “great turnaround time” and “the convenience of working with them and their repair process is impeccable.”
ASSOCIATION OF THE YEAR – sponsored by MultiMedical Systems
Florida Biomedical Society
“The Florida Biomedical Society truly deserves recognition and an award for their exceptional contributions to the field. Their annual symposiums are not only highly informative but also incredibly engaging and consistently attracting a diverse and substantial audience. What sets them apart is their commitment to creating a family-friendly atmosphere. Beyond their academic pursuits, the society’s members actively participate in community initiatives, showcasing their dedication to giving back. With their substantial reach and impact, the Florida Biomedical Society stands as a prominent and influential force in the biomedical community. Their unwavering commitment to education, inclusivity, and community engagement makes them a deserving recipient of this esteemed award,” said Myra Becerra, Biomed Supervisor, Memorial Healthcare System.
A special thank you goes out to the sponsors who helped make the awards possible. The sponsors did not have any input when it came to selecting the honorees. The winners are based 100 percent on votes from the HTM community.
Finalists in each category were selected during a month-long nomination process.
Next, the TechNation community of HTM professionals was invited and encouraged to vote online. The Wrenchies are the “people’s choice awards of HTM” thanks to an outpouring of support from TechNation readers, biomeds and the entire HTM community. The online voting period saw more than 5,000 votes recorded.
Nominations for the 2025 Tech Choice Awards will open this May online at 1technation.com/tech-choice-awards.
