Riley Rossbach is a clinical engineer for the Advanced Heart Failure Therapy Clinic at St. Luke’s Medical Center. She began her career by earning a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering and a minor in user experience from the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
TechNation found out more about this rising star in the HTM field via a Q&A.
Q: WHERE DID YOU GROW UP?
A: New Berlin, Wisconsin
Q: WHERE DID YOU RECEIVE YOUR HTM TRAINING/EDUCATION?
A: Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering from MSOE and most of the training happened on the job.
Q: HOW DID YOU FIRST DISCOVER HTM?
A: I searched engineering and healthcare on all of the job boards and eventually found a biomedical tech position at Aurora Healthcare. They offered me the job 5 minutes after my interview was completed.
Q: WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO GET INTO THIS FIELD?
A: For the same reason I chose biomedical engineering as my degree. I love helping people in any way. I was always good at math and science, they just made sense to me, so I went into the industry where I could use my talents to help. Going into the medical field, I realized that technology is utilized in every little task and there are so many ways for someone in the biomedical education field to make healthcare better.
Q: WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT YOUR POSITION?
A: In my current position I have a lot of patient interaction, and that is what makes getting up for work everyday easy. In past positions, it wasn’t always easy to see your direct impact on patient care or the community, but in this position, I feel accomplished seeing the smiles on my patient’s faces.
Q: WHAT INTERESTS YOU THE MOST ABOUT HTM?
A: My current position is working with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) and there has been a lull in the industry for the past few years regarding innovations in the field. There is a new device that is currently in clinical trials and I am excited to see the improvements that this new device will make in our industry. There is always more to learn, improve and innovate in this field.
Q: WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT IN YOUR FIELD THUS FAR?
A: I have completed my orientation for this position, which was a year of hard work and dedication to complete education, certifications, clinical experiences and teaching. I am also currently working on a project to make sure that we circle back with patients of our clinic who were not currently meeting criteria to need our advanced therapy options. These patients may need further education, re-evaluation or listing on the heart transplant list.
Q: WHAT GOALS DO YOU HAVE FOR YOURSELF IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS?
A: I am hoping to continue improving the field of clinical engineering by continuing education of our patients but also our community such as our nurses, EMTs and students who want to get into the field. Stepping into this next era of a new device being in clinical trials will open up a lot of opportunities for innovation.
FUN FACTS
Favorite HOBBY:
Any sort of crafting. I switch it up too often between drawing, painting, building, scrapbooking, etc.
Favorite SHOW OR MOVIE:
This is always the most difficult one to answer but my comfort shows are “Friends” and “Criminal Minds”.
Favorite MEAL:
Anything my husband cooks (he is a great cook).
What would your superpower be?
Invisibility, it would probably get me into trouble, but don’t you ever want to be that fly on the wall?
1 Thing on Your Bucket List:
I have always wanted to travel to Greece.
Something your co-workers don’t know about you:
I am an open book at work and work with a bunch of wonderful people, so we know a lot about each other but maybe they don’t know that I plan to go on another Global Brigades trip. I loved the two trips I went on in college and want to continue with this organization.
