By K. Richard Douglas
Arizona is a state of hot summers, winter tourists and snowbirds, the Grand Canyon and the Saguaro cactus. The state is best known for its Sonoran Desert region, although it offers several eco-systems, with pine forests in the north.
Maricopa County contains the largest population center, with the city of Phoenix within it, as well as being the central location for the state’s biomed association.
The Arizona Healthcare Technology Management Association (AZHTM) is the state’s biomed association. The association was founded in March of 2008. Desiree Nielsen is the president.
Prior attempts to gain traction with a statewide biomed association have run out of steam, partly because the state’s population center is in the Phoenix area and other population centers are more remote.
“The association originally founded in 2008 as AZMIA, but had a decline of presence around the time COVID happened. After COVID, the organization resurrected under the name Arizona Healthcare Technology Management Association in 2021 and has been going strong ever since,” Nielsen says.
Like many biomed associations, the pandemic proved to be a big interruption and halted many activities.
“It wasn’t until near the end of 2021 that the association was able to put together in-person meetings and ramp up attendance,” Nielsen says.
Since 2021, the association has managed to host bi-monthly meetings, which include education sessions to enhance the knowledge of the technicians, engineers, leaders and vendors who attend.
“They are not casted online currently, but it is our goal to do so soon,” Nielsen says.
The group has also been active in promoting the HTM profession.
“Besides education, community outreach to spread the knowledge about this industry is another goal we are focusing on. For example, our Vice President Theresa Heitchler recently manned a booth at a youth spring carnival. The goal was to educate young students on what this field is and expose them to some of the equipment we work on. Our goal is to continue to do community outreach, as the industry will need new people to join the workforce, as the people who are currently in it start to retire,” Nielsen says.
There remains a need for more biomed training programs nationwide and there is some presence in Arizona. AZHTM had contact with one program in the Phoenix area last year.
“We have been in contact with a couple of people from the Maricopa Community Colleges. Representatives from the college system have come to some of the meetings to gain insight on what information is necessary to have in their programs and what type of programs they need to create to get students hired,” Nielsen says.
Group’s First Conference
The reformed Arizona biomed association hosted its first convention this year. The first outing turned out to be a success.
“This year was our first year we were able to successfully host a conference. There were education sessions directed at biomedical and imaging technicians. Some of the topics included: AI in healthcare, lasers, soft skills, and X-ray basics, to name a few,” Nielsen says.
She says that there was also a vendor hall for attendees to peruse and interact with the vendors who participated.
“I think the main highlight from the conference this year is the fact that we were able to pull it off. We have never put on a conference before and we received a lot of positive feedback from the vendors and the attendees. We aim to make it bigger and better next year, now that we know what to expect,” Nielsen adds.
The one-day conference was on February 7 at Desert Willow Conference Center in Phoenix. The AZHTM board members and executive committee planned the conference, and Nielsen says they will likely be the planning committee for future conferences.
“Attendance was pretty decent, with about 100 people, including vendors and members,” she says.
Nielsen says that the turnout was mostly from Phoenix, though she believes that there were some attendees from other cities around the state.
“The goal in the future is definitely to expand the outreach to the northern and southern regions,” she adds.
The group is working to get news of their organization out to the biomed community and those entering the field.
“Our main source of recruiting has simply been through word of mouth and social media. Our association uses LinkedIn predominately to share the word about our association and try to bring in new members. We are currently strategizing a way to get the word out through higher education, as well as youth that are getting ready to leave high school,” Nielsen says.
She says that they have also reached out to those in affiliated professions.
“For example, our meeting in February was a combined meeting with the Central Arizona Society for Healthcare Engineering, which we leveraged to try and get new members from as well,” Nielsen adds.
The state known for cowboys, cacti and pleasant winters is also home to many HTM professionals. The AZHTM gives them an opportunity to network, gain education and unify.
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