by K. Richard Douglas
Is it possible that the first indication that somebody may make a great biomed could be exhibited as far back as kindergarten? If you ask Travis Brown, BMET, who works for Biomedical Technology Services at the Baylor Health Care System, he will tell you that it is not only possible, but he has lived it.
Brown spent four years in the Air Force working as a mechanic on heavy equipment like forklifts, global deicers, fire trucks and 60K aircraft cargo loaders.
“I have always had a knack for fixing things, no matter what it may be,” Brown says. “I remember at a very early age, my mother was dumbfounded by how quickly an oscillating fan was put together when she brought it home the night before my first day of kindergarten. Little did I know, assembling that fan was only the beginning. After being a mechanic in the Air Force, I toured a local college and stumbled upon the well kept secret of biomedical equipment technology. It was at Texas State Technical College (TSTC) where I would begin my journey as a biomed.”
A COLLEGE TOUR STARTED HIS JOURNEY
“It was kind of the luck of the draw.
I took a tour of TSTC down in Waco. I looked at the laser program, the aeronautical program and biomed kind of caught my eye,” Brown says. “I am fairly handy, after being in the Air Force. After I looked more into it and talking to some of the directors and teachers there, it just seemed like it was my kind of niche. One thing led to another and I ended up going to school for it and I have never looked back.” He has spent his biomed career at Baylor after completing an internship at another facility. His work at Baylor includes covering all departments and clinics as well as perioperative services.
“I’ve worked in the geriatric and psychiatric ward to labor and delivery to NICU to (the) full-blown intensive care unit to the telemetry floors, really anything and everything that revolves around biomed,” Brown says. “I have been lucky to see all the departments.”
Brown has covered all campuses while on call, but his primary location has been the Garland campus. Baylor is a nonprofit health care system that has been around for more than 100 years. The health system includes 27 owned, leased or affiliated hospitals. Surgical services are provided at six short-stay hospitals.
“I currently specialize in surgical services including anesthesia machines, ventilators, ESUs, surgical lights, and just about anything else you could think of in an operating room,” he says. “I would say my specialty would be defined as ‘oddball requests.’ As many other biomeds likely have experienced, surgeons all too often come up with some off the wall ideas. This is where biomed comes into play.”
OEM training has been a part of his continuing education. That training has included ValleyLab ESU (electrical surgery unit) training, GE Aestiva anesthesia training and several Olympus and local scope training sessions.
surgical robot challenge Brown says that a big challenge for biomeds is juggling projects and that there are always projects to do.
“I view biomeds as the catch-all or the jack of all trades. Whenever a clinician is unsure of something or needs advice, they quite often turn to a biomed for assistance. I believe this to be true because of the outstanding customer service we naturally provide.”
Earlier this year, Brown faced one of those challenges which beckons a biomed to don their “resourcefulness” cap and come up with a creative solution.
“One specific request I can recall was in our Da Vinci room,” Brown says. “There had been an ongoing issue with OR room 14 where the physicians needed to be able to view the Da Vinci image on both sides of the operating table,” Brown says. “There is very limited space in this room already and adding a monitor was simply impractical with the available real estate.
“One of our Stryker monitors went out in this room and needed to be replaced. While this was down for repair I looked into other options and available solutions to our issue,” Brown says. “I was able to locate assets that had been retired due to an upgrade at the Plano campus and put these to good use here at Garland. I did some looking around for mounting solutions and got some quotesfor a dual monitor setup, and found a stand that would satisfy our needs but still took up much needed floor space and cost $900.”Brown continued to look for a solution.
“After further investigation, I decided it was best to engineer a dual mount setup on our Stryker stack, with one being designated as the ‘Da Vinci secondary monitor.’ This was accomplished completely using Baylor assets which had been retired and disposed of,” Brown says. “(I) found a dual monitor mount, being disposed of, and altered it to create a custom fit to our needs. Installed dual monitor mount and monitors, as well as ran the cabling through a floor channel to prevent a tripping hazard.”
the hospital some dough paid off for Brown with some well-deserved recognition in the form of a service excellence award. The outcome was even better because he was also able to help some physicians who needed to record images and video from their Da Vinci cases.
“With the setup previously created, this gave me the idea to use the image feed for the secondary monitor and run that through an external processor for recording,” Brown says. “I located a processor in our heart room that was not needed, because the cases performed never require the ability to capture images or video. I relocated this asset to the Da Vinci room and installed accordingly. Taught staff how to operate and record from the Da Vinci. Physicians can now record images and video from their Da Vinci cases at zero added cost to Baylor, saving the expense of purchasing an additional processor.”
LIFE LESSONS
While he enjoys the time on the job, Brown finds time for some recreational activities while away from work.
“I enjoy mountain biking, kayaking, and hiking,” he says. “One of my favorite things to do is go for a ride on my motorcycle and go exploring.Whether it be out in the country, someplace I haven’t been to, or going into a new town. I like to go exploring and see if there are some little shops or anything I want to check out later and see what the road has to offer.”
While Brown’s mom was instrumental in his decision to enter the biomed field, he also finds inspiration in his grandfather.
“In many ways, he made me the man I am today. I can remember as a kid all too many times in which he stuck his neck out, or went out of his way, to keep me on the right path,” Brown says. “I like to think I get my work ethic from this farm raised, cotton pickin’, never quitin’, country boy named Johnny “JW” Frosch.”
TRAVIS BROWN: Favorites
FAVORITE BOOK: Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and George Orwell’s “1984” Simple reads, but still classics.
HIDDEN TALENT: “Spending money. It’s a gift.”
FAVORITE PART OF BEING A BIOMED: “I love being the hero every day. One of my greatest pleasures is problem solving and repairing just about anything. Geez, you know you’re biomed when you come up with a sentence like that.”
WHAT’S ON MY BENCH? Couple pounds of raw almonds, Caffeine pills and taurine (since I’m not a big coffee drinker), stacks of papers to attempt and keep up with the documentation, random fruits and water, water and more water. I was brainwashed by the military to drink an obscene amount of water, so I do!