By K. Richard Douglas
Ashley O’Mara is the VA New England Healthcare System Chief of Healthcare Technology Management (HTM). She is also president of the New England Society of Clinical Engineering.
O’Mara’s interest in the HTM field was fueled during her undergrad studies when she did volunteer work at a local hospital.
“I attended an education session on clinical engineering as a profession during my undergraduate studies. After learning about this job field, I reached out to a local hospital and volunteered during my last year of undergraduate studies while I applied for a master’s in clinical engineering. I loved the idea of working closely with clinical staff to solve problems and implementing the latest and greatest medical technologies,” she says.
She took night classes to earn her master’s degree while working at a hospital 30-plus hours a week.
“During this training program I worked alongside highly trained clinical engineers and biomedical equipment technicians,” O’Mara says.
After graduating with a master’s degree in clinical engineering, O’Mara worked as a staff biomedical engineer at a hospital in Buffalo, New York for two years. She then took a promotional opportunity to work as a supervisory biomedical engineer at a hospital in North Florida/South Georgia for three years.
“A wonderful opportunity to relocate to [the] Northeast and become the chief biomedical engineer in Connecticut, which was closer to family as I started to consider growing our family. Currently, I’ve been in the VA New England Healthcare System Chief HTM position for 7-plus years and oversee eight medical centers’ HTM program and HTM staff,” she says.
COACHING TO SYMPOSIUMS
With the exodus of retirement-age baby-boomer biomeds, any effort to replenish the field with qualified replacements is a noble undertaking. O’Mara helps by spearheading one of the efforts to recruit new HTM talent.
“I serve as the co-chair for the National HTM Biomedical Engineering Recruitment and Retention Workgroup which focuses on developing guides/tools for the field to aid in facility recruitment/retention strategies,” she says.
She says that the Biomedical Engineering Recruitment and Retention (BERR) Workgroup is the principal advisory body to the VHA Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) Program Office (PO) for the development of recruitment and retention processes and practices to attract and keep highly qualified biomedical engineering support specialists (BESS) and biomedical engineers (BME).
“This group will focus on three critical positions for recruitment and retention: (1) BESS; (2) BME; and
(3) Technical Career Field (TCF) BME trainees. The overall BERR workgroup, along with three (3) subgroups, each focusing on one of the critical roles within the organization (i.e., BESS, BME and TCF trainees), aim to make VHA the employer of choice for professionals in the field,” O’Mara says.
The BERR Workgroup is responsible for developing recommendations in tandem with field feedback for improving recruitment and retention for biomedical engineering positions: (1) BESS; (2) BME; and (3) TCF trainees.
O’Mara says that they also formulate and document best practices for highly effective recruiting methods, support the professional development of our existing biomedical engineering staff and recognize high performing members of the biomedical engineering professional community, recruit TCF trainees and additional high-qualified personnel from the industry-at-large for roles within VHA.
Some projects that O’Mara has been involved in have helped guide her team to update and manage the assets they manage.
“When I began in the regional HTM chief role, the team and I outlined and wrote a comprehensive region-wide medical equipment management program (MEMP) which allowed for us to update one document annually with changes. Though it does allow for local variation when needed, any variation is documented in their local plan.
She says that they also rolled out a new HTM CMMS system during calendar year 2023 which involved the team reviewing, mapping, validating data on top of their normal duties as HTM professionals.
“Thankfully our regional MEMP was able to be updated with all the CMMS changes versus eight separate MEMPs (this system change affected over 30 percent of our SOPs),” O’Mara says.
Away from work, she enjoys running and coaching.
“I recently took up running and finished my first 5k! I am coaching my daughters’ ‘Girls on the Run’ group in our local town,” O’Mara says.
“I lead third- to fifth-grade girls through a bi-weekly physical activity-based positive youth development program developed/designed by ‘Girls on the Run (GOTR).’ We use running and other physical activities to teach life skills. This group also selects a community impact project that helps make the world a better place, so I’m excited to see what ideas the girls have this year. At the end of the season, the teams participate in a 5k to celebrate all they’ve learned and the progress they’ve made over the eight-week program,” she adds.
On the home front, O’Mara has been married almost 15 years and has a 10-year-old daughter.
In November of 2021, she was named the 2021 “VHA Supervisory Biomedical Engineer of the Year.” While serving as NESCE president, the society received AAMIs “2020 HTM Association of the Year” award.
“I am passionate about the healthcare technology management profession. I have a fantastic team that works tirelessly in the medical centers to ensure safe, effective medical equipment for their clinicians and veterans,” O’Mara says.
She says that she stays involved in both VA national initiatives and external organizations like ACCE Board member-at-large and planning the 2024 ACCE/AAMI mini symposium program topic and format as well as planning quarterly webinars, symposiums and education opportunities for the New England Society of Clinical Engineering (NESCE).
“This involvement allows me to learn from my colleagues and share experiences/resources that we’ve developed along the way,” O’Mara says.
As a very active member of leadership, both on the job and in the greater HTM community, O’Mara has devoted her time and talent to bettering the field.
