My path to The Device Compass started long before I began building a website. It runs through military service, hands-on biomedical equipment work, hospital engineering, and the responsibility of supporting other people doing that work.
I'm Joshua Cornelius. I'm a veteran, a husband, and a father. The Device Compass is something I am building out of the experience I have accumulated along the way.
First, the Marines. Then, biomedical equipment.
I served in the United States Marine Corps as a combat engineer, assigned to Marine Wing Support Squadron 371 at MCAS Yuma, Arizona, supporting the air wing. I joined because I wanted to serve something bigger than myself, challenge myself, and develop discipline and leadership. The camaraderie, the hard work, and the problem-solving are the parts of that time I still value.
Later, I served in the United States Air Force as a Biomedical Equipment Journeyman. That brought medical equipment into my professional life, and it became part of the foundation for the civilian career that followed.
Learning the equipment—and the work around it
My civilian career included field service specializing in anesthesia and dialysis equipment, followed by work as a senior clinical laboratory engineer. From there I went on to regional biomedical supervision, and then to healthcare technology business development.
Those roles put me at different points in the same system: supporting the equipment itself, supporting the people responsible for it, and working through the business decisions around healthcare technology.
The technical background matters to me. It is the context I bring when I talk about equipment, service, and the people who keep a hospital's technology working.
Why this became The Device Compass
One question keeps coming back to me: what happens to the equipment knowledge a team depends on when the person who holds it leaves?
A technician may know a device by a nickname, remember the company that made it before a name change, or know where to begin looking for information on an older model. That knowledge can take years to collect. The next person deserves a useful place to start.
The Device Compass grew around that problem. I wanted to make it easier to connect the name someone uses with the equipment they mean, and to make scattered device information easier to find.
I value people teaching people. A searchable reference can help carry some of that background forward, so that experience has a better chance of reaching the next technician, clinician, or student.
Why students belong in this story
I want the next generation of healthcare professionals to have a useful place to start. That is why The Device Compass offers free academic access to verified students and educators across healthcare disciplines.
Someone studying nursing, radiology, respiratory therapy, laboratory science, or biomedical equipment technology should be able to become more familiar with the equipment names and terminology they will encounter. My own career has crossed technical work, hospital operations, and business. I want this resource to be useful across those boundaries, too.
The Device Compass continues to grow. My hope is that the experience behind it can help someone else find an answer, ask a better question, or carry useful knowledge into their own work.
— Joshua