Healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals face a perception gap, and closing it requires more than just technical expertise.

That was the core message from the AAMI eXchange session, “Building Influence: HTM Leaders Driving Organizational Change,” presented by Dustin Telford, AAMIF, CHTM, CBET, CRES, CLES, associate consultant at Staritas, and Marc Schlessinger, MBA, FACHE, principal consultant at Staritas.

“HTM is super important,” said Schlessinger. “You sit at the intersection of patient safety, clinical operations, and capital planning. Think about that. Every decision HTM makes impacts throughput, revenue, and the patient experience.”
But technical expertise alone will not give HTM a stronger voice within healthcare organizations. Credibility, Telford said, is built through visibility, something HTM often lacks.

“It’s not competence,” he said. “It’s how we present ourselves, and HTM is often invisible.”

Schlessinger said this perception is reinforced when HTM shows up in leadership conversations, typically during equipment failures, rising service costs, or capital decisions. “Everyone can agree on that,” he quipped.

And that pattern can leave leadership viewing HTM as reactive rather than strategic.

Drawing on his career path from respiratory therapy to hospital administration, Schlessinger urged attendees to translate technical work into operational and financial impact. A down CT scanner, he noted, is not just a maintenance issue. It impacts throughput, delays patient care, and reduces revenue.

“The goal isn’t just to fix equipment,” he said. “It’s to build trust with leadership so that when you speak, they act.”

Many of HTM’s most significant contributions: extending equipment life, avoiding capital purchases, bringing service in-house, and reducing downtime, often go unrecognized because they are not framed in executive terms. Schlessinger encouraged attendees to quantify those outcomes and align them with organizational goals.

Telford said credibility is built long before a leader enters the room. It starts with understanding the organization: listening, identifying decision-makers, and learning what challenges matter most across clinical and operational areas.

Credibility, he added, is built through consistency.

“Your influence is built through your actions — repeated actions,” Telford said. “And it’s earned through commitments.”

Schlessinger encouraged HTM leaders to build strong relationships with what he called “the big three” departments: imaging, the operating room, and cardiology. These areas, he noted, often carry significant operational and financial weight within health systems. Strong relationships there can position HTM as a trusted partner — problem solvers, optimizers, and patient safety advocates — opening the door to broader leadership engagement.

He also urged HTM leaders to rethink how they communicate upward. Lengthy reports and detailed spreadsheets may work for technical audiences, but they rarely land with the C-suite. Communication, he said, should be concise, structured, and front-loaded with impact. Think bullet points in a one-page executive summary that highlights outcomes, decisions, and organizational impact. “That one page may spur their interest to read the rest of your report,” Schlessinger said.

Numbers, he emphasized, carry more weight than technical detail.

“For example,” he said, “we avoided $12 million in capital spend by extending the life of that equipment.” Or: “We brought 18% of service in-house and reduced reliance on service contracts.”

“Bottom line,” he said, “you want to be influencers.”

Telford and Schlessinger’s message was clear: HTM already delivers significant value. The gap is not performance, it’s translation. And work only carries weight when it’s framed in the language leadership uses.

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