• What?

The BTEC Professional Hospital /Theatre Access Award is the national recognised occupational peri-operative standard which sets out the competencies for the medical device industry.

• Why?

In recent years there has been a substantial incremental transformation in medical technology. Both the Hospital Managers and Companies have duties under the legislation to be proactive in ensuring the safe provision and use of such technology. In order to fulfill their obligations the Companies train their representatives on the use and promotion of their products. As a pragmatic response to keeping the service running Hospital Managers allow medical device company representative's routine access to clinical areas in order to benefit from this expert knowledge and the product training that they can provide.

The legitimate role of the company representative is in providing information and training to the clinical team. This takes place, preferably, prior to use and also throughout assessment, the introduction of new technology and the ongoing management of 'high tech' equipment. Product expertise brought to the clinical team is essential and the interpretation of technical assistance has become flexible and blurred between the margins of 'hands off' and 'hands on' assistance. The clinical team cannot be expert in every aspect of every piece of technological wizardry now found in hospitals and the question posed is how best to utilize the expertise of the company representative to the patient's advantage.

Recognition of this legitimization of the representatives' role identifies that they are not in the clinical setting as a sales person but as a professional.