BY K. Richard Douglas
The city of Baltimore was incorporated in 1796 and has a significant place in American history. Fort McHenry, located just three miles southeast of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, is the birthplace of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The Inner Harbor is home to the historic USS Constellation, a tall ship constructed in 1854 and the last all-sail warship constructed by the U.S. Navy. It is the last Civil War era ship still afloat.
With history and Baltimore in mind, the region’s biomed society embraces both.
The Baltimore Medical Engineers and Technicians Society (BMETS) has been in existence for 39 years. The group’s officers include President Mike Milan, Vice President Jon Sears, Treasurer Walter Scowden and Secretary Kayla Dawson.
Sears says that on November 3, 1983, an organizing committee was formed to set the foundation of BMETS. Those early members discussed the format of meetings, the frequency of meetings, an appropriate level for dues, classes of membership, length of term that officers should serve and committee chair selections.
“On January 5, 1984, the board met again and approved the group’s bylaws and other business. Their first meeting was held May 10, 1984,” he says.
Sears says that BMETS began as a group of biomedical technicians and engineers from local hospitals who wanted to have a forum to share their ideas and thoughts on biomedical technology and advancements.
The group’s original mission statement declared that the organization was “established to promote the principles of quality patient care through the safe and effective operation of biomedical instrumentation. We provide a medium for the interchange of ideas and the dissemination of information among BMETS members.”
BMETS is also helping the newest members of the profession with their training.
“We have a scholarship program in association with Howard County Community College, which offers a biomedical technician two-year program. We have tried to reach the biomedical engineering program at Johns Hopkins and have had some students come by, but not very often,” Sears says.
May Coordinated Event
The group has organized meetings and get-togethers throughout the year to keep everyone connected.
“We do not have an annual conference meeting. We meet in September for our annual ‘September Kick-Off Meeting,’ in which we invite our members and sponsoring vendors to gather and talk; maybe share some of their summer fun stories,” Sears says.
He says that the organization has its monthly meetings in October, November, January, February, March and April, in which they have a sponsoring vendor who will have a table display set up.
“From 6-7, we have mixer time, at 7 p.m. we start a dinner, 7:30 is BMETS business, then between 7:40 p.m.- 8 p.m., the vendor presentation occurs for one-hour and then we adjourn,” Sears adds.
At times, the group will use Facebook Live to stream meetings.
“In May, we have our MayBash end-of-year event. This is a BMETS-sponsored event with no vendor presentations. This event is more of a ‘thank you’ to our members and sponsors for the past year and ‘don’t forget about us over the summer,’ ” Sears says.
He says that the MayBash has included a crab feast (Maryland thing), baseball game and bowling events.
“We present ideas to the members and see who gets the most votes. We have thought in the past about a conference, but with only skipping the month of December for the holidays, we have felt like our turnout may not be up to the level of a conference. And we are off for June, July and August,” Sears says.
“[For] our MayBash this year, we are working with the MD Expo HTM Mixer event to have it during the event on May 11. We are hoping that this event will help bring in new members to BMETS. We have had HTM professionals from New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia show up at a meeting, and we would like to see them drop in more often, and hoping that the MayBash held at the Mixer will allow us to reach out to those seeking a place to gather with fellow HTMs,” Sears says.
Sears says that he is hoping to have some of the original founding members of the organization at the HTM Mixer.
The HTM Mixer will run May 11-12, 2023. The event location will be the Turf Valley Resort, located in Ellicott City, in Central Maryland. Visit the HTM Mixer website for more information at HTMmixer.com.
One of the benefits that biomed societies and associations offer to the profession is to act as a conduit to bring new members into the field. With the exodus of baby-boom generation HTM professionals, this is an important contribution to sustaining the numbers of biomeds needed for appropriate staffing levels.
BMETS, as an organization, has taken proactive steps to contribute towards attracting new members to the ranks.
“We have an active mailing list and ask that our fellow members reach out to their peers and ask them to come out and see what we’re about. We are working on sending out postcard fliers to promote BMETS and the upcoming MayBash/MDExpo Mixer event. We offer free membership to HTM students,” Sears says.
The organization also maintains a website that includes useful information for biomeds in the region. The website is bmets.org.
“To help get our message out to members, and to hopefully reach new members, we offer job postings for our local hospitals and service providers on those pages. As for getting members to step up into positions on the board, that is a struggle I will not lie. But as we network with our members, we find that family and time is a main concern for them. How to change that one; we are always open to ideas,” Sears says.
The decades-long history of BMETS is a testament to its value to HTM professionals in the region. The activities keep the biomed community together and in touch.
In addition to the website, BMETS maintains social media pages with updated information. They are: Facebook: bit.ly/3R92lm0 and Twitter: @WebMast69987988.