UC alumnus connects hospitals to the 21st century

As people become increasingly connected and invested in their health through digital technology, Petre wants to ensure that the Cleveland Clinic adapts appropriately. For example, with so many people using personal tracking devices such as Fitbit and Apple Health, Petre wonders if there’s a way to merge that data into patients’ medical records. He’s not simply looking at how many steps someone took yesterday; instead, he's interested in the data that can provide long-term views of health that medical professionals can respond to.

“Connecting medical devices has been a big push for us,” Petre says. “We’re taking things that were stand-alone before, connecting them together and figuring out how we can best use the information they produce.”

This connectedness, however, is not without some risks. Connected networks of devices are more susceptible to cyber-attacks and technical problems that spread quickly to large groups of devices. Even if medical devices are not the target of a cyber-attack, unexpected activity or software could lead to loss-of-function in a system that is monitoring patients’ heart rhythms or assisting their breathing.

Medical devices are also notorious for being slow to apply software patches and updates due to the high standard for testing and verification of changes. An unpatched device could be a weak link into an organization, giving hackers the opportunity to access any number of medical records or financial information. With every technological advance that Petre’s team deploys, Petre must be aware of these concerns. 

Petre concedes that the medical field is not always ahead of the curve when it comes to implementing connective technology.

“People have refrigerators that are connected to the network, and we have ventilators that are not,” he says.

Between 20 and 25 percent of the Cleveland Clinic’s medical devices are connected, but over the next couple of years, as technology continues to become ingrained in all aspects of our lives, that number will certainly grow.

Clinical engineering emerged in the late 1970s and early ‘80s as electrical safety in hospitals became a growing national concern. Since then, the field has transitioned from stand-alone devices and electrical safety monitoring to network devices. With that technological growth, the field become increasingly dependent on people who understand these computer systems.

“Understanding computers, connectivity, data security and big data is a definite trend in the industry,” says Petre. “I don’t think there are many careers where you can’t get by if you don’t understand something about computers.”

Petre’s successful career in the clinical engineering field, which includes a master’s degree and a PhD in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, started in UC’s material science program. There he had the opportunity to develop his passion for the medical field through UC’s cooperative education (co-op) program.

“The co-op program at UC was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he says. “As someone who hires people, I love to see that they had co-op experience. And as someone who has gone through the program, I think it’s very useful to have that under your belt. It lets you try things out in a real work environment.”

Petre has been at the Cleveland Clinic for nearly 15 years and in his current position for seven. He enjoys the team mentality of working in the healthcare field and at the Cleveland Clinic and sees the medical field as a great option for younger students considering engineering. The healthcare field requires all sorts of engineering disciplines, he says.

“It’s a good field because you can apply whatever you learned to something that is directly helping people.”

Whether it’s coming up with new innovations or ensuring existing equipment works properly, Petre’s influence is felt all across one of the nation’s largest healthcare networks. Through advancements in network and computer systems technology, he’s bringing the healthcare field into the 21^st century, one life-saving – and connected – device at a time. 

Featured image at top: Cleveland Clinic's Main Campus. Photo/Cleveland Clinic.