It's late May, so that means it's Healthcare Technology Management week.

This annual weeklong celebration is meant to honor biomedical equipment technicians, also called health care technology managers, what HTM week partner ECRI Institute calls the "unsung heroes" of health care.

The event, which runs May 20 through 26, was created by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation's Technology Management Council.

How to recognize the event? AAMI suggests biomed and clinical engineering departments hang up a copy of its poster (shown above), petition local elected officials to formally recognize Healthcare Technology Management week and send press releases to community newspapers and other media outlets.

AAMI will also announce a slew of awards this week, according to a release from biomed training nonprofit MediSend International, which also backs the event. On Tuesday, AAMI's TMC will unveil its Best Practices Award. On Thursday, AAMI will release an award for the facility that best celebrates HTM. And on Friday, AAMI will announce the AAMI/GE Healthcare BMET of the year award. The department that wins the Best Practices award and the BMET of the year will also be honored at AAMI's annual meeting in Charlotte, N.C., which runs June 2-4.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook handbook, the BMET job sector is poised for growth, expected to increase 31 percent over the next decade, "much faster" than your average occupation. As of May 2010, median pay for medical equipment repairers was $44,490 a year, the BLS said.

For more information, go here: http://www.aami.org/meetings/htmweek/

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