Starting BMET Salary Information for 2009

Salaries for professionals with BMET background or education ( A.S., B.S. or DoD Military BMET ) can range widely from $40,000 to $102,000 per year.  The reason for the wide disparity is a result of the wide range of positions a BMET can fill from BMET I to Director of the Biomedical Engineering Department ( B.S. required ) or a CT or MRI Specialist. Geographical region and experience level also plays a part.  Results this year took an unexpected jump.  Whether this is a statistical aberration or real the reported starting BMET I earn an average of about $53,000. Starting BMET II an average of $54,000.  A.S. degreed individuals can expect to start at BMET I salaries. B.S. can expect to start at BMET II salaries or better.  Radiology specialists can start at around $64,000.  Women appear to outperform men in some regions of the country when it comes to compensation. Overall though there appears to be a gender gap that favors men which unfortunately is typical of the rest of the job market. If you compare to last year you will see that these numbers bounce around from year to year. This is a result of the size of the sample and the varying number of people who actually volunteer information. In my opinion it still does a good job of reflecting the salary range.

( See BMET 2009 Compensation Survey )

( Also see List of Schools Offering Accredited BMET Programs and Biomedical Engineering Technology )

The Number of BMET Graduating in 2008 vs. Job Projections

The good news is that job openings projected by Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) outstrip supply.  The BLS projects approximately 2300 replacements required per year for 2008 through 2018.  The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) results and BLS forecast appears to support anecdotal and published claims of a continuing shortage of qualified BMET’s.   My interviews with Clinical Directors have also highlighted this fact.

I checked for program content of the M.S. and Ph.D.’s  listed by the NCES in the “biomedical technology” degree category which includes BMET programs.   I was not able to find any programs at the two universities that offered the degrees that had a description which could be described as having a technology focus.  The websites either did not describe such a degree or the links were not working at the time of this publication.   Additional research and analysis will be needed to get a better estimate of the number of BMET graduates actually looking for work but is is fair to say that they will be in high demand.  Not including the M.S. and Ph.D. programs 14% of all the BMET graduates in 2008 were women.  That is an increase of 1 percentage points from 2007.    32% of the B.S BMET graduates in 2008 were women that is an increase of 4 percentage points  from 2007.  11% of the A.S. BMET graduates were women.  An increase of 1 percentage points over 2007.

		Biomedical Technology Graduates
		Men	Women	Total
	A.S.	354	38	392
	B.S.	75	24	99
Degree	M.S.	4	6	10
	Ph.D.	5	1	6
	Other*	12	9	21
	Total	450	78	528
	* Other – includes certificates

Biomedical Engineering Job Projections Explode Between 2008-2018

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projections for Biomedical Engineering related positions has increased dramatically from the 2006-2016 predictions for 2008-2018. They predict a 72% increase over 10 years.  This represents an average increase of approximately 1500 jobs becoming available per year. These jobs are expected to come from new positions (averaging about 1,160 per year) and replacement needs ( averaging about 340 per year ) created by attrition. As good as it sounds B.S. Biomedical Engineering graduates are still being created at a over double the rate of the predicted increase.  The number of B.S. Biomedical Engineers graduating in 2008 was 3,360.  Since healthcare industry jobs typically require higher degrees and/ or three to five years of experience there will still be a bottleneck unless Biomedical Engineering Programs ramp up their internships and co-op opportunities.   Students considering a Biomedical Engineering degree are strongly urged to ask for hard documentation of a programs plans and success rate at getting graduates jobs.  Graduation rate details can be seen by following the link below.

National Graduation Rates of Biomedical Engineers in 2008 vs. Job Projections

National Graduation Rates of Biomedical Engineers in 2008 vs. Job Projections

The following table was created from degree completion data available at the NCES website. The graduating statistics are important to know because there has been a consistent issue described by B.S. BME graduates seeking industry jobs in their field. It’s very difficult to get one with a baccalaureate degree. The number of graduates holding that degree in 2008 hold a clue to the problem. The baccalaureate numbers are troublesome for the graduate because the Bureau of Labor Statistics projections for new and replacement BME jobs 2008-2018 is approximately 1500 per year.

On the supply side the B.S. BME graduate numbers do not reflect how many graduates had been accepted to graduate school and medical school after graduation. For example, I received a personal communication from the AAMC  (American Association of Medical Colleges) reporting 573 BME graduates were accepted into medical school in 2006. The graduate school enrollment numbers may also impact the number of B.S. graduates looking for work considerably because a significant number of graduates could be enrolling into M.S. programs if the number of M.S. graduates reported in 2008 is any guide. Unfortunately those M.S. and Ph.D. BME graduates would also be competing for the the BME jobs counted and projected by the BLS. Additional research and analysis will be needed to get a better estimate of the number of BME graduates actually looking for work outside the academic and medical fields. It is interesting to note that females make up approximately 39% of the graduates. This is a percentage which traditional engineering programs can not match.

	The Number of Biomedical Engineers Graduating in 2008

		Male	Female	Total
	B.S.	2043	1317	3360
	M.S.	728	528	1256
Degree
	Ph.D.	345	200	545
	Total	3116	2045	5161

Product Development: Lagrangian Coherent Structures May Provide Insights Into Fluid Flow For Medical Products

Fluid flow is central to a wide variety of medical engineering applications. Whether it’s the flow of fluids through MEMS devices, or around implanted cardiovascular devices being able to accurately model fluid flow is a critical piece of analyzing the technical challenge. Lagrangian coherent structures may be a theory to keep in mind. Although currently being used to model macro events such as air flow around mountains, sea flow, etc. there appears to be no scale limitations. Engineers at the leading edge of R&D attempting to unknot a challenging flow related design at the macro or micro level may want to look into how this theory is applied.

The skeleton of water