BIOGRAPHY
John graduated with an Engineering degree
(Electrical, that was over fifty years ago). He recalls an early lecture that
described engineering as all about People, Money and Machines – in that order.
The phrase was not then appreciated by him or fellow undergraduates. But
gradually its essential truth became clearer as his career turned to applying
engineering to health care.
Initially John focused on research and
development, including developing telemetry systems. One project recorded ECGs
from athletes running around a track, with analysis looking at waveform
amplitude changes with time. This led John to develop proposals for a Master’s
(Physiology) and subsequently a PhD (Biomedical Engineering).
But the core of his career has been with the
NHS, caring for healthcare technology. Medical devices are used to support personal
care and used by professionals to deliver care. This is the first objective of
engineering, for People. During John’s career, as he proposed equipment purchases
(replacement and additional) and standardisation, the importance of Finance
increasingly dominated, particularly in his final years with an NHS Health
Board when he had budgetary responsibility for all medical devices – purchase
and maintenance. And of course the technology itself, the Machines,
needed to be understood, their characteristics, strengths and weaknesses
appreciated as well as helping enable the users to operate the technology
safely and effectively.
That early lecture was correct: Engineering is
for People, carefully using Money, appreciating, developing and
applying Technology.