Biomedical equipment technicians or BMETs represent a growing group of people who are technically trained whose biggest responsibility is the maintenance and repair of medical imaging equipment like a a CT scanner, ultrasound, x-ray MRI, and so on. The career path for BMETs appears to be brightening as fast as newimaging equipment} is coming out.

First and foremost, the demand for BMETs is growing. The increase is due to the expansion in new equipment used for medical imaging and technologies that require BMET knowledge, and, by the need for income by organizations that own medical imaging equipment. As medical services such as hospitals recognize that downtime on a piece of imaging equipment affects income generation, there is urgency to add BMETs to hospital staff to make sure that every piece of imaging equipment is kept in working order so that costly service contracts are used as little as they can be. The U.S. Department of Labor and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Imaging (AAMI) suggest that the number of BMET jobs in the United States will rise 24% to 31% up through the year 2010.

Historically, BMETs were trained on the job. But, as equipment for medical imaging technology has increased, the need for quality and consistent training has too. Now, most BMETs have earned an Associates degree in medical imaging technology, electronics or an engineering-related field. Recently an experiment by the AAMI discovered that 62 percent of all BMETs went on to willingly become certified by the International Commission on Accreditation. ICC Certification for BMETs is a formal recognition by the International Certification Commission for Clinical Engineering and Biomedical Technology (ICC) that individuals have shown achievement in theoretical and practical knowledge of the principles of biomedical technology.

The BMET role keeps evolving and, as it does, the educational requirements have begun to grow as well. The BMET job has begun to follow the trail of many different jobs both in and out of the medical field where increasingly more education is needed to obtain a job and/or advance within a job field.

BMETs say that employers are starting to require bachelors degrees for advancement to a supervisory rank or in a few situations simply to become a BMET within some institutions. While this requirement might limit the job opportunities for few current BMETs, the great news is that strengthened educational requirements bring the chance for greater income. Studies have determinedshown|found out} that entrance pay levels for BMETs are from $20,000-$30,000. However, senior and supervisory jobs can get salaries as high as $80,000. The future appears good for career growth in this area.